How do you vote?

Question

When I was commenting on the RAW meta question, I started to document how I vote on answers. Here is mine.

• I always up vote an answer if they answer the question, even if I think the answer is from my PoV wrong.

• I leave an answer zero, if I think the answer does not answer the question.

• I don't normally down vote an answer unless I think it is spam, offensive or so way off mark to be close to the edge in some way.

I tend not to let what I think of the way an answer is written, its System, or Individual that wrote it influence my vote.

I normally try to leave a question for a few weeks before blessing an answer. Sometimes it is not worth it as the answer you have is the only one you will get and I will closed them very quickly.

If I have no answer or I think no answer is worthy I will added my own and then Bless it. I don't think answer as part of the main question are the correct thing to do.

If I think and answer is close enough I will bless that answer then may be add my answer to document my PoV, which may not be everyone else (hence I don't bless it).

Anyway that is what I do. I hope it helps. May be other have better strategy and would like to comment?

Answer 1

I upvote if I consider that the answer contributes significantly to the question, leave alone if I don't think so, downvote if the answer doesn't answer the question, and flag as appropriate if I consider that the answer is spam/offensive/etc. I think that's what the flagging and voting system are for.

EDIT did you read What does voting really signify?

Aside, and re: "blessing answers", are you programming in Perl?

Answer 2

If the question is still unanswered:

• Upvote only if I think the answer is an excellent answer to the question, and I'm sure it's correct (upvoting an answer removes the question from the unanswered list).

My own questions:

• Pass out rep to everyone who gave a reasonable attempt at answering, AFTER an acceptable answer has been found.

Otherwise:

• Upvote the top one to two answers, if I think they're pretty good. Occasionally upvote incomplete answers that provide a useful bit of information.

In all cases:

• I rarely downvote, due to the hassle. Mostly that's reserved for experienced users doing a handful of obnoxious things that I consider harmful.

• Flag for answers that should be comments, and for spam.

Accepting:

• I usually accept an answer (either my own or an existing one) once the question has fallen off both the front page and the unanswered list.

Questions:

• I upvote questions aggressively. Especially for new users. Although lately I've tended to become pickier about what I vote for, particularly in the 4e category.

Answer 3

Answers

downvotes

Any of these

• If the answer has gross factual errors
• If the answer has serious misrepresentations
• if the answer doesn't address the question

upvotes

all of these:

• if the answer is factually accurate
• if I substantially agree with the answer
• Answer is worded well

Questions

downvote

any of these

• question is unanswerble due to wording
• question puts poor light on RPG's

upvote

must be all of these:

• game is not D&D 4E
• game is not D&D 3.X
• worded clearly

And any of these:

• Answer is not inherently obvious
• game is a personal favorite
• game is out of print and unsupported by publisher

Answer 4

For Questions

I upvote if I want to see the question answered.

I don't vote if I don't find the question interesting.

I don't vote if the question is unclear. Instead I leave a comment.

I downvote if I want to see the question deleted.

I flag if I want to see a question closed or give it special moderator attention (negative or positive: I flagged a question that I wanted a mod to reopen before I found out about reopen votes. The question was also reopened and the flag marked helpful so this may be an acceptable use of flags).

I flag if I want the question deleted and I think that declining to do so would be sufficient grounds for a meta-post about moderator quality. These kinds of flags are reserved for questions that aren't questions, are obscene or profane, are racist or sexist in a manner that is patently insulting and overtly offensive, etc. I haven't actually given one of these yet.

For Answers

I upvote only if:

• if the answer is the right answer or close enough to it that a novice reading the answer carefully would be lead in the right direction

OR

• • the answer is a right answer, no single answer can exist because the question is bad

  AND

• • the answer incidentally touches on something I think is valuable for RPGs in general and not generally understood.

AND

• the answer is sufficiently well writen that, regardless of its actual content, a novice reading it would not reasonably be lead in a wrong direction.

AND

• the answer does not meet any of my criteria for downvoting

AND

• • The answer was the first such answer provided chronologically and no fundamentally better answers have been provided

  OR

• • the answer makes a case for itself against older correct answers successfully.

I don't vote if:

• I am not sufficiently an expert to determine if the answer is the right answer

OR

• The answer is a little unclear, instead I leave a comment.

OR

• The answer is extremely and obviously wrong, but does not state the implication that indicates to me it is this wrong. Instead, I leave a comment asking if that implication was intended

I downvote if:

• The answer is wrong

OR

• The answer is very unclear

OR

• The answer is very poorly written

OR

• The answer is misleading, such that it supports any one of the numerous commonly accepted fallacious beliefs in the RPG community

OR

• I find the answer offensive

OR

• • The answer includes a statement like "But no GM would ever allow that" and I have allowed 'that' (pretty much all cases in which this statement is used).

  AND

• • The answer does not make such a statement as a parenthetical intended to deter downvoting by persons who hate on our playstyle.

  AND

• • The answer does not make such a statement as a mild expression of the answerer's playstle bias taking up no more than one line of a answer composing at least two paragraphs.

OR

• The answer is a change-of-frame answer that is anything but incredibly well done.

OR

• The answer is immoral or advocates immoral behavior

OR

• The answer advocates something which lessens the value of an RPG as a form of art.

I flag if:

• the answer is so exceptionally low quality I can't keep myself from doing this, despite the fact I know the flag will be declined.

• moderator attention is needed/desired for some reason.