At some moment I asked this question:   It's still near and dear to my heart and based on reasonable amount of upvotes, there are people who think along the same lines with me.  However, this question only got two answers which were both downvoted.  What should I do with questions like that? Should I try to bump them (by editing them) or should I let me go (taking into account that they won't super highly up voted).  BTW. I understand that there will be  here. As soon as I mentioned that post, there will be some influx of comments, answers. However, I want to understand broader picture here - what people do with such type of questions/suggestions.
421
I asked a question almost as soon as I got my account. I got a few decent answers, but none of them helped solve my problem. The question has long since become buried by newer questions, and there's still no accepted answer. Unfortunately, because there are quite a few answers with votes, to a casual observer it probably looks like the question was answered and I just neglected to mark an answer as accepted, and the system does not consider it "unanswered".  Or, I asked a question that was a bit more difficult to answer. After waiting for some time, I received no answers, little or no comments, and only a few views. The question does show up in the "unanswered" list, but no one has answered my question.  In either case, what's the protocol for me to try to get this question answered?  I see several options:   Post the question a second time, possibly linking to the original, to get attention for the original question. This is encouraged on sites like Reddit.  However, it's probably not appropriate here, since we're encouraged to check for duplicates and not submit a question that's already been asked by someone else, so this probably falls under that heading. Wait for some kind of wiki-like talk page to be implemented, then post a plea on the talk page for input and hope that activity on the talk page bumps up the question. Edit the question, but do nothing further on the Stack Exchange site. If I edit my post to say that I haven't accepted any of the current answers but am looking for more, then the question might get answered eventually by people browsing through old questions to find something they can answer. Post the question on other sites, but link to my original question on Stack Exchange. People will either answer here, or they'll answer on the other site and I can post the accepted answer here myself.  This might be considered spamming, so it might be better to do this without the link.      For more information, see the "" page in the .
44313
I cannot upvote my own stuff (questions or answers). Why is it that I can mark my own question as a favorite?  Isnt that like upvoting it?  Wouldn't common sense dictate that, as it is my question, it is one of my favorites; i.e., something that I am interested in?
116943
I've noticed a sizable number of questions here where the petitioner asks something like   "I'm trying to flange my dichromatic howitzer, but I can't defibrillate the metacarpus.  Any suggestions?"   ... and the first answer (and the one that attracts a lot of upvotes) is one that says    "That's a really bad idea.  It's not designed for that.  Buy a new one."   Sometimes this is sensible advice, and I've read a number of great answers that went on to explain why it was such a bad idea and offering alternatives.  But at least as frequently, the person posting the answer will decide the petitioner doesn't know what they're asking, and that there's no possible use case that justifies the original question, so they say it's a terrible idea.  Often this will kill an otherwise reasonable question, because it's the first answer in and attracts a number of drive-by voters.  It bothers me when the people posting the answers assume those who ask the question haven't considered the alternatives; if there's a better alternative that answers the question, that would be one thing, but that's different than just saying "Don't do that."  How can you keep discussion focused on the question, rather than the assumptions behind it?
6150
I'm happy to see the "first posts" facet arriving on the Beta Review system.  I like that it encourages reviewers to make a decisive move on a question or answer, but frankly, I think there should be a No vote, but okay option in addition to the I'm done and Not sure ones.  I think that there are some posts that are perfectly acceptable, but that show no demonstrable lack of effort or lack of clarity that might warrant a downvote.  I am a firm advocate for voting good quality posts up, I just think that forcing an option of voting or making the reviewer throw their work back into the pool untouched (assuming no edits or flags, etc. are needed) may be detrimental in the long term.
101450
There are numerous posts on meta about editing questions with    Thank you. Thanks in advance Thank you, Sean Please help me!! im such a noob sorry for takin ur time   and many of them seem to conflict each other.  In my opinion, these edits are not too minor, even if that is the only thing wrong with the post. We shouldn't have a conditional policy "If there's nothing else worth editing, it's better to leave it alone" because then it sets an example to new users that it is OK to add such lines to their posts, and propagates confusion about what edits to allow and reject. I do agree if the post needs help in other areas, then simply removing "thanks" is too minor.  There seems to be a lot of confusion about whether these edits are acceptable, because I am continually rejected when making such edits. Of course, I edit the rest of the post if it needs it, but if the post is otherwise acceptable in its current form, then that is the only edit I make.  There needs to be some concrete and clear answer as to when these edits are acceptable.   See also:   My conflicting and confused experiences:           Note also: There are even scripts implemented to get rid of this garbage, but they are not perfect, and editors should be able to finish the job.
9859
What should I do when I see a question that is a duplicate of another one?   Should I answer it? Should I downvote it? Should I comment? Should I edit the question to indicate it's a duplicate? If I can, should I (vote to) close the question? What happens when I vote to close as duplicate? Or: Why did a comment with my name on it just appear? Should I flag it for moderator attention? What about similar or related questions?
83888
This is a question which started off with a , then turned into an , and now it's a question in its own right (as suggested by Jeff). I'm not sure where it could go from here :)  It's obvious that different people cast downvotes for different reasons. (Upvotes are less controversial, generally.) Here are some possible reasons:   Answer is wrong Answer is misleading (may be technically accurate, but will lead to readers making mistakes) Answer doesn't match the question (e.g. a C# answer to a question about Java) Answer doesn't really address the question, e.g. suggesting a completely different solution, even if the question specifies that there are good reasons why the current approach has to be followed Answer is okay, but not as good as another one which currently has fewer votes Answer appears to be plagiarised from existing answers. Answer is by someone I don't like. Answer is abusive (profanity, spam etc). No reason, I just felt like it. I'm a , and prefer down to up. Have you considered down? Ideological grounds: answer suggests a technology I don't like, or expresses a negative opinion of a technology I do like   Personally I go with 1, 2 and 8 - although I'll add comments suggesting changes in various other situations.  Have I missed anything? What do you do, and why? What are the net benefits (to you, the world in general, and the answerer) from your approach?
