-2

Would it be a reasonable to require Down Votes on questions (and maybe answers) force the user to first leave a comment, or mark an attached comment as great?

This would be to help prevent blind down votes. It seems to me that down votes without feed back do not really do the original poster (or the site) any good, other than letting everyone know that someone dislikes the question for some random reason.

1

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
17

This dead horse has been beaten on MSE for years. The answer is no.

6
  • 3
    Lots of meat on that dead horse. Have to remember that MSO is there...
    – Xantec
    Jan 31, 2012 at 20:23
  • 1
    Okay, lots of links -- which one is best for a summary if we don't want to read a novel?
    – Tango
    Jan 31, 2012 at 21:01
  • 2
    @TangoOversway This one and this one I felt covered it best.
    – Xantec
    Feb 1, 2012 at 20:47
  • 3
    Should overuse of dead horse expression require a downvote?
    – DVK-on-Ahch-To
    Feb 1, 2012 at 20:48
  • @Xantec: thanks -- that was easier than reading screens and screens full of arguments! ;)
    – Tango
    Feb 2, 2012 at 0:50
  • @TangoOversway GraceNote's answer to Wikis' question is also good.
    – Xantec
    Feb 2, 2012 at 13:38
-3

If the concept of the "down vote" (that it seems to be according to this link) is to improve the site then I agree with Xantec that it should require some justification that would allow the person asking the question to learn how to improve.

According to an answer from this question, down votes can be for any reason whatsoever. Nothing at all about improving the site for users.

So, I don't particularly like stuff about Manga. Would this make it OK for all people not to like Manga to down vote them, ensuring these questions go to another site? Of course not.

3
  • 1
    "Would this make it OK for all people not to like Manga to down vote them" - Yes, absolutely you can downvote question-types that you don't like.
    – Valorum
    Jun 3, 2022 at 10:12
  • 2
    @Valorum and how, exactly, does that promote the encouragement of good questions?
    – jim
    Jun 3, 2022 at 10:28
  • 3
    Because the site is its users and if its users don't like a particular class of question, then discouraging their asking is going to improve the site
    – Valorum
    Jun 3, 2022 at 10:31
-5

Of coarse it would be a good idea to require a user to comment as to why they leave a down vote.

Constructive criticism is the base of improvement, without it we are all just flailing about with no direction.

1
  • 5
    The problem is that some people aren't looking for an explanation of why they're getting downvoted, they're looking for someone to blame.
    – Valorum
    Jun 21, 2022 at 17:10

You must log in to answer this question.

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