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    It's not all that often that I downvote, but I'd recently noticed that when I do, I lose a point of rep. It's no big deal, but I don't understand the rationale behind that. Can someone explain?
    • CommentAuthorRyan Reich
    • CommentTimeNov 24th 2010
     

    I imagine it's to prevent trolls from making junk accounts, getting the requisite minimum score quickly, and then spamming downvotes. A more generous interpretation is that even the most highly reputed members are likely to pause in the act of frivolously downvoting if they realize they will lose one of their hard-earned points. Pop-psychology tells me that people overestimate the costs and underestimate the benefits in any choice, so this may have some merit as an incentive even with the likes of multiple-k users running around.

    • CommentAuthorjbl
    • CommentTimeNov 24th 2010
     

    I assume Ryan is correct. This is actually mentioned in the FAQ: http://mathoverflow.net/faq#reputation

  4.  
    You don't lose rep when you downvote CW posts.
    On the other hand your victim doesn't lose rep
    there either.
    • CommentAuthorWill Jagy
    • CommentTimeNov 24th 2010
     
    If a question is evident spam (for me that is usually because the same user has been posting questions belatedly recognized as such, establishing a pattern) and you flag it as spam, there is a flag, a downvote, and no effect on one's own account. I haven't seen anything visible from a flag, but if about six people do that the post is deleted. That is probably of little importance to the OP, one of the recurrent trolls puts divisive questions hoping to incite riots, which often works, then simply deletes its own questions after the fun has dried up, changing user ID a few weeks later.
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    Thanks all. @jbl: I didn't see anything like Ryan's explanation over at the faq, only some mention that you need at least 100 points to cast a downvote. Did I miss something?
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    @Todd: it's easy to miss. It's the part that reads

    ...
    50 Leave comments
    100 Vote down (costs 1 rep)
    100 Edit community wiki posts
    ...

    I didn't write the software, but I can explain why I approve of the one point cost of downvoting. People take a downvote way more personally than they take an upvote, especially if it doesn't come with some explanation. This actually makes sense. If somebody upvotes your post, they like it and/or agree with it, so there's often nothing more to say. But if somebody downvotes your post, it means that they dislike it or think that something is wrong. In that case, it's reasonable to want to know why somebody disagrees or what is wrong, so that you can address the point or fix the error. So it makes sense to build in something to deter people from downvoting willy-nilly. If you overcome the small energy barrier of losing one point in order to cast the downvote, hopefully you'll also be committed enough to it to leave a comment.

    This also explains why it shouldn't cost anything to downvote community wiki posts. CW posts are typically opinion-oriented. If you vote such a post down, it's likely not because there's an error the author can fix, but because the post is an answer to a poll-like question and downvoting the post is one way you can participate in the poll.

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    Thanks, Anton, for your clear explanations. I did see the part where it says "costs 1 rep" -- what I I meant is that I didn't see any rationale given.

    > If you overcome the small energy barrier of losing one point in order to cast the downvote, hopefully you'll also be committed enough to it to leave a comment.

    Hopefully indeed!
  9.  
    When you cause suffering to others - even when your actions are completely justified - you should feel a little of their pain yourself.

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