Just a simple question and discussion, no complaining, just asking. From what you (as an AU user) have seen, do you feel that votes are more dramaticized on Meta? For example I see multiple questions with 10+ votes on the homepage, but on AU.. not so much, and if they are, they are oldies. Does anyone else notice this?
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1Well, voting on meta really is opinion polling, and the votes cost and provide nothing– muruCommented Oct 20, 2016 at 15:57
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3"Dramatic"? No but think about how many more questions are on the main site than meta. With the 20(ish) votes a day system, we can vote on every meta question but are limited on the main sites, so they get saved for when they are needed. Still, I think many questions have 10+ votes askubuntu.com/search?q=score%3A10 26,068 results. Another factor is how many questions are on the main page (50 max), 50 questions get asked here every hour or so, so that page is not a good yardstick, use advanced search.– Mark KirbyCommented Oct 20, 2016 at 15:58
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2 Answers
Votes on meta are a completely different thing than votes on main. Since they carry no penalty (for either caster or receiver) they are often given more freely. Most importantly, voting on Meta is very often just a way to express agreement or disagreement.
So, if you make a proposal I dislike, I will downvote it to demonstrate that I don't agree and wouldn't want to see it implemented. Conversely, if you post an answer on the main site that is correct but not my preferred approach, I might not upvote it but won't downvote it either. Not if it isn't wrong.
So yes, Meta voting is different and it should be different. Votes should never be taken personally but that is doubly true on meta.
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5I might also downvote this answer disagreeing on the way it works on Meta :)– AnwarCommented Oct 20, 2016 at 16:04
Although I think terdon's answer is the main reason for the number of upvotes, I'd like to add a couple more reasons that help as well. And since you specifically mentioned the homepage in your question.
Questions on Meta aren't near as frequent as on the main site. So the questions tend to last longer on the homepage, which allows them to accumulate more upvotes. For example, at this moment, there are questions on meta's homepage that are over a week old, and the last active post was 8 hours ago.
Another reason is the "Hot Meta Posts" bulletin board that is shown on main and on meta in the right bar. Although not always, but questions that end up there usually get upvoted quite a bit.
