-7

I think it is really important to know the reasons for getting down-votes.

Feature Description:

  • The users must be asked for providing a valid reason for downvoting a post which already has 5 or more Up-votes (You set the number. I am sure that spams won't be having more than 5 up-votes)

  • The message (reason) should be private.

  • The identity of the person who downvoted (and provided the reason) should not be revealed to the person who got the down-vote.

  • It could be a one-way communication. i.e, The User who got the message should not be able to reply (to avoid abuses).But should be able to report it, if it is any kind of abusing.

This feature would do a great job to avoid people getting Down-Votes from those who keep Grudges on AskUbuntu.

8
  • 2
    :D If you think this post really deserves a Down-vote, Please do provide a valid reason in the comment section.
    – Severus Tux
    Commented Jan 31, 2016 at 19:25
  • 3
    -1 This feature is flawed, and could lead to abuse in multiple ways, and also there is no real point to it... It doesn't prevent people downvoting questions, "those who keep Grudges" could still just say "I believe this post is not fully clear" or "I believe this post deserves a downvote", and even if they are a troll, it would be wrong to allow moderators to reverse the downvote (because they could then abuse that power) unless the system considered it serial voting, and if so, then the system would take action and reverse it.
    – user364819
    Commented Jan 31, 2016 at 19:46
  • 2
    I could least many reasons wrong with this, but that would take up too much time... Users are already reminded to give a reason for downvoting, we shouldn't force them to though. But I think that the main issue with this feature would be that they could just say something which is not abusive, but even if not true, you would have nothing to report them for, and probably people would even abuse it to spam you, so not only do you have lots of downvotes, but also an overwhelming amount of reasons why sent to you.
    – user364819
    Commented Jan 31, 2016 at 19:46
  • 1
    I agree with panda, you can't force people to comment when they vote, even though when it happens to me I get annoyed, some times to save an argument with users I know to be hostile, I exercise my right to vote anonymously. Anyway, one thing I noticed in your post is this "This feature would do a great job to avoid people getting Down-Votes from those who keep Grudges on AskUbuntu." Has someone done this to you? this seems very specific with you mentioning "grudges" If you have an example, and some evidence, perhaps we can help you but this comes up all the time, it won't be implemented, ever.
    – Mark Kirby
    Commented Jan 31, 2016 at 19:57
  • You always know the reason for a downvote, it's on the downvote tooltip. This question does not show any research effort, is unclear or not useful. What good would repeating that 5 or more times do?
    – Robert Longson
    Commented Jan 31, 2016 at 22:25
  • 1
    @RobertLongson All it says is a generic message, it is not the reason why it was downvoted but a guide as to why someone could give a downvote. If you give an answer and it is wrong so I downvote you the tool tip does not adjust to reflect this, there are many more reasons to downvote and leaving a comment with some actual details is much more helpful, you can't improve your Q based off that tool tip it is not accurate enough..
    – Mark Kirby
    Commented Feb 1, 2016 at 8:56
  • While I agree leaving constructive suggestions can be helpful, I find leaving a reason for a downvote in the comments, more often then not, leads to a non-productive opinionated and at times argumentative discussion and results in more hard feelings and I would guess retaliative down votes although I do not have access to such information.
    – Panther
    Commented Feb 1, 2016 at 13:41
  • @bodhi.zazen I down vote comment alot and you are right, often users become hostile and I have (I think, can't prove it) one time experienced the downvote retaliation after downvoting an answer the posting my own, however I did comment about it and other users did vote me back up, so it did not have a massive impact but I can see why so many users don't want to comment on there votes.
    – Mark Kirby
    Commented Feb 2, 2016 at 10:03

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
6

This has been asked many, many, many times before.

This is very unlikely to ever change as the Stack Exchange network is built in the USA: the programmers, designers and owners of the SE network cannot think of any reason why voting should be anything else then anonymous. It's in their law, so just accept things the way they are as you'll never change them and do like me:

Always leave a comment yourself when down-voting!

Eventually... when most users will comment while down-voting, we'll have a case for making voting public instead of secret... Until then: be a shining example to everyone else out there! ;-)

3
  • P.S. You should use an else instead of an If Night()... >:-) ;-)
    – Fabby
    Commented Jan 31, 2016 at 20:26
  • It.. has very little to do with being in the US. Quite a few SE employees don't even live in the US. I can think of 3 off the top of my head.
    – Seth Mod
    Commented Feb 1, 2016 at 20:27
  • @Seth: I've worked for a US company: the way people think at the top filters down in the corporate culture... It's just inconceivable to Joel and most of his employees to ever do that... It would take a super-majority of users to turn that around... ;-) (Ping me in chat about this if you want...)
    – Fabby
    Commented Feb 2, 2016 at 0:29
7

Because these conversations are a good thing to have? This is why I don't comment:

My pronouns are He / Him

3
  • Can you provide the link to that conversation?
    – Fabby
    Commented Jan 31, 2016 at 22:48
  • 1
    @Fabby significant portions have since been removed
    – Tim
    Commented Jan 31, 2016 at 23:17
  • I agree with Tim =)
    – Panther
    Commented Feb 1, 2016 at 13:42

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