Yes, I understand that some of you are thinking, "Suck it up, whiner."

Yeah, something like that. I'm looking over your rep history over the last 3 months, and I see only 2 or maybe 3 downvotes (and one was rather understandable). I would hardly call this abuse.

Just like in real life, some people are pleasant or helpful, some are not. Some people are jerks and steal your newspaper or back into your car and don't tell you. Maybe the guy who downvoted you just didn't like your hair or your name. These things are unavoidable.

What you do have control over is your response when something like that happens. You can get upset about it and complain, make accusations or insults, or start a pity-party on meta. None of this is going to do anyone any good, and it can make you look bad (comments like this one for instance). This is hopefully not how you would act in a professional setting. In fact, getting visibly upset about downvotes is often what causes people to do so without commenting, or causes them to cast their own.

As someone who rarely gets downvotes on SO (queue ironic downvotes), I can relate to your shock and horror - but take it in stride. It's not a huge deal to get an occasional downvote, and this topic has been bludgeoned to death already.

Yes, I understand that some of you are thinking, "Suck it up, whiner."

Yeah, something like that. I'm looking over your rep history over the last 3 months, and I see only 2 or maybe 3 downvotes (and one was rather understandable). I would hardly call this abuse.

Just like in real life, some people are pleasant or helpful, some are not. Some people are jerks and steal your newspaper or back into your car and don't tell you. Maybe the guy who downvoted you just didn't like your hair or your name. These things are unavoidable.

What you do have control over is your response when something like that happens. You can get upset about it and complain, make accusations or insults, or start a pity-party on meta. None of this is going to do anyone any good, and it can make you look bad (comments like this one for instance). This is hopefully not how you would act in a professional setting. In fact, getting visibly upset about downvotes is often what causes people to do so without commenting, or causes them to cast their own.

As someone who rarely gets downvotes on SO (queue ironic downvotes), I can relate to your shock and horror - but take it in stride. It's not a huge deal to get an occasional downvote, and this topic has been bludgeoned to death already.