If I encounter a partial/incomplete answer (not partially wrong), should I downvote it?
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4That's up to you. Definitely leave a comment and explain what you think is wrong so that the author can correct/improve his/her answer.– FelixCommented Jan 11, 2012 at 9:21
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@Felix any predefined rules here,because I do not want to demotivate a person's 50% correct efforts.rather I would leave a comment.what do u say– Balaswamy vaddemanCommented Jan 11, 2012 at 9:26
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1No, there are no rules, the tooltip only gives a hint by saying "this answer is not useful". Do you think the answer is not useful? For example, I hardly downvote but leave a comment instead. I downvote after some time if the author did not correct his/her answer (based on mine or other peoples comments) or if the answer was completely wrong.– FelixCommented Jan 11, 2012 at 9:30
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I would suggest - that if the person acknowledged that his/her answer is a partial one, then no downvote is needed. However if the person answering has totally disregarded part of the OP's question then a downvote is in order. In both cases, comments cant hurt :)– LixCommented Jan 11, 2012 at 9:31
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@Felix I feel there should be rule. anyways tx.– Balaswamy vaddemanCommented Jan 11, 2012 at 9:34
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OTOH, if someone's foolish enough to ask multiple questions in the same “Question”, please downvote the asker (leaving a comment as to why).– Donal FellowsCommented Jan 11, 2012 at 9:40
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1Partial answer != Partially incorrect answer. Which one do you mean?– PekkaCommented Jan 11, 2012 at 10:16
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@Pekka I mean partial answer not partial incorrect answer– Balaswamy vaddemanCommented Jan 11, 2012 at 10:31
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related: Placeholder Answers: Will update with answer soon!– gnatCommented Dec 12, 2017 at 14:52
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3 Answers
if I read an answer which is 50% right or around 50% right,should I downvote that answer?
I don't, depends I guess. Personally I'd leave a comment mentioning the wrong part & if the post is edited to correct the mistake I'd add in the +1.
Of course, you have have the liberty to edit out & correct it on your own, if you're so confident.
answered Jan 11, 2012 at 9:38
I mean partial answer not partial incorrect answer
In general, partial answers are fine if what they already contain is truly helpful. It's absolutely not fair to downvote a contribution that may help the OP at least some of the way. Sometimes, answers are also intentionally incomplete if the OP is asking a "plz send teh codez" or a "fix my wall of code" type question.
Only if the partial answer was given in bad faith (i.e. it is incomplete and doesn't help the OP at all;maybe it was just too lazy to address the hard part) downvoting might be appropriate IMO.
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+1 Sometimes an (intentionally) incomplete answer helps asker 100% though, simply because the answerer understood the question more than the author him/herself.– NGLNCommented Jan 11, 2012 at 10:51
It's up to you.
Consider this image:
Image credits to Shog9 ♦
If you think the partial answer is fine, leave it as-is or vote it up. Otherwise if you don't think it's enough or even partially wrong, you can vote it down.
answered Dec 12, 2017 at 13:32
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