12

Undownvote

It seems like maybe cancelled downvote might be less...weird?

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  • 1
    "Reverted downvote" should be the right term. Probably not enough space for it though. – Oded Mar 2 '12 at 14:56
  • Your right... it should be called "Removal of the downvote" for the sake of clarification :) – Gabriel Mar 2 '12 at 15:23
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    For some reason, even though I click upvote on this 1K+ times, only one vote registers... sigh – casperOne Mar 2 '12 at 15:24
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    Sure, for those who've read 1984 ;-) – Arjan Mar 2 '12 at 15:27
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    Me unupvoted? That's unpossible – Ben Brocka Mar 2 '12 at 17:10
  • @casperOne I hope you realize you just unupvoted .5k+ times – Ben Brocka Mar 2 '12 at 17:15
  • no one can not imagine anything that would not be not as bad as undownvote – gnat Mar 2 '12 at 17:30
  • Who is allowed to undownvote, only the original downvoter or anyone? Thankns. – octopusgrabbus Jul 25 '12 at 13:11
  • I was just about to post a similar question on unupvote when I found this. I'm all for your suggestion. – toniedzwiedz Aug 21 '12 at 16:59
15

It's not really wrong, but I agree it's a bit weird.

It's even longer so it may not be practical, but I opt for

downvote removed
upvote removed

or 

dv removed
uv removed

or as suggested by MDMarra 

↓ removed
↑ removed

or as suggested by slhck, even more in keeping with SO's general design

▼ removed
▲ removed

?

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  • 4
    I like it. Or even ↓ removed – MDMarra Mar 2 '12 at 14:58
  • @MDMarra hey, that's cool! – Pekka Mar 2 '12 at 14:59
  • Feel free to edit it into your answer. You inspired the idea with the dv abbreviation. – MDMarra Mar 2 '12 at 15:01
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    "reverted" does not imply the same thing as "removed". A person can actively remove their vote, or a vote can passively be reverted by the system. – slhck Mar 2 '12 at 15:15
  • @slhck true ---- – Pekka Mar 2 '12 at 15:16
  • @slhck Can you please explain the difference? It seems like the two terms can be used interchangeably in either circumstance. – MDMarra Mar 2 '12 at 15:18
  • @MDMarra a downvote can be reverted by another user's upvote, while removing it definitely means the original downvote – Pekka Mar 2 '12 at 15:19
  • @MDMarra I take removing as something you actively do as a user. For example, you downvote a post, it is improved, then you "remove" your downvote. In contrast, when talking about fraud votes, I mostly hear about "reverting" them, which isn't something you do, but the system does for you – as if they never existed. – slhck Mar 2 '12 at 15:20
  • @Pekka'sReputationBordello I wouldn't consider someone else upvoting a question to have reverted a different user's vote. Both votes are still present. – MDMarra Mar 2 '12 at 15:20
  • @slhck Personally, I don't see a distinction between the two. The system removed fraudulent votes. They were present at one point in time, and then they weren't. – MDMarra Mar 2 '12 at 15:22
  • @MDMarra You also have a point, but I've never heard someone say they reverted their own votes. Maybe this is getting too specific ;) – slhck Mar 2 '12 at 15:23
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    I still prefer "undownvote" over any of the short versions above. – Arjan Mar 2 '12 at 15:30
  • @MDMarra and all, actually, the system thinks it reverses vote fraud. – Arjan Mar 2 '12 at 15:32
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    "ex-downvote", eh? – ale Mar 2 '12 at 15:33
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    @MDMarra They consist of the text "up vote"/"down vote" styled with css to show arrows instead. The same method should be applied to this text, if icons are chosen, instead of just displaying a unicode character. – CodesInChaos Mar 2 '12 at 18:45
15

How about downvote to keep it both simple and within the space limits?

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  • 4
    Even geniuser! +1. And show a "this downvote was removed by the user" tooltip – Pekka Mar 2 '12 at 17:07
  • Yeah, I like this a lot. – MDMarra Mar 2 '12 at 18:25
6

I'm not a fan of the word "cast", so I recommend the following for when you vote up or down on a question:

  • Vote up
  • Vote down

If you want to replace that with iconography, that works too, but the above is pretty simple (even simpler than upvote/downvote, IMO) and should be understood by anyone looking at it.

However, I don't see the reason to use "removed", since the common terminology when it comes to votes is rescind.

So I'd like to just see "rescind". I don't need to see "upvote/downvote".

IMO, "upvote"/"downvote" is an over-specialization of the voting action. You simply cast a vote up or down, and conversely the action you perform is "rescind", the direction doesn't matter since its reflected in the rep.

You can even take it one step further and say that you can just have "Voted" when a user casts a vote, and let the rep reflect the direction the vote was cast.

If you want to be really consistent you can simply have:

  • Vote cast
  • Vote rescinded

Which ultimately, I like the best, as it reduces four states down to two while being consistent.

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  • 4
    IMO rescind is a bit too fancy for a site with an international audience. I for one barely know it, and there surely are quite a few users with weaker English than me. – CodesInChaos Mar 2 '12 at 17:03
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    @CodeInChaos Perhaps, but remember, English is the language of the Internet at least from SO's point of view. I guess the question is, what is the minimum amount of English that we require? – casperOne Mar 2 '12 at 17:05
  • I have to agree that rescind is a bit of an overkill bordering on legalese.. (and in before the weaker-than-me vs weaker-than-I brigade) – prusswan Mar 2 '12 at 17:19
  • Agree with 100% of this answer, except the part where you say you don't like "cast". Pray tell, why not? – Cody Gray Mar 3 '12 at 4:31
4

Compare:

cancelled downvote
undownvote

Granted, "undownvote" isn't a real word, but expanding it fully would amount to making the vote-type column much wider than it needs to be. "undownvote" keeps it still roughly in the same realm as when there are just normal votes.

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  • 3
    I like MDMarra's idea: ↓ removed – Pekka Mar 2 '12 at 14:59
  • What about @Pekka's suggestion, or the use of the unicode down arrow? All of the currently supported browsers should be able to render it, right? – MDMarra Mar 2 '12 at 15:00
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    @MDMarra The arrow is never used anywhere else. If at all, it should be this: ▼ – slhck Mar 2 '12 at 15:16
  • I can get behind that. – MDMarra Mar 2 '12 at 15:16
4

How about "withdrawn"? It sounds more of an active verb to me. Or would that be ambiguous as well?

downvote withdrawn
upvote withdrawn

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  • 3
    I like the word, but Grace made it clear that it's too long. Perhaps ▼ withdrawn? – MDMarra Mar 2 '12 at 16:35
  • That looks good. – BoltClock's a Unicorn Mar 2 '12 at 16:37
0

The word undownvote implies that unupvote exists too.

I presume that is to differentiate it from reversal, which is what the system or devs do if you have serial voting occur. But the question: Why are my downvotes being undownvoted? says that the system uses that word too.

Perhaps "reversed" would be appropriate if the system or a moderator reversed the decision and "reversal" ( or 180°, if eyesight/accessability is a concern) if the person changed their mind after five minutes. Made up words are probably challenging for some whom English is not their first language and they might feel excluded, not understanding the concept.

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  • 1
    Yes, there also is post_unupvoted see the reputation_history_type field – rene Jul 13 '18 at 19:00

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