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When I think about it, downvoting seems like a counter-intuitive feature for Area 51--if people don't like a proposal, what gives them the ethos to counteract the interest of another person? Stack Overflow is made of many communities, and ideas that are just budding might be nipped in the bud because a small number of people don't like it.

Is it okay for one person's dislike in an interest to be a case for countering a like that shows the interest of another?

I do realize that the subscribing feature is what really causes a site to progress to the next level, but... does downvoting make sense? What is the context of downvoting on Area 51 when people from hypothetically opposite communities collide? Is it okay for opinions to cancel out if Area 51's nature is to not provide services to any one community, and instead, give various ideas a chance?

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    How are you downvoting proposals?
    – Undo
    Jul 14, 2015 at 20:15
  • @Undo Plus, it seems like proposals can easily shift the nature of their idea or revise them. Is the downvote still fair if the nature of the proposal changes through edits, and it still remains? Your downvote on a proposal may not keep its meaning as the proposal evolves.
    – CinchBlue
    Jul 14, 2015 at 20:16
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    You still haven't explained to me how you're downvoting proposals.
    – Undo
    Jul 14, 2015 at 20:17
  • @Undo But I'm not really downvoting. I'm just asking about a possible logical fallacy. It's me who's at fault here, though.
    – CinchBlue
    Jul 14, 2015 at 20:29

1 Answer 1

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You're misunderstanding one thing: people can't downvote proposals. They can, however, downvote discussions. And discussions are generally used to talk about the site: the scope, whether it will work, how to publicize, etc...

Therefore, downvoting discussions is important, because someone could make a discussion that is completely wrong, or that nobody, even followers like, such as changing the scope, therefore show their opinion by downvoting and answering. Some can be highly topical, and could change the course of the proposal, therefore people who are likely to engage in the final site, should have a say; downvoting allows this.

Some discussions are unclear, not researched about at all, so they are downvoted, just like normal questions on the SE network are.

To better understand this, go to Area 51 Discussions to see what type of discussions are downvoted.

Also, Area51 has reputation, just like normal Stack Exchange sites, so downvoting (and upvoting) also allows rep changes.

Also, as Anna Lear said, people can downvote example questions, but they're exactly like normal Stack Exchange sites' questions - they are upvoted/downvoted as if they would be real questions on the site being proposed. They are downvoted if they aren't fit for the proposed site.

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    People can downvote example questions on proposals.
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    Jul 14, 2015 at 20:25
  • @AnnaLear whoops.... you're right :/ editing it in now!
    – ᔕᖺᘎᕊ
    Jul 14, 2015 at 20:25
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    Note that example questions can also be closed, which would be the right thing to do for questions that are just out of scope of the proposed site. (As a non-native speaker, I'm not completely sure about the meaning of being fit for the proposed site.)
    – chirlu
    Jul 14, 2015 at 21:17
  • @chirlu it just means 'won't be on topic/in the scope for the site'
    – ᔕᖺᘎᕊ
    Jul 14, 2015 at 21:17
  • In another note, there's a limited number of votes one can cast on example questions of a proposal, and there's also the 150 rep requirement for being able to downvote, so I wouldn't expect to see this abuse there.
    – M.A.R.
    Jul 14, 2015 at 21:30

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