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The signals aren't for the person who asked the question. Downvoting signals to other stack overflow users that this question probably doesn't contain the infor
by will4274 7y ago
The signals aren't for the person who asked the question. Downvoting signals to other stack overflow users that this question probably doesn't contain the information they are looking for. When done correctly, this is considerate because it reduces the amount of time users spend searching for an answer. The goal of SO isn't to answer your question, it's to build up a massive high quality FAQ, and you should interpret the social cues in this context.
- Avamander 7y ago> When done correctly, this is considerate because it reduces the amount of time users spend searching for an answer. But it isn't done correctly. It's done rather arbitrarily, because who could have predicted that accurate rating of questions is hard and that in the end what matters is having a quality knowledge base on various subjects not only the ones some specific people think are useful. I'd also not ignore that pretty much noone except the asker care about questions' votes when primary traffic to questions is from search engines. Oh, and I almost forgot, your claims of how downvotes are not meant as a signal for the asker, then why are they displayed the votes? Why should they lose rep if it's not meant as a signal to them?
- will4274 7y agoDo you believe that downvoters have no empathy or that they have empathy, they are just bad at downvoting well because the problem is hard? Your comments seem to contradict on this point.
- Avamander 7y agoNeither answer to your question is not entirely what I mean. Yes, the problem is hard, but the lack of understanding of the askers' side is a problem of people arguing against any changes to the system.