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A statement by an SE user:

On meta-, down-votes don't necessarily mean that it is a bad question. Down-votes (on meta) can also signify that you don't agree with the premise.

Well, imagine a feature request question is seen by 100 persons; and unfortunately 60 of them don't want that feature; think all 60 respond to the question with casting down-votes. So unfair!

They don't think that's a bad question just as LRE told. But sure they push the asker to be banned from asking! The SE system doesn't differentiate a down-vote because of low quality from a down-vote because of personal disagreement. It deals with all of them the same.

Perhaps my example is exaggerated; but that's not impossible.

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  • 6
    one feature request isn't going to get you banned from asking questions. If you're submitting enough feature requests that are poorly received such that you get question banned from a meta... you may want to re-evaluate what you are doing. (is it even possible to get q-banned on meta? i assume it just has a harder to reach barrier)
    – Kevin B
    Commented Apr 2, 2021 at 18:02
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    I advise you take a look at How do I participate in Meta and not die trying?, specifically the Heavily consider not requesting a new feature if you're new section. It's unlikely that feature requests new users file will be met with a lot of positive feedback due to new users not fully understanding the site yet.
    – Spevacus Mod
    Commented Apr 2, 2021 at 18:09
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    @cigien That's inaccurate. There's no question ban on MSO, but there are question bans on at least some other Meta sites. There are answer bans on MSO.
    – Makyen
    Commented Apr 2, 2021 at 18:12
  • @Makyen Oh, that's very interesting, I just assumed that it would be consistent across all per-site metas, as well as questions and answers. Thanks for the info, I'll delete my comment since it's incorrect.
    – cigien
    Commented Apr 2, 2021 at 18:15
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    On meta sites, the automatic ban system is recalibrated to take into account that downvotes are used for disagreement (see also). From what I've seen on this site, bans are pretty rarely imposed.
    – Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog
    Commented Apr 2, 2021 at 18:32
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    @Makyen I did a bit of research, and couldn't find any explanation of why there would be this inconsistency, so I went ahead and posted a question.
    – cigien
    Commented Apr 2, 2021 at 19:09
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    "So unfair!" - How else are those 60 users suppose to indicate the feature suggestion is a bad idea? There are some really bad feature suggestions, like requiring commentary to downvote, that would probably be implemented without those downvotes. "Perhaps my example is exaggerated; but that's not impossible." - It's exaggerated to a point where it might as well be impossible. Your one bad feature suggestion won't lead to you question ban by the way.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Apr 2, 2021 at 19:35

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Well, imagine a feature request question is seen by 100 persons; and unfortunately 60 of them don't want that feature; think all 60 respond to the question with casting down-votes. So unfair!

Why is that unfair exactly? In the same reasoning it is also unfair that a popular feature request gets 300 upvotes. All of sudden these user can start to close vote other bad feature request because they posted a good one. Also unfair!

But sure they push the asker to be banned from asking!

Correct! Isn't that what we want? You post one badly researched, non-beneficial, self-centered, ridiculous feature request after the other and we need to spend time on those each and every time without you learning a single bit of the previous failure? Why on earth does the community need to asses your poor proposals over and over again? Why would the system not put an hold on your doomed attempts? Saves your and our time.

Perhaps my example is exaggerated; but that's not impossible

It is exaggerated. If you get quality banned on Meta you should get a badge. It is an astonishing achievement. Let's run some numbers for this meta site.

There are all time 34316 feature request. Of those 21844 had at least one downvote. 12210 had more downvotes then upvotes. 39 questions had more then 55 downvotes. That is a small percentage of feature requests where the downvotes might have impacted the OP, if they had no other positive contributions.

TL;DR The system isn't perfect but it is already reconfigured to cater for the different use of votes on Meta for feature requests. Statistics show the impact of quality bans on posters is low and there where the algorithm kicks in, it is probably warranted. I give you those impacted might disagree with this but for the broader community I don't see an issue that needs fixing.

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