Have you ever downvoted a thread on Stackoverflow?

[SamLewis]

I started using stackoverflow/stackexchange etc several years ago and used to use the site quite often but then found that people would down vote over the slightest things without any soft of positive suggestions.

What must be going on in that persons life that they feel the need to down vote somebody's post without giving a reason for doing so?

 

[Paranoid Android]

threads with stupid questions that have been answered many times before, yes.

 

[tc01]

they may be trying to get voting badges. E.g. vote 40 times in one day

 

[carmamag]

Stop asking things that have been answered a million times before

 

[AryabhattZero]

StackOverflow is like Reddit. People can smell bullshit from miles away. If you ask questions that have been asked by someone before already you'll get downvoted.

 

[youbike]

yes , because asker avatar is ugly

 

[lancej1022]

It's mildly annoying but you have to realize that they take "search before you ask" very seriously over there, and for good reason. 99% of the time you get a downvote it's for one of three reasons:

1. You're asking something that has an answer that is easily found by searching the existing threads. As a result, you're simply clogging up the forum with a redundant question

2. You're asking something that has an answer that is NOT easily found by searching, but the way you have asked it shows that you haven't actually put much thought into it and haven't done any research of your own, aka you just want someone else to figure things out for you without doing any of your own research.

3. Your question has very little details and comes across as "lazy"

Stackoverflow is a bit of a more "serious" tech forum, and they do their best to encourage people to avoid clogging up the forum with poor quality / repeated posts.