Don't neglect this existing discussion on the same topic: https://grabcad.com/groups/grabcad-community-user-group/discussions/persons-who-downvote-a-answer-should-be-identifiable
I do agree that a downvote without an explanation is somewhat useless.
If the Question section is revamped into an Accepted Answer system, then there will be no need for up or down votes. I don't have proof, but I feel the voting was added when the desire was there to sort the answers by their vote count. Good answers would rise, bad answers would fall.
That system isn't working perfectly, and leads to a lot of confusion when trying to read the discussions that often form in the Question section.
Assuming the Question section transitioned to an Accepted Answer system, how would it work? Would the answer accepted as an answer get the GrabCAD Points? Sadly we can't convert points into dollars as someone recently suggested, so there needs to be some incentive to post an answer, or add additional information to a post.
I think the present system is nice; correct answers get upvotes (points), wrong answers get downvotes (nothing).
The only implementations I've heard of are adding comments with downvotes, or identifying the downvoters.
These suggestions can be added to the current system, and don't deserve revamping the system (unless there are other unknown features to be added).
Ok if we do go ahead and let you guys know who down voted your work, What are the Pros and Cons for giving you this information?
I really want to so i can deliver this to the team and discuss this with them.
I do not give down votes but I think they need to stay and remain anonymous. Look at youtube ... they have a dislike and nobody can see who give dislike. Or, instead, the down vote uses the dislike sign. I think should be a way to show you don't like something ... a comment, tutorial or even a model. Just my personal opinion. You can down vote it or dislike it ...
I give down votes for 2 reasons:
Knowing who downvoted my posts would allow me to follow-up with that member to better understand why the downvote. Depending on the topic, I could comment or I could PM that member.
Likewise, other members could contact me If they knew it was me who downvoted them.
I think downvoters should be identified. How about a short (2 month?) trial and see how it goes?
I usually downvote those who answer their own questions, whether they are adding more info or just sharing a tutorial in the Questions section.
I wish answers would be limited to all users except the asker, so he'll use the comments instead.
Case and point. Someone.. probably the same person.. felt strongly enough to downvote every response the original author created. Now granted, he could have simply replied to FredSWUG's answer, keeping everything nice and tidy in one string of conversation but the author is obviously new and may not have noticed.
So.. person that feels so strongly about downvoting.. how about teaching the gentlemen to fish?
That's weird. I didn't even notice the downvotes.
If answers are no longer sorted by their votes, I'll argue that the upvote/downvote functionality in Questions can be removed. Maybe replace it with the reactions from Discussions?
Or, just the downvote button could be removed. If someone disagrees with an answer, let them post their own answer or comment with better advice or corrections. The only function of the upvote button at this point is to reward five points.
I may be remembering wrong, but I think the downvote button was introduced to enable a sorting system where "good" answers rose to the top, and "bad" answers fell to the bottom. That system never seemed to work correctly, and caused the side effect of all posts being rearranged in a random order instead of maintaining a chronological sorting.
Kesa,
I can't think of any positive outcome from showing who downvoted an answer. But, if it is added as a feature, how about pushing it to upvotes as well? Right now only the person that knows who upvoted an answer is the person who posted the answer when they get a notification.
In the Discussion section, just hovering a mouse over the various reactions identifies who reacted to everyone.
But, with the new selected answer system in place, what role do the up/downvote buttons play now? I believe the downvote button was only added so the sort by vote system would function. I think the downvote button can be removed.
The upvote button still seems to award 5 points, but otherwise appears useless. What good is an answer with 10 upvotes if a different answer is selected as the accepted answer?
Maybe replace the vote buttons with the reaction system from Discussions?
But some answers need to be downvoted...
For example, check the answers here.
Some of them even have upvotes!
I agree there are bad answers. It's just that the downvote button doesn't really do anything other than put a number in a box. The original idea was to downvote a bad answer, and it would sink to the bottom of the page, and hopefully not be seen.
With the new accepted answer system in place, I believe answers stay in chronological order. So downvotes have no effect. A better approach with the new system may be posting a comment to a bad answer, and stating why the information is bad/wrong.
The page you linked to is a perfect example of the old sorting system not working. Your answer with three upvotes is at the bottom. A bad answer with two upvotes (why?) and 4 downvotes is at the top. But, at least the posts are ordered by date.
I think its only common Curtsy that if someone likes or dislikes an answer so that for ever what reason they can respond .
So... is an answer with 5 up-votes and 2 down-votes better than an answer with 4 up-votes and no down-votes? :)
I've always felt that the down-vote tally could go away, instead subtracting 1 from the up-vote tally. Then you simply push the best scoring answers to the top. Some answers are not necessarily wrong... they're just not the 'best' answer given.
For this very reason.. I often catch myself trying to push the best answer with an up-vote, but refusing to down-vote another answer because.. well, they put a lot of thought into it and, it was a decent answer.
The other issue I see... and maybe a bit off topic, is the lack of follow-through on questions. This is probably one of my biggest peeves because I don't like wasting my time and often see this place as somewhere people come to mine homework answers. IMO, there should be something in place that doesn't allow a person to ask another question until--at the very least--they have revisited their question and closed it out. That could come by way of choosing a "most helpful answer" or "yes/no" to the query "are you satisfied with the answers received?". If 'yes' then you choose the most helpful answer. If 'no' then you are asked to further refine the question.
Sorting answers by vote tally still leads to a non-chronological order. Which makes reading replies difficult.
The main "problem" with the Question section is it is rarely as simple as: post a question, receive the correct answer.
The Question section usually has some back and forth to extract additional details before a proper answer can be formed.
If there is a desire to "fix" the Question section beyond the new Best Answer change, and the currently discussed up/down vote changes, I think we should:
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