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When I attempt to downvote a an answer on AskUbuntu, I get the message: "You need at least 125 reputation to cast a vote..." (screen capture below). This is in error. I have 121 reputation on AskUbuntu, and I understand that I cannot down-vote.

I am not disputing reputation privileges here. I am trying to highlight a bug that needs to be addressed.

I am able to up-vote without any issues. I think the message should say, "You need at least 125 reputation to cast a down-vote," specifically mentioning the down-vote.

enter image description here

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I see what you mean - although the popup's use of the words "...to cast a vote" aren't necessarily wrong, as (like you mentioned) it doesn't specify which type of vote. I can only assume that when building StackExchange, the developers simply used the word "vote" (rather than "upvote" or "downvote") so that the code behind the popup could be reused for both upvote and downvote popups - if this was the case, it wouldn't be considered a bug (see Gartner's definition of "bug"). Therefore, I'm not sure it would be correct to refer to the prompt as "erronous".

Also, do keep in mind that when casting a downvote on an answer, 1 reputation will be deducted from your total reputation (to prevent malicous or mass-downvoting from users across SE websites, I presume). Voting down questions does not cost you any reputation, however. According to AskUbuntu Help:

Voting down answers is not something we want you to take lightly, so it is not free.

You can find more information about this topic (downvoting) here, on AskUbuntu help: https://askubuntu.com/help/privileges/vote-down.

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  • It is wrong: both upvotes and downvotes are "votes", so the sentence is unclear at best. If you were to intepret it literally, without any prior knowledge, you would understand that any vote would require 125+ rep; since "vote" normally encompasses both, the sentence is in my opinion downright wrong.
    – kos
    Commented Oct 12 at 15:50
  • I have no idea why someone decided to downvote my answer. It seems downvotes are simply being used when a viewer doesn't like an answer, rather than when the answer actually isn't useful.
    – Noah Domingues
    Commented Oct 12 at 16:46
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    It was me who downvoted: downvotes on meta are meant to express disagreement. In this case I disagree with your point that the wording isn't wrong (or not a bug - cause to me it is). It's just my personal opinion, and you shouldn't take it personally, there's nothing personal about it. If some people disagree with me, they'll upvote your post. The point in this case is just to decide if the wording is ok or not.
    – kos
    Commented Oct 12 at 16:59

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