0

I answered a question, and the user who asked it, accepted it.

That user didn't give me an up-vote.

Is there ever a good reason for not to up-vote the answer (except for not having sufficient privileges)?

(examples of the types of questions in question are :this one and this one.

9
  • 2
    hehe, look at my user! happens hundreds of times!
    – William Hilsum
    Commented Nov 6, 2011 at 18:47
  • I'll start asking bluntly to vote my answers up. Thank you.
    – wizlog
    Commented Nov 6, 2011 at 20:13
  • 7
    @wizlog If you do that, I'd say its rude really.
    – Simon Sheehan
    Commented Nov 6, 2011 at 20:28
  • Really? You'd really take offence to it?
    – wizlog
    Commented Nov 6, 2011 at 20:36
  • To be honest, those particular examples aren't what I'd consider really good answers (which is somewhat the fault of the questions here, as your options were rather limited, but still). If the users don't like up voting just anything, I can see why these weren't up voted. Also, one of the users decided that your advice wasn't suitable and decided to choose a different route. You're really wondering about him not up voting?
    – Daniel Beck Mod
    Commented Nov 6, 2011 at 20:46
  • I'll drop the topic, and I didn't mean for my question to be limited to my questions only. I just wanted to know why someone wouldn't do both,- that's all. I appreciate all your help and contribution to this conversation.
    – wizlog
    Commented Nov 6, 2011 at 20:59
  • I understand the frustration. I sifted through my 0-vote accepted answers just now, and found 25 examples of this behavior from 100+ rep users. It's really up to the users though -- some folks just don't like up voting, or only up vote exceptional stuff. I sometimes spend 15+ minutes writing a solid answer and get neither an up vote nor an accept. If this hasn't happened to you yet, you've been lucky.
    – Daniel Beck Mod
    Commented Nov 6, 2011 at 21:02
  • @DanielBeck Again, thank you... (Also never meant to suggest forcing users to up-vote... just wanted to know what they might be thinking).
    – wizlog
    Commented Nov 6, 2011 at 21:05
  • The best part is that you even win a badge for such repo!
    – Kangkan
    Commented Nov 7, 2011 at 13:53

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
8

Is there ever a good reason for not to up-vote the answer (except for not having sufficient privileges)?

Yes, the user decided that acceptance was enough of a reward.

My original "answer" was just an aside that it's completely up to the user to decide to accept & vote up the answer. I can't read their mind, neither do I tell them to vote up. If their accept rate is low and they have a history of easy answers that have not been accepted, I nudge them to have a look at how accepting answer works.

Probably the only "real" technical reason to not to upvote is that they've hit their votecap for the day and then didn't bother/forgot to check later

3
  • If they accept it they think its a good enough answer, right? How about for this question?
    – wizlog
    Commented Nov 6, 2011 at 18:04
  • @wizlog I'm not sure what you're looking for - my "answer" was just an aside that it's completely up to the user to decide to accept & vote up the answer. I can't read their mind, neither do I tell them to vote up.
    – Sathyajith Bhat Mod
    Commented Nov 6, 2011 at 18:11
  • 3
    @wizlog - As Sathya said, it is up to the user... I personally always upvote and tick. All I can think is that it was either a new user who doesn't know the system / thought you can only do one and marking an answer is better (and if you can only have one, it is)... or... you had the best answer, but they just didn't like it! ... You just can't seconds guess other people... you can write a comment and hope that they will read it/give you a reason if you are really interested! .... If it makes you feel any better, I have had this happen tons of times to me!!
    – William Hilsum
    Commented Nov 6, 2011 at 18:50
2

Upvoting requires 15 reputation, so new users asking their first question cannot upvote unless their question has reached +3 or they had other Stack Exchange activity before.

Other than that, it's up to the asker to decide how helpful your answer was. If they feel that your answer is not very helpful, but is the best they can reasonably expect on the site, they're free to accept and not upvote.

There's a badge for that. Keep answering anyway, and you might be declared tenacious or even an unsung hero.

1

I have done this on occasions (although it happens rather rarely).

It happens when I get a "meh...." answer -- it's pretty much the equivalent of, uh, "forced accept" on Other Sites.

It's hard to explain, so just look at this example to see what I mean:

Compile + Run a Single File in Visual Studio?:

Is it possible to somehow script Visual Studio to build and run single files (when no project is open)? (Maybe with macros?)

Ideally, I'd supply the program and the command line to invoke, and it would automatically invoke them when I press F5.

(Visual Studio 2008)

Answer:

Sadly no. For older versions of .NET, you can use SnippetCompiler, but it hasn't been updated in a while.

It's an answer, but I didn't find it particularly stunning, so I just accepted it.

1
  • I'm not terribly knowledgeable about the badging that goes on here, but I am somewat surprised that an acceptance doesn't automatically result in a up-vote. In my mind, they have the same result. It seems wasteful to have two actions required.
    – dave58
    Commented Sep 17, 2021 at 3:17

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .