12
$\begingroup$

Should we encourage users to +1 each question, they find at least that interesting, that they're deciding to answer? AFAIK, this case isn't certain among other SE sites.

I personally find this fair and professional. We have opposite mechanism (if answer is good, its author is awarded with +1 or even acceptance). But what about OP? If I find question good enough to answer it, I think, OP should be awarded with vote-up.

However, I'd like to know other opinions -- whether this should be encouraged (in FAQ, in comments) or should remain as purely private opinion / decision?

$\endgroup$
1
  • $\begingroup$ Just another thing. As I just realized, we have a very low number of users with high ranks. We need it to progress to public beta and then to real-live site. I think voting as much as we can, not only on questions, but also on other's usable comments, is currently in our together interest. $\endgroup$
    – trejder
    Sep 23, 2014 at 7:23

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
10
$\begingroup$

At the moment, in a small private beta with relatively low voting rates, your question makes sense. Even popular questions get few votes, so whether or not the answerer votes up makes a big difference. However, I see this as a short term phenomenon that won't be worth thinking about beyond private beta.

If a question is good enough that it is getting votes from viewers, then the answerer's vote will not make a significant difference. If a question is getting very few votes from viewers, then that suggests it is not a great question, and the answerer shouldn't feel obliged to upvote.

I think the answerer should choose whether to vote and whether to answer as two separate decisions. In most cases where I post an answer, it is because I found the question interesting, and so I upvote. I wouldn't want to be pressured to upvote though, or conversely pressured not to answer if I don't feel like upvoting.

There may be cases where a question is not off topic and there is no reason to close it, but it is not a particularly good question. Adding an answer that demonstrates the problems with the question and explains why there can be no definitive conclusions can be helpful for future reference, and if I saw such a situation I would upvote the answer but not the question.

$\endgroup$
3
  • 5
    $\begingroup$ Yes, this. Most of the time, I suspect, people who answer the question also upvote it, but these are two separate decisions and we shouldn't push people to connect them. It would be particularly sad if people decline to answer (i.e. decline to share their knowledge) because of a voting rule. $\endgroup$
    – Monica Cellio
    Sep 21, 2014 at 17:35
  • 3
    $\begingroup$ I have, on a few occasions, even posted answers to questions which I have downvoted. Let's not try to mandate any particular style of voting; it won't work anyway. $\endgroup$
    – user
    Sep 21, 2014 at 19:24
  • $\begingroup$ I must disagree. If you're voting up an answer to your own question, you see a nag reminder, that you should consider accepting it. Even though, voting up and accepting answer are also two separate things. I see the same pattern in given scenario. Please, notice, that, I wrote "encourage", not "force". While most of your arguments are OK, I must admit, that it is very odd to me to see a zero-scored question with 3-5 answers. This looks for me a bit strange. But, since my vote is single, and most of you disagree with me, then let's end this discussion and leave the things as they're now. $\endgroup$
    – trejder
    Sep 22, 2014 at 10:32
10
$\begingroup$

Bumping this one! There are questions that get lots of answers but few upvotes: like this sweet one. When I found it there were 7 answers and 0 votes.

Is there a plausible way to build a pipette with medieval technology?

If it is interesting enough for you to spend time answering I think that warrants an upvote. Encourage people who post interesting questions!

$\endgroup$
1
  • $\begingroup$ Definitely! If we don't encourage people who ask interesting questions we will lose them. To the detriment to WB SE. $\endgroup$
    – a4android
    Aug 17, 2018 at 5:01

You must log in to answer this question.

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