3

Could someone explain to me why this question is open and has 6 votes, whereas this question is closed? To me they are highly similar (subjective) questions. I have the impression that there are certain time frames where it is better to ask a question, that is when the "downvoters and closers" sleep. Once you are past a certain amount of upvotes you are more likely to get your question answered.

Regarding the downvotes. Do we really need to downvote so quickly? Take for example this question. It was downvoted quite rapidly, although it is a genuine question. I upvoted it from -1 to 0 and the next day it had +3.

It is still a small community and I am afraid that if we don't give people some room to experiment with asking questions, travel.se will become a pyramid game where the early adapters with most reputation points get to decide what is right and wrong.

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
4

Here's what I thought looking at the questions:

  • Public Transport In the USA: Defined specific, objective criteria, namely, cheapest mode of transport in a specific set of cities (and not "best mode of transport in all US cities")
  • Advantages of using a travel agent: This question is similar to a question asked by the same OP ("How can I find a good travel agent?"). Here, it's more fuzzy. Different people define 'good' or 'advantage' differently. A business traveller may be okay paying a premium as long as bookings can be confirmed right now. A backpacker might be looking for cheapest deals. So the question(s) in its current form has no right answer. Moreover, the answers will vary from region to region. Standard practices among travel agents in India are going to be different from those in France; there are travel agents in different 'verticals' - some specialise in adventure tourism, some in cruises, et al.

So there's a difference between the two. It will definitely help to have a well-defined FAQ guiding people what's off and what's on-topic, and that is exactly what the community is working towards, collectively. You're encouraged to weigh in too!

Everything happens democratically on Travel.SE. A close-vote from a user with higher reputation counts for as much as that with lower reputation. You can already see 'reopen' votes for the travel agent question, and closed questions which are edited to bring them back on-topic can be re-opened too.

Also, don't take a close-vote or a down-vote personally. :) It's just good manners to leave a comment behind in case you do, though, so that the original question asker / answerer can know how to improve the answer / question.

3

I've downvoted question about passport as I thought it was duplicate. I down vote as soon as I see the question, and I don't want to wait for something. If I was wrong - I’ll remove the downvote (as I did for this question) as soon as the post will be edited.

If you check, you can see that no more downvotes were because of it was explained in comments that this question is not duplicate. And not because of it has 0 score.

People generally vote not as "The question is good and it is under out rules" but as "The question is good". And I don't want forget about the rules, as at current moment rules are not specific. I don't want to see here broad subjective questions with community wiki answers - this is way to nowhere, there are large forums for this.

And I think that it is normal practice to vote for questions, not just read them. If I think it is made according the rules - upvote. If I think it is made with errors - I downvote and explain, what exactly for I have downvoted.

People must know rules, and get here not just interesting content, but interesting content under our rules.

And this is why I downvote(or upvote) as soon as I read the question (or answer).

Update

Also note, that on our site questions become closed not only because they have lower rate. Even 10-score questions become closed, if they were asked in wrong way.

8
  • 2
    High score is quite common in closed questions. On SO, questions about jokes, cake decorations, wedding proposals and so on attract lots of answers, and both answers and questions get upvotes from happy and entertained people. But they are closed. They are off topic. It's easy to enjoy things that are off-topic, but only by being firm about what is in scope for us, and what is out of scope, can we build a site that will work.
    – Kate Gregory
    Jul 13, 2011 at 20:09
  • 2
    Also, it's pointless to downvote duplicates. You're not going to pressure the original poster into deleting the question, and you're not helping others find the duplicate. Flag it to be closed as a duplicate, and the right links will be added and the site will become more navigable for everyone.
    – Kate Gregory
    Jul 13, 2011 at 20:10
  • @Kate Gregory Why you are saying to me about the closed questions? Did not get the point of your first comment.
    – VMAtm
    Jul 13, 2011 at 20:13
  • Because you said "on our site questions become closed not only because they have lower rate" implying that it's unusual to close a question with a high score. I'm saying that's common, and not special to this site.
    – Kate Gregory
    Jul 13, 2011 at 20:18
  • @Kate Gregory I wrote this in answer the phrase from question: Once you are past a certain amount of upvotes you are more likely to get your question answered., just to show that upvotes is not the measure of quality for question, and I know that it's common case. Didn't understand, why are you thinking I'm say this is unusual.
    – VMAtm
    Jul 13, 2011 at 20:23
  • ah, I see now, we both agree that a high score does not mean "should not be closed."
    – Kate Gregory
    Jul 13, 2011 at 20:40
  • @Kate Gregory Yes. My English is still bad, and there can be misunderstandings.
    – VMAtm
    Jul 13, 2011 at 20:41
  • Your English is far better than my [anything including languages I technically sort of speak] so no worries. I appreciate the effort.
    – Kate Gregory
    Jul 13, 2011 at 20:45

You must log in to answer this question.