Is it appropriate to ask not to downvote?

Question

Today I've edited out a part of a question which stated:

I have already searched related questions but was not able to find my solution so please don't down vote my question.

[screenshot showing Ask Ubuntu search]

The paragraph and the picture were changed to this line:

I have already searched related questions but was not able to find my solution.

OP now has provided additional information that was asked. This gave them the occasion to revert the edit by putting the whole "please don't downvote + picture" again.

IHMO asking not to downvote is inappropriate, or at least can be considered "noise". It could be counter-productive as well, leading to the opposite effect. I agree that explaining why a question should not be considered a duplicate is appropriate, but I am referring to the part asking not to downvote (or it could be "please don't close" as well).

Hence, before risking an edit war: what is the community consensus on this?

Answer 1

Ideally a question will contain as little as possible yet as much as necessary to answer it. Request from the question author about how they’d like their question to be viewed don't belong in the latter category.

I usually remove this kind of content with an edit note saying “remove fluff”. I don’t address what the content of the fluff was because if it mattered I wouldn’t have removed it.

As for a potential edit war: I wouldn’t wage one over something this insignificant. However, I’d write a comment to address the repeated reintroduction of irrelevant statements into the question and explain why they harm readability and therefore its author’s interests.

Answer 2

You've come to the same conclusion in your question but you're asking for a slim answer to a broad question. Just in case people are only skimming, I'd like to be thorough.

Maybe. It depends on what they're saying:

• "I couldn't find an answer elsewhere" is unnecessary. If you had found one, why are we here?

• And social commentary and ultimatums like "Don't close this, [I've had a bad day, I'll start World War 3, I'll stop using Ubuntu]" is also unnecessary, bordering on actionable.

• But what about "Please don't close this as duplicate, I've tried x, y, z and none of those solutions work [because a, b, c]"? I would earnestly encourage that, even including the leading plea to highlight the fact.

I think it's also important to justify your edits. Removing fluff for the sake of removing the words "thank you", or "please don't close because" is probably not the best justification. Fighting to make sure they stay out is definitely not worth it.

Answer 3

No, it is not appropriate for a question or an answer, nor is it at all useful. As David said, such a thing is "fluff." However, it can go even further.

Downvotes on the main site are not used here as a "disagree" or "dislike" button. It's used for posts that have problems content-, formatting-, or information-wise. Downvotes are meant for bad posts (as determined by the voter). Asking for users to not take moderative actions (e.g. downvote, close, delete, etc) is more or less admitting to some problem with the post. While this doesn't apply to the linked question as much, it's still a consideration to take into mind.

And, as some users point out, things like "please don't downvote me" will in fact attract downvotes. While this is not the right course of action to take just because of this text, it is a valid argument for not having that text. People can't resist the big red shiny button with the giant "DO NOT PRESS" label on it.

If you see such things, it's best to edit out quietly like you would other useless content. If the OP rolls back, edit again and leave a comment. If it escalates into an edit war from there, flag it for a mod and move on.

Answer 4

There was an incident in AU a few months ago with a poster frequently asking for upvotes. It was decided repeatedly doing so was inappropriate but the occasional time to instruct new users was ok. IIRC Kaz brought this issue up initially.

Assuming what's good for the goose is good for the gander the same rules would apply to this question. ie If a user for the first time asks not to downvote, ok just inform them of free speech and voting in democracy. If it becomes a bad habit then just gang up and downvote the living daylights out of him and let it be known the plea to not downvote was the reason.

There is no doubt a tendency to gang up here, but gentlemen of war should always fire a warning shot across the bow. Oh yeah, if you want to downvote this answer happy hunting :p