Voting up questions
2 answers
there are very few users that actually vote, unfortunately. I am not sure why either. I think it would be a great help if users would use this more often.
I have seen voting down questions picking up lately, which I find discouraging and think should be avoided. Even if there are users that don't spend reasonable thought on their questions and put too few data in them, I think a comment with a suggestion to provide the data and context needed would be appropriate.
I can't tell how much traffic we have day by day, but there are a lot notable questions out there. If they have been read these many times, the topic should be interesting and I would expect users to vote these up at least. It seems far less than one of ten readers actually vote.
Many might also not be aware that voting up articles places them into your "My Stuff". Unfortunately there is nothing that makes marking great answers and questions favorites makes them also easier to find in My stuff.
Comments
The main reason I don't vote is that I wasn't aware of it, and what happens when I do.
1 vote
When you vote, the person that asked, commented or answered gets a bump in the reputation. The question also gets a better like value if you vote it up. This makes it more prominent.
Number of likes is also key to some badges - again increasing reputation.
For people looking at questions and answers, this provides also guidance on relevance and quality.
Where under "My stuff" do the questions appear that I have voted with "Like"?
As i said, it works for Articles, but unfortunately there is no selection to see the ones you voted up. You can't see the vote there, you can't sort on liked etc, unfortunately. This would be a nice enhancement. Feel free to enter it here: https://jazz.net/jazz02/web/projects/Community%20Feedback#action=com.ibm.team.workitem.viewWelcome
So I personally do not expect people do vote questions up or down (except maybe using "vote down" as a way of quickly marking a question as spam).
Comments
I have seen very interesting questions with content that was valid for many users - and the answers. I have voted them up as well, I think. But to some extent you are right, Often the answers are voted up. It would however be good if we could get votes on questions that are relevant to a lot of people - and have some benefit in things like search and maybe My Stuff, if we can come up with good requirements.
1 vote