Possible Duplicate:
The bike shed problem and SO
Sometimes I come across trivial questions that get up-voted for no particular reason. (Not to imply that I am an authority on what a good reason for voting a question up might be.) This makes me uneasy and my question is two-fold:
Is it alright to down-vote a question simply because I think it gets too much attention? Is the attitude of "trivial questions should not get any attention" appropriate for SO?
There may be members of the committee who might fail to distinguish between asbestos and galvanized iron, but every man there knows about coffee – what it is, how it should be made, where it should be bought – and whether indeed it should be bought at all. This item on the agenda will occupy the members for an hour and a quarter, and they will end by asking the Secretary to procure further information, leaving the matter to be decided at the next meeting.
From Parkinson's Law, and Other Studies in Administration, by C. Northcote Parkinson.
Parkinson's Law of Triviality (the bikeshedding effect) argues that trivial questions are naturally more popular: A lot more people can understand them, and, perhaps more importantly, a lot more people can answer them.
Although each and every one of us will have a slightly different definition of what trivial means, if you honestly feel that the question does not show any research effort, feel free to downvote it. But downvoting it because you feel it received more attention than it should have sounds a bit... vindictive.
No, don't downvote a question because it gets too much attention. (Whatever "too much attention" means anyway) Downvote it because it's bad or in any way not a good question.
There may be many reasons for attention and subsequent upvotes. Some might find it easy but interesting. It might be seemingly simple, but deceptively so. Perhaps it was shared on some social media platform and a lot of visitors drop by indirectly. There can be any number of reasons. If anything, if the question is trivial to you, add an answer.
The level of attention a question receives however should have no effect on your voting behavior. Evaluate it on its own merits as a question.
Note: This all assumes the question asked is a fair one and does not fall under any of the typical poorly researched, off-topic, duplicate, not a real question, or other scenarios.
Is it alright to down-vote a question simply I think it gets too much attention?No.Is the attitude of "trivial questions should not get any attention" appropriate for SO?No. Some sounds-like trivial questions requires not so trivial answer to adequately explain it.