Why was my question asking for theories downvoted? Why was my answer for same question downvoted as well?

Question

So in a question, I asked recently on the regular sci-fi fantasy stack exchange site Where Did The Myths of Dragons Come From? The answer I wrote was a heavily researched theory I came up with. And the thing is, the question (which I wrote) was asking for theories. And I presented my theory and people downvoted it. No one commented on any problems, and my question and answer were both on-point, and heavily researched. So why the downvotes? I was even told that it looked like I was showing off, which I dont understand because I wasnt.

Answer 1

I'm the one who responded to the OP in the question at hand.

@TheLethalCarrot: I'll just state for the record that, while I personally find self-answering to be an annoying habit, though not showing off, I do understand that it is permissible on SE. I don't think the practice should be encouraged, though. As a rule, I don't answer those questions, and generally just ignore them.

The only reason I stopped by here was because this new user was receiving what I'd consider to be a fairly abusive round of downvoting without any kind of explanation or guidance from either the moderators or community leaders.

This is very disappointing, actually. Even now, as of the time I'm writing this, the question & the answer each have five or more down votes & one up vote each. There are two votes to close. The OP is a new user with less than 100 points. NO ONE has bothered to help him with addressing the issue. And the only response other than mine is a complaint directed at my complaint regarding self answering. Way to drop the ball, guys!

In any event, Firestryke, to answer your question properly and on the record, I think it's just as I addressed in the comments directly to you: the question is off topic in that it has nothing to do with any particular work of science fiction or fantasy. It is actually a perfectly fine question! And, as I suggested to the moderators, would be a good candidate for migration to Mythology & Folklore.

As for why your answer was so heavily downvoted, I'd hazard the guess, though could be wrong, that it was some of the same people slamming you for your question. Bad question = downvote = might as well downvote the OP's answer too! (Though in all honesty, I think your answer needs far more work than your question! Formatting / style edits would help; content edits might help more!)

I know SE cultures vary, but we've had this very discussion, e.g., on Worldbuilding about the ethics of downvoting an answer that's been given to a bad question. Community there is of the opinion that the answer ought to stand on its own merit; thus regardless of how off topic and how excoriated you were for your question, I think your answer should have just been left alone. Reason being: it actually strives to answer the question! (Though in so far as it may not meet that goal, I think a couple of those down votes are understandable.)

One thing you need to understand about Stack Exchange in general is that it is highly compartmentalised. This forum only deals with fantasy & science fiction genre media (novels, stories, comics, movies, radio & television serials, etc.) for example. Even though dragons make their appearances in many fantasy stories, that's not what you're asking about! It's simply because your material is mythologically oriented that it was, rightfully, understood to be off topic. Had you asked this question in the history or literature forums, your question likewise would have been closed for being off topic. This is why I suggested to you that you look into joining the Mythology & Folklore forum! Your answer might be similarly downvoted in that forum, but at least your question would be entirely on topic there.

Also for the record: I did not down vote either the query or the response, choosing in stead to hope that the Mods will migrate it before this turns into too much of a disaster for you; I did not vote to close; I did petition the Mods to migrate the question to the forum where it would actually be on topic.

Answer 2

The question.

I downvoted this for a variety of reasons; That it's about mythology rather than science fiction or fantasy, that it's not in the least bit clear that all of the myths about dragons (English, French, Chinese) come from the same derivation and basically that you're fishing for theories without offering a question that can be definitively answered.

Note that I also voted to close as off-topic for much the same reasons. I could just as easily voted as 'VTC - Lacking focus' and 'VTC - Opinion-based' but I thought it more appropriate to vote as off-topic because it's not a good fit for the site.

The answer.

I downvoted this for the simple reason that it seems to be a collection of half-baked theories and nonsense about dinosaurs surviving in the modern age.

In conclusion.

While self-answered question are generally to be encouraged, when you're self-answering a question that's firmly off-topic (in a variety of ways), you're almost certainly going to see a range of downvotes for a range of reasons.