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[meta] U R Not Doin it Rite
Come on people. The whole idea behind this web site is voting. You should be voting constantly. If you look at a question, you understand it, and you answer it, you should vote it up. If you look at a question, you see an answer that you think is correct, you should vote it up. If you don't put an answer on a question yourself, you should identify the best answer on that question and vote it up. You should be voting lots and lots. We should not be seeing 40 views on a question with zero votes and an answer with 2 votes. Yes, exercise some judgement on what you're voting on, but you need to be voting to show your preferences for certain types of questions, well constructed questions, and interesting questions. You need to vote to show support for answers, period, but also for thorough and correct answers. Please, think of it as Chicago. Vote early and often.
Votes are a way to show others that a question or answer are relevant. People who come here looking for help can discover what has worked with a little more assurance if the community of peers has recognized an answer or question by voting on its merits.
Just thought I'd comment here so the question comes back to the front page :)
Exactly. But look at all the questions. Most have zero or one vote. Heck, looking at the current front page, this question has the most votes at a grand total of 2. It shouldn't be. There are much more interesting questions. There is a question on shrinking databases with 70 views and one vote (mine). Another on locking and index rebuilds with a great answer, both of which have a single vote (mine). We need to be reinforcing common questions and useful answers for people who actually take the time to search before asking.
If you found a question you can't necessarily put an answer to, but think it is a good question voting it up will also help it get more attention by those that might be able to answer it. Tagging the question properly can make a difference with this.
Oh, and conversely, if you really don't respect a question or you think an answer is wrong or misleading, vote it down. Just vote.
I certainly see where you are coming from, but I tend to avoid down votes unless an answer is wrong in a dangerous way. For other things I prefer to leave a comment that just clarifies.
Out of 3000+ votes, I think I have 8 or something down votes, but, it's still a useful tool. I especially like it if I see something as an Answer that I just don't agree with.
Too long, apparently. Hence my meta-question about "sticky comments". Perhaps Dave will be able to do something about it soon.
I would agree with all of this. 2 things though. 1) I do note yet have enough karma points to comment or vote yet. 2) The questions I see have a bunch of comments instead of answers. Hosed either way.
Comments need to be rewarded as well I think. Maybe only 1/2 points or whatever but a lot of gems are buried in comments that people should read and authors should be rewarded for. We don't want karma seekers changing comments into answers for points and the community getting a convoluted set of threads.
Good points. And a couple of votes from us all on that answer (+ some other answers) will yield nuff carma to vote and comment :)
One or two questions and answers will get you there, assuming this alone does not.
On this note is there possibly some reward that can be given for just voting? Being active/present on the site consistently for a certain period gets you a special badge maybe. Then upvoting, down voting, or commenting gets you a badge or additional points when meeting a certain threshold in a certain timeframe. I don't know if this might cause things to get out of control, but it might promote more activity by users. Especially for those that might just be coming to the site to learn as the more experienced answer questions.
The book thing could work since we have a sponsor for this site that has some GREAT authors on payroll ;)
I find it curious (or telling) that the Good Question and Good Answer badges have 0 users awarded. Goes a long way in reinforcing Grant's "question".
http://ask.sqlservercentral.com/questions/42363/what-is-a-dba-and-should-i-still-work-here.html -- 634 views, and only 14 votes ??!?!?! That is the most voted question on here. And a question with over 2k views only has about 12 votes on it.
Good point. There are currently three badges, first up vote, first down vote, and 300 votes. Mabye add a couple more, one for 10 and then 50 votes to get people started. Another for 1000 votes to keep them in. Maybe hold an occasional incentive program, win a copy of a book for the most votes in a week or something. Yeah, it can be gamed, but, this system is a game anyway.
There is an official Badge you get for voting more than 300 times - "Civic Duty" - see list at
http://ask.sqlservercentral.com/badge/types.html and list of those who have exercised their civic duty here:
http://ask.sqlservercentral.com/badge/23532/civic-duty.html 31 of us. That's all. And that includes some people I've never come across on here... EDIT: And the FAQ says that you can vote 60 times in any 24 hours... get clicking, guys!
Is that just 300 times total, not within a certain timeframe like 24 hours or something? I have been on here since 2009 and could swear I have thrown out at least 300 votes :)
Check your voting record!
http://ask.sqlservercentral.com/users/21/shawn-melton.html#/votesTab
The other thing that people aren't doing right is accepting answers... But that's a whole other discussion.
I would like to bump this post. It has seem to get worse :-(
boo! I don't get here as often as I would like. I need to work on that
I think that's partially not helped by some of the authentication mechanisms having broken, and people like fatherjack and kev riley not being around much.
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