-11

I have recently posted an answer to a question (a bountied one, if that matters).

As the only answer posted for this question, it got two upvotes, which signals to the rest of the community that a post is interesting, well-researched, and useful.

Then, three more answers were posted. After which, over a day after the two upvotes (fixing a typo allowed the votes to be uncasted), my answer got downvoted once (first), and twice unupvoted (later). This made my answer go from 2 to -1 (now -2 after this post, yikes).

While I don't really care about the downvote (after all, maybe someone estimated my post wasn't useful), I'm more concerned about the unupvotes: what do they mean?

I did edit my answer after the upvotes, but only to fix a typo, and the OP hasn't requested for any edits nor clarification, so what's the meaning of an unupvote? Should I assume that the existence of other answers made mine less useful and therefore less worth an upvote but not bad enough for a downvote? Should I assume the ex-upvoters had accidentally clicked the upvote button and chose to correct it? Should I assume it's some kind of strategical unupvoting because of the bounty? They left no comment under my answer, so I'm left not knowing what I've done wrong.

I know we can't read the minds of the specific people behind it for my case, but in general, what do unupvotes (that supposedly aren't the correction of a misclick) mean? I doubt I'm the first one to have received multiple unupvotes on a once good answer that wasn't made worse through editing.

Relevant links:

Comments:

  • Maybe if you pointed at the specific answer, some general feedback could be provided, but you don't. – yivi

    Here: How can I safely and portably create and use a temporary file with C++ For the record, I didn't include it because I didn't want it to look like I was complaining for losing a bounty. Yet, looks like this meta post got an additional downvote to my answer in the end.

