Negative vote & comments

Question

I noticed that it became common to see newcomer posts with negative votes, and no comments to explain it.

Sometimes i even wonder why some good questions get downvoted without reason.

Is there a way to add something like :

• first downvote for a newcomer post requier a comment.

• Adding for a new user post an automatic feedback on a downvote pointing to the help to explain which mistake has been made in the post (maybe a with a popin message option, to be even more accurate)

thanks for reading.

Some example:

• How to prevent gitlab autostart on boot
• https://serverfault.com/questions/738572/combine-multiple-sshfs-to-form-one-large-file-system
• Ubuntu + Postfix: Mail Log Missing

Goal

• Get the user informed on what he did wrong
• Make the user auto correct his post easily
• Prevent attacks against the first commentator about the down vote
• Prevent ghost post (post who will never be changed or checked back by the new user)

Another Approach:

It seems like the main trouble is on the reading of the forums rules.

So what about:

• If the time between the rules are displayed and user validation is lower than 15 sec, pop a message to warn the user about it ? (and restart the cool down to prevent click right after the warn)

Answer 1

Voting is anonymous and should stay that way. Requiring a comment would prevent this, so this an extremely undesirable feature in my view.

Answer 2

I never see anyone complaining when they receive an up-vote without an explicit explanation...

As Iain is fond of saying: "No one who needs to, reads anything least of all documentation."
Many first time posters skip actually reading the the site introduction and the how to ask pages and that is unlikely to change. In that light a mandatory/automatic explanation for a down vote will be mostly useless.

At best we remediate that for users who care, which is why I make use of the StackApps AutoReviewComments extension and insert the following comment whenever I see an user actively questioning the reason for a down vote:

By philosophy and design votes are anonymous and neither voting up nor voting down requires any mandatory explanation. The tooltip that appears when your mouse pointer hoovers over the down button states: "this question does not show any research effort; it is unclear or not useful". Also questions can attract a down vote when not well written, not quite on-topic or missing details.

That minority might improve their current question or will ask better questions in the future.

Answer 3

The point value of a downvote is negligible compared to the rep increases you'll get through normal use of the site. There's been commentary throughout the life of the Exchange on how to get rid of downvotes, but they're an important part of how the site works, as a method of easy communication.

Also, the point system exists to incentivize usage that aligns with the rules. When someone breaks the rules, a downvote alerts them to this and hopefully motivates them to improve their behavior. If the site required comments with downvotes, as you've suggested, the burden is being transferred from the new user (to read the rules) onto the experienced users (to explain the rules). You can see how, over time, this would bombard the experienced people with needlessly explaining themselves instead of spending their time answering questions.