My sentiments pretty much echo [Ward's](http://meta.serverfault.com/a/6685/152073), but this was too long for a comment. If you request honest feedback, the community has a good track record of being receptive to that. However, there is a fine difference between requesting feedback and *complaining* about it. Typically, StackExchange communities with many low quality questions are painted as being "unfriendly" when not providing downvote feedback, but part of the reason why people don't is that it's a two way street: question askers tend to be *very unfriendly* when criticism is leveled on them. It only takes a few rounds of providing unrequested feedback and having someone blast you in response before you stop bothering, and I'm pretty sure I speak for many of us in this regard. In summary: * It's not our job to provide this feedback to begin with. The downvotes themselves are feedback. (see [Ward's answer](http://meta.serverfault.com/a/6685/152073)) * Less people appreciate receiving this feedback than you think. Those who do and express such tend to be overshadowed by the people who respond with zealous personal attacks. * As a general rule, expect the same effort and patience that you put into things. * The more effort you put into a question, the more likely it is that someone is going to explain to you why they're downvoting or vote-closing, even if they usually aren't inclined comment. [I did this just a moment ago.](http://serverfault.com/questions/645928/apex-aname-alias-record-in-windows-server-2012-r2-dns-manager#comment781116_645928) * If you're honestly confused and ask for help in a non-defensive fashion, someone will provide it. Basically, it's hard to provide personalized treatment when 1) so many people are ignoring the site guidelines, and 2) people who do get unsolicited feedback tend to not appreciate it anyway.