55514
I'm out of close votes again today. But I still have 100 flags. How do the mods feel about me flagging questions for closure, even though I would be able to VtC myself, if I weren't already out of votes?  Related: How do the mods feel about me flagging a question for closure (a super obvious code-dump, for example), even if I have CVs remaining, in an attempt to preserve my close votes for less clear cut close decisions?
24978
This one leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth, but I defer to others as to whether it is appropriate or not. In , I wrote an answer to a question based on my experiences; it was upvoted and accepted, woo.  Now, today, in response to a different &#8212; but related &#8212; , someone has pasted my answer nearly verbatim (awkward English intact, I may add) as an answer.  Is that really okay? Is it a behavior that should be encouraged? Discouraged?
111096
This has always been a bit of a puzzle to me.  I generally upvote every question I answer:   if it seems a good enough question to take time answering, it seems a good enough question to upvote I want to encouraging people to ask more questions about topics I'm interested in, especially since I work on some of the less-common areas here. Pragmatically, if I upvote a question, it seems more people may have the chance to read my wonderful answer.
29012
I just asked my first question on stackoverflow and I'm really impressed that my question seems to be answered sufficiently already! See:    The issue I have is that the last two answers combined would provide the most complete answer. What's the proper way to go about combining them, marking the question answered, and giving credit where credit is due?  Thanks big time guys for saving us all from experts exchange hell!  Edit: Wow, 5 responses in 5 minutes. I think what makes the most sense is that I create my own answer out of the two. I don't think the second part of my question was answered though.  What is the proper way to give credit to the 2 answers that I'm combining? Is an upvote for each sufficient?
119159
Consider the following scenario please:   I see a question and think I have a good answer or comment. I post my answer or comment and move on happily. After couple of hours I see comments that my answer is bad because this and that and it's really bad - I didn't think enough before posting.   The question is: should I delete my post, or leave it be so that people won't repeat my own mistake?
10246
Today I have stumbled across a question that was closed . When reading this question , I thought it was valid, and I even might have an answer for it . So I went and read  and  along with some other related questions here on meta . The issue is that because :  I do NOT have 3000 points to vote for opening,  The said question is not my own ,  The person who closed it did not leave a comment, It seems that I have no option to reopen it and answer.   What one should do in that case ? Flag it for moderator ?  I would think this is not the appropriate action here . Contact the closer personally  ? - Same as Above (and also , how ?) Leaving a simple comment ? By reading the above mentioned questions - leaving a simple comment will do nothing by itself to reopen or to catch attention (unless someone else stumbles upon it ..) So what are my options for action ?? (the question is  for reference)
36601
I got  question in review. First sentence is:     I know there is a  question, but no answers.   And indeed the two questions are virtually identical. I started to flag as duplicate - but the original question had no answer at the time, so it wouldn't be correct and apparently . (I didn't go so far as to try to submit the flag).  What is the proper action here? How do we want such a question to be handled? Should both (or more) questions stay open indefinitely until either is answered and somebody gets the good idea to do the duplicate linking?   As the new question is essentially a bump to the front page (perhaps with re-tagging), especially in the case where the OP knows that a previous question exist, perhaps something should be done to enable bumping re-emphasizing without writing the new question.  As I wrote this,  actually got an answer. So the old one should now be closed as a duplicate of the new - but my question remains for the case where all known/found duplicate questions have no answer?  Ironically, just before asking this, the "Questions that may already have your answer" gave me ... (Although the suggestion has no answer). So it has been asked before - the comment there even suggest the ability to re-emphasize.
101675
To what extent I am free with my voting?  And - especially - with downvoting.   I came into argument with another user on the reasons for the voting. So, I decided to ask.  Beside usual awful no-research-effort questions and quick-and-wrong answers, I am often voted down for the answers you would call correct ones:   When I think there shouldn't be answer at all (helping the OP to shoot himself in the foot or feeding a help vampire)  To negate an over-upvoting craze for the silly answer on even more silly question.   So, the question is - what you think on these reasons?   And - bonus question - is there any difference in the policies for the voting up and down?
20682
Problem: A lot of the time I downvote something that clearly shows lack of research or effort on OP's part, and when they edit to improve it, I usually find out pretty late, because there are no notifications to help with that.  Proposition: add a Get notified when this post is edited button/checkbox under a post which you have downvoted (per post, not just all posts ever), so that if there is a significant improvement, you could remove your downvote or even change it to an upvote to show you recognize the improvement.  I believe this would improve public thinking about votes, and make people (who choose to participate like this on the SE sites more often) vote more freely and more often, and everybody else would not think of a &lt;0 post score as a death sentence for their contribution.  I'm not asking to enable this on SO (for a number of obvious reasons), and that's why I propose an opt-in subscription. This would be most useful on lower activity sites like the SE, in my opinion, but who knows.    I want to know if someone has improved their post after a downvote to reinforce the positive behavior and I get -4 on my good intentions? What kind of culture are you trying to cultivate? Please, explain why you disagree without silently downvoting. If you think there's a better way, yes, I want to know your thoughts.
69568
I recently responded to  that appeared to post an extension to their answer in a comment, (what I thought was) kindly letting them know that comments may not last forever.  However, it ended up in this kerfuffle:    After posting the reply comment, I felt that it wasn't the best course of action to have taken, but to take it back also seemed inappropriate.  What should I have done, and does my original comment seem appropriate in the given situation?