32
  • 6
    As you note there are several reasons for an unupvote, i.e., other answers made yours less useful, accidental upvote, strategic voting, and you can't tell which it is in most cases. However, if I were to guess, it is the first one: other answers made yours less useful. When it was the only answer people might have thought "this addresses the issue, let's upvote", but after the other answers were posted they may have thought "adding separate code for different OS'es is apparently not needed and should be avoided if possible, so this answer isn't so useful after all, let's retract my upvote". Commented May 22, 2025 at 7:27
  • 4
    Just to eliminate two other possibilities, have you received any notifications about voting corrections or deleted users? Votes can sometimes be removed entirely due to account deletions or correcting the actions of voting rings. Commented May 22, 2025 at 7:29
  • 1
    @F1Krazy Nope, in my reputation history it is marked as unupvotes, one hour apart from each other. Commented May 22, 2025 at 7:33
  • 9
    The "guessing why users do whatever they want with their votes" is completely useless and uninteresting. Maybe if you pointed at the specific answer, some general feedback could be provided, but you don't. The only part with some interest is the "downvote retraction after five minutes without post edits", and that's a support question that probably could be answered (and I think that would likely "solve" the mystery retraction, if things happened as you describe). Commented May 22, 2025 at 7:51
  • 1
    It was edited also an evaluation can change without the content changing. The upvote is representative of one users evaluation of your answer, not directly of the value of that answer. Commented May 22, 2025 at 8:07
  • 11
    @RedStoneMatt it can be hard to correctly judge the usefulness of a post as a voter when you don't know the alternatives. People can change their mind at that point, for example a politician saying "we should reduce taxes" and you think "that is a good idea", but then another politician saying "we should keep taxes at the same level and use the money to invest in infrastructure" and you think "that is indeed a better idea, now I don't like the first idea anymore". Commented May 22, 2025 at 8:52
  • 3
    I can't talk for your answers, but I have both unupvoted (and in some cases downvoted), as I become more and more experienced in tools. As an example, I might have visited a post, and upvoted an answer that I used in my solution. 5 years later, I had a similar problem and came to a post I had previously upvoted, and noticed in the solution that it uses a practice that is considering poor, and there's another answer, more recent, that addresses that and provides a better™ alternative. In such a scenario I may well remove my upvote, and upvote the other answer. Commented May 22, 2025 at 9:02
  • 1
    Users are never required to explain their voting, @RedStoneMatt . If your goal is simply "why do you do this, person who unvotes?" then you're not going to get that answer. Commented May 22, 2025 at 12:48
  • 1
    @PresidentJamesK.Polk One of the downvotes was cast suspiciously close to me making this meta post, I wouldn't be surprised if that were to be solely to spite me, considering how many downvotes this meta post has. It wouldn't be the first time. The other downvote was cast before any unupvote, so it might just be someone who think my answer isn't good enough, in which case, fair, I'm not bothered by the downvote. Unupvotes are my problem here. If you do find that my answer is good though, well, there's a button for this. Commented May 22, 2025 at 12:48
  • 1
    @ThomA How am I supposed to improve, then? My goal with this post was to figure out what's the meaning of unupvotes in this kind of case, because I don't know how I should take them and how should it affect me writing and editing my answers. Commented May 22, 2025 at 12:49
  • 2
    "how can I improve this post" and "why did someone retract their votes" are completely different questions, @RedStoneMatt . Commented May 22, 2025 at 12:54
  • 1
    So, again, ask how you can improve the post, not "Why did someone change their vote." The reason that someone voted is because they felt the post was (not) useful or (not) helpful. If someone retracted that vote then they came to the conclusion that the post was no longer (not) useful or (not) helpful. That is the why. People change their minds every day; if people had to explain the reason for them doing so every time they did it the world would be a far slower place. I changed my mind on what podcast to listen to on the way to work today; I didn't contact the podcast to explain why. Commented May 22, 2025 at 13:03
  • 7
    Please be accurate in your statements. You stated here in your question that your answer had not been edited. If true, then people being able to unupvote would be a bug. That statement was, in fact, false. You did edit your answer between when it was upvoted and when it was unupvoted. The existence of that inaccurate statement implied a bug, which I then wasted time trying to verify actually happened. Commented May 22, 2025 at 13:56
  • 1
    @RedStoneMatt That's OK. Stuff happens. I actually read this for the first time when it was still asking how the unupvotes were possible, and noted to myself at that time that I should take a look for a possible bug, then got called away and didn't get back to it until now. So, I appreciate that you did try to edit out the misstatements, the timing just didn't work out. Commented May 22, 2025 at 14:08
  • 2
    I thought the point of votes > it is a gross assumption that votes can only possibly serve a single purpose. It is also bad to assume that a user can never change their mind about the subjective value of a post. You could post a great answer to a problem I'm having, and it solves the problem in the short term, and I might later learn that it doesn't work well with some other part of my system, is not actually useful on the version of <x> I'm on, at midnight it becomes a Gremlin, or I might have come across a much better answer that actually solves my problem better. Are these problems? Commented May 22, 2025 at 17:30

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
15

what do unupvotes (that supposedly aren't the correction of a misclick) mean?

The unupvotes mean that the person have changed their mind. [Note that locking of votes exists mostly for prevent specific bad behavior ("tactical downvoting"), but generally changing a vote is not something which is forbidden.]

Despite that voting is performed for a specific answer, the voting represents a usefulness, which in turn may depend on availability of other solutions. E.g. a complex and subtle solution could be very useful in case of inability to perform a required task by using other means. But if a simpler and more precise solution exists, the complex one becomes not such useful.

That is, adding an answer with a simpler solution may cause an answer with a complex solution to lose some upvotes. The reverse way is also possible: finding a defects in the answer with a simpler solution may attract downvotes for it and attract upvotes for other answers, with more complex but correct solutions.

1
  • 3
    Also people only have so many votes. If they upvoted an answer and then later see a better answer, they may make a trade so they don't lose 2 votes from their quota to a good and a better answer. Commented May 22, 2025 at 17:35

You must log in to answer this question.

Start asking to get answers

Find the answer to your question by asking.

Ask question

Explore related questions

See similar questions with these tags.