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That about says it. Currently out of the top 15 posts in the newest questions, the total number of votes on questions and answers is 4 positive and 1 negative. This seems a bit low to me.

Friends, we have enough users that we can make a difference here. When you see a good question, vote it up. If you see a good answer, vote it up! Encourage people who are producing good answers. We need them to stay and produce more good answers.

Civic Duty ought to be a badge that everyone has. You have the ability to vote. Do it.

PS: I know this is very similar to this post, but I think it bears saying again.

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  • 16
    Yes, use your votes but do not vote for the sake of voting, use them to reward the best content or to diminish the worst but don't just vote on any old thing.
    – Mark Kirby
    Oct 6, 2016 at 21:09
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    +1, @MarkKirby, I totally agree. I just want to encourage us to use the power of the vote: it's a great power for the good (both down and up).
    – anonymous2
    Oct 6, 2016 at 22:25
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    You should visit when that one person is online who meticulously upvotes every single new question, as soon as it's posted. Oct 7, 2016 at 1:23
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    @Zacharee1 I have noticed that there are voting trends. While I don't think we should upvote every single new question, voting up one out of two would not be unhealthy IMHO.
    – anonymous2
    Oct 7, 2016 at 11:32
  • @anonymous2 What about bad questions? Do they need upvoting too?
    – EKons
    Oct 11, 2016 at 11:13
  • @ΈρικΚωνσταντόπουλος, check the second comment on this post.
    – anonymous2
    Oct 11, 2016 at 11:44
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    I share the feeling of your post. I find myself often answering questions in the correct way (sometimes mine being the only answer) and not even the OP of a question bothers to upvote my answer. This is kinda annoying. Oct 17, 2016 at 12:11
  • To try help clear up the confusion here on why some posts (particularly answer) receive no votes sometime, you have to consider, is this something people can test quickly? is it common knowledge that I am right? If not, then people were right not to vote because they simply don't know if you are right or not, this IMO accounts for almost every 0 score answer I have here. Don't feel bad if you don't get votes, it happens, not all questions are created equally and this spills over to answers too. If you want votes, you need to hit the popular questions but predicting them is almost imposable.
    – Mark Kirby
    Oct 20, 2016 at 17:26
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    @MarkKirby one would hope at least OP will try a given solution, if they have a problem and are willing to get it solved. :) Nov 8, 2016 at 13:58

1 Answer 1

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I agree with this post. Though from my inspection, number of bad questions has increased on the site as number of daily visits has. But It's also true that many good questions as well as answers are left un-upvoted.

Voting is at the heart of a successful SE site. I think it's a warning sign if that decreases.

We should try to vote whenever it is possible. Either up or down.

Try to not downvote a newcomers question. If that is very poorly formatted, without any research attempt, you can downvote. But again in this case try to leave a comment teaching him/her how they can improve the post. Don't forget to remove your downvote after improvement.

Update

I'd like to link this great post about Voting here Plea to the decentralized sense of opinion - use your vote!

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  • You've mentioned bad questions. Well, in my opinion, these are more likely posted by newcommers, who don't know well Ubuntu (and thus, they don't even know WHAT to ask about, Linux being so unfamiliar to them), and are non-native English speakers (and thus, they don't know HOW to ask in and understandable manner). But, I think that seeing new users is a good sign, it most probably means that Ubuntu gains more fans. Oct 9, 2016 at 16:51
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    @CristianaNicolae I don't recommend downvoting newcomers unless it's absolutely necessary. But even if a person is new to Ubuntu, there should be some effort from his/her side. I see many people just dumping their questions without even doing basic tasks. Those can be downvoted.
    – Anwar
    Oct 9, 2016 at 16:55
  • I agree with you in that the newcommers shouldn't be downvoted without any serious reason. I know that a downvote, especially one given without any explication in the comment section, can be quite frustrating for the user. I know that some people don't even bother to be polite and/or to have a straight and logic rationale, in one word, they rant in a quite rude way. Exactly as we speak I'm trying to deal with such an individual. Anyway, my previous comment was just my trying to see the situation from a sociological point of view. I don't know if I have succeeded. @Anwar Oct 9, 2016 at 17:03
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    @CristianaNicolae I think I understood your concern. Yes, It is highly recommended to leave a comment for newcomers and I try to do so. Otherwise They'll never learn and that downvote will be fruitless. Since you've brought this, I'm updating the post
    – Anwar
    Oct 9, 2016 at 17:08

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