Some of my posts got downvoted but the downvoters didn't tell me why it was downvoted, making it difficult for me to imrove the post because I don't know what's not right with it.
Why are people doing this?
2 Answers
Down voting is easy, writing a comment requires effort.
I have some “Behavioral Rules” (not rules for behavior) that I use to predict people’s actions and this falls under the “Low Hanging Fruit” principle. People will generally go for the lowest hanging fruit (or take the path of least resistance); it’s human nature,
It’s infinitely (or nearly so) easier than writing a comment where reasoning must be articulated and without anonymity. If votes were publicized or down votes were not possible without attribution or comment, you’d see a lot less of them.
People will down vote forma myriad of reasons, some perfectly valid, some not. Personally, I don’t downvote unless something is really egregious but when I do, there would have been comment(s) left prior to doing so.
The contagion effect
There is a psychological term for what I colloquially call “the down vote horde;” contagion. It seems that threshold is crossed into negative vote territory it seems to garner many more unexplained negative votes. Once there, it seems the crowd behaves in unison and one down vote will lead to two…
Some votes are automatic
For example, when a post gets flagged as SPAM, it will automatically get downvoted. So, without voting or commenting, a flag in the system will automatically down vote to de-emphasize it.
Ignore them.
If someone is kind enough to give you constructive criticism, take no offense. Remember, this is a 2D interface to a bunch of personalities living in a 3D world and even the best of intentions can be misconstrued. We are here to learn and hopefully, help others learn as well,
As far as down votes go, they are really inconsequential. You lose 2 points for a downvote, but get 10 for every up vote. Focus on improving your skill and writing good questions/answers and the votes will follow,
Because people are people, and adding comments is different from voting. I agree that it sometimes hurts to get a downvote without knowing why, but maybe somebody just had a bad day.
Having said that, I somehow have the impression you put too much importance on votes. AD is not school, there are no grades, and it‘s way more important how you interact with people here and help to share knowledge than to worry about each and every vote you get (or don‘t get).
