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Feature requests: Self Downvoting

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    For good reasons you cannot upvote your own answers, but why not allow self downvoting?

    I have made some not very well thought out answers that attracted upvotes. When I do so, I could delete the answer, but there can be reasons not to, and I would like to be able to downvote it.
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    As has been mentioned on meta about a gazillion times before, we don't control the software. And so long as that is the case, I see little point in discussing odd corner cases like this one.

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    If the software does not allow the feature, this suggestion can just be filed by the moderator with other suggestions that cannot be implemented at this time.
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    Filed where? I don't think it's a silly idea to organize the various feature requests that have been made on meta over the last year. If alpha ever gets going it would be nice to have a well organized and prioritized wishlist. But right now, such doesn't exist.

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    Perhaps there should be a new category added to meta, something like "proposed software changes", so that each thread could be its own idea for a single change, and then the thread would allow a discussion of the change, benefits and problems it might cause, etc.
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    I think there are good reasons (from the point of view of gaming) not to allow self-downvotes. See, for example, http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/20084/generating-reputation-through-downvotes. As the owner of the post, if you can edit it to make it better, or (if you don't know how to make it better) edit it to indicate that the post is incomplete in some important way. I don't understand why this is not a satisfactory option.

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    @Ryan: The Feature Requests category serves that purpose, doesn't it? It's true that it doesn't distinguish between features implemented in the software and features implemented in the html/css/javascript, but that's a good thing. Often times, people imagine that access to the software is necessary when it isn't (e.g. the "cite" button is purely javascript).

    • CommentAuthorgeraldedgar
    • CommentTimeFeb 16th 2011 edited
     

    ** I would like to be able to downvote it.**
    In the mean time, what you can do is add to the answer a comment about why it is bad. Even wrong answers, properly notated to say they are wrong, can be usefully left on the site available for reading. Actually, I think such an added note is more useful than an anonymous downvote anyway.

    • CommentAuthorMariano
    • CommentTimeFeb 16th 2011
     

    @Anton, the analysis you linked to, while maybe correct, leaves me wondering: who cares?! In the example discussed there, «The point is, an answer that was worth 10-20 reputation actually generated me 44 - almost as much as the top answer.» Whohoooo, 24 extra MO points!!!! What's the next step to someone who does that? World domination? :)

    @Bill, adding a comment to your answer explainign why it seems unsatisfactory to you would be tons of times more useful for the reader than an anonymous downvote. If that is not enough, I can vote you down every time you ask me to: just point me to the answer you want to downvote and voilà :)

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    @Mariano: Ah, but therein lies the difficulty. If you elaborate on why your answer is insufficient, that just makes the answer all the more valuable, thereby gaining more upvotes! Quite the Catch-22 -- there seems to be no way to diminish the endless stream of positive feedback. Sigh.

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    Who will be the first to write a paper on the game theoretic aspects of voting on MO?

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