Voting is the currency of our site. Each day, we get 30 votes to spend. It is important that users (myself included!) try and use up these votes each day. Without votes, we don't have reputation. Without reputation, the community cannot police itself. See the Tour for information on the reputation levels.
Why should you vote on questions?
The more votes a question has, the more exposure it gets via the question and tag listing pages. Questions with a higher score indicate that it is quality content. We should strive for this quality content.
When should you vote up a question?
- It is well-written
- It is clear
- It is interesting
- It is useful
- You have the same question
When should you vote down a question?
- It cannot be answered
- It is unclear
- It contains no effort by the author
Why should you vote on answers?
Voting on answers helps make sure that the most correct answer will float to the top and be the first answer presented to users. Obviously this is what we want. We don't want incorrect or poorly written answers to be the first thing people see. This doesn't put the site in a good light.
When should you vote up an answer?
- It is correct
- It is well-written
- It helps you (accept the answer if it is your question)
When should you vote down an answer?
- It is wrong
- It is misleading
- It doesn't answer the question
Notes on downvoting:
When downvoting, it is helpful to also leave a comment explaining your downvote. This provides an opportunity for the author to improve his/her post in which case you can later reverse your vote.
Don't take a downvote personally - as it costs the voter reputation it means that there is something seriously wrong with the the post. Take the time to revise the post, check your facts and references you used in your answer. If the downvoter has left a comment you can politely ask them to check over the revision by using the @username convention in another comment.
