Are we a little stingy about upvoting questions?

Question

I felt like questions with accepted answers were upvoted less often here than on other SE sites, so I decided to have a look at the Data Explorer:

select count(distinct Id) from Posts where Score > 0 and CreationDate > '2017-07-01' and AcceptedAnswerId is not null; --35
select count(distinct Id) from Posts where CreationDate > '2017-07-01' and AcceptedAnswerId is not null; --116

So, about 30% of questions with accepted answers were upvoted recently. I compared this with some of my other SE sites.

Here's Electrical Engineering SE:

select count(distinct Id) from Posts where Score > 0 and CreationDate > '2017-07-01' and AcceptedAnswerId is not null; --359
select count(distinct Id) from Posts where CreationDate > '2017-07-01' and AcceptedAnswerId is not null; --748

which is about 48%.

Here's Science Fiction and Fantasy SE:

select count(distinct Id) from Posts where Score > 0 and CreationDate > '2017-07-01' and AcceptedAnswerId is not null; --378
select count(distinct Id) from Posts where CreationDate > '2017-07-01' and AcceptedAnswerId is not null; --391

which is 97%.

Here's StackOverflow:

select count(distinct Id) from Posts where Score > 0 and CreationDate > '2017-07-01' and AcceptedAnswerId is not null; --31594
select count(distinct Id) from Posts where CreationDate > '2017-07-01' and AcceptedAnswerId is not null; --85569

which is 37%.

Here's Data Science SE:

select count(distinct Id) from Posts where Score > 0 and CreationDate > '2017-07-01' and AcceptedAnswerId is not null; --40
select count(distinct Id) from Posts where CreationDate > '2017-07-01' and AcceptedAnswerId is not null; --75

which is about 53%.

So, we're a little bit on the low side. I wonder why this is?

I'm a noob here myself, but I'd like to see more activity in the Arduino SE. I just figure that if a question is good enough to be left open and receive an answer, with the OP active and polite enough to accept the answer, then in most cases giving the OP a little encouragement with an upvote on the question would help to encourage more participation.

Also, this was a good excuse to play with the Data Explorer :)

Answer 1

Great use of the Data Explorer!

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I've noticed that, in general, reputation creeps up fairly slowly here, compared to some other sites. I've got a lot more reputation for a handful of answers elsewhere (eg. English Learners SE) than I do for the same number of answers here. Quite often an answer isn't upvoted at all.

I think this is partly because of a mentality of:

• I have a problem in my code, I'll ask here on Arduino SE
• I've got my answer, kthxbye!

A while ago I was posting comments under answers along the lines of:

If this helped you please up-vote it, and even accept the answer. This helps others know that the answer works.

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You can help too by up-voting answers when you see them pop up (if you think they deserve it). I look for questions that Community (the system) has brought back to the first page, because no-one has accepted the answer, or voted for it. If the answer looks helpful, I vote it up. This helps stop old questions bobbing up all the time, and also helps other users know that someone thought the answer was OK.

It also helps give the person who answered some rep, which will help them get more privileges from Stack Exchange (like being able to delete answers, etc.)

Answer 2

I think one factor is that we simply get a higher percentage of low quality questions here that are unclear, don't provide enough information, or are poorly formatted. We may eventually badger the author or edit enough to make the question upvote worthy in the end but by that point I don't feel the need to reward the author.

I suppose a better approach would be to simply evaluate the question as-is without regard for the history.

I do think this makes it even more important to upvote the high quality questions we do get.

Answer 3

I have to confess I often upvote the question I answered, even if I don't like it that much. Every upvote helps a question hit the HNQ list, which means every answer to it will earn much more reputation that it would otherwise. I know it's pretty much rep chasing (frankly, I don't like HNQ), but those are the rules which are set, and if someone doesn't use them for their advantage, it's their loss.

Answer 4

Every community creates its microculture influenced by a handful of alpha users who tend to develop a clique and impose a standard of behavior and quality evaluation.

Arduino community doesnt seem as humble and nurturing as most SE communities. One user, for example, compares arduino users to stubborn, ignorant horses in his personal description.

IMO, every answer should AUTOMATICALLY award an irreversible upvote to the question it answers.