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Is there a way to see who voted on your posts?

I have a query. Why doesn't SO show who has voted up or voted down a particular comment or question or answer? Wouldn't it be easier if you knew? You could ask the person the reason for voting down the question. Because I have noticed, even if a question has 100 up votes, it will have some users who have tried t down vote it. If their identities are revealed, they could be asked why they chose to down vote something which has so many up votes, or they could be even asked by the person whose question was downvoted, as to why did he downvote it? This could increase transparency

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  • 19
    Two words: Revenge downvoting.
    – Dennis
    Commented Jul 9, 2012 at 17:12
  • 5
    Yes, it would be quite useful to know who up voted a question, there are so many questions out there that make no sense being up voted.
    – yannis
    Commented Jul 9, 2012 at 17:14
  • 1
    @Dennis, ya you do have a point. But, again, there are some times when I feel a question has been downvoted just for the sake of it.
    – Rohit Shinde
    Commented Jul 9, 2012 at 17:15
  • @YannisRizos, that is also there
    – Rohit Shinde
    Commented Jul 9, 2012 at 17:15
  • 10
    It wouldn't increase voting transparency, because it would create a chilling effect on voting at all in the first place. It would make the votes unreliable, and undermine the whole system.
    – SevenSidedDie
    Commented Jul 9, 2012 at 17:16
  • 2
    What you should always keep in mind is that individual votes don't matter much (if at all). Why do you care why a single person (or two or three) up / down voted your question? You should only care about what the community at large thinks, people may vote for whatever reason, but what matters is what most people think of your question.
    – yannis
    Commented Jul 9, 2012 at 17:17
  • For example, I would like to know who downvoted this question, so I can ask them why did they do so? I mean, this is a genuine query.
    – Rohit Shinde
    Commented Jul 9, 2012 at 17:17
  • 1
    Voting is different on Meta. A downvote just means "I disagree!".
    – Dennis
    Commented Jul 9, 2012 at 17:18
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    @Rohit: see, that's an excellent example of why it isn't needed - four people have already stepped up to explain why this is a bad idea; whether any or all of them also voted is irrelevant: you already have plenty of reasons for why someone might down-vote.
    – Shog9
    Commented Jul 9, 2012 at 17:19
  • It was @TimStone with the burnination dragon in the mail room.
    – animuson StaffMod
    Commented Jul 9, 2012 at 17:23
  • Okay, I get it. I will keep this in mind
    – Rohit Shinde
    Commented Jul 9, 2012 at 17:24
  • @RohitShinde please read these previous questions: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/135/… and meta.stackexchange.com/questions/35393/…
    – Aaron Bertrand Staff
    Commented Jul 9, 2012 at 17:24
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    You could ask the person the reason for voting down the question. Or you could set their house on fire. While I agree that it would be nice to know the reason behind a down-vote, even if you knew who it was they have no obligation to answer you. It would likely cause more ill-will than anything.
    – Aaron Bertrand Staff
    Commented Jul 9, 2012 at 17:36
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    I would like to know who downvoted this question, so I can ask them why did they do so? Just what I need, downvote a bad question and get followed around by someone demanding an explanation.
    – JimmyPena
    Commented Jul 9, 2012 at 21:19
  • A lot of Internet boards only allow upvoting but users can post comments about what they think needs improvement. That way, negative criticism is helpful rather than just giving keyboard commandos a sense of power by hiding behind Internet anonymity.
    – OtagoHarbour
    Commented Aug 4, 2018 at 19:34

1 Answer 1

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Not possible.

If you see person upvoting your post then you will upvote their post.

If you see person downvoting your post then you will downvote their post.

And voting on posts should be democratic, without knowing person who have done it. And mainly based on quality of content.

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  • Don't you mean there should not be transparency in voting? Your argument is for no one to see who votes, which I agree with.
    – Michael Falciglia
    Commented Dec 26, 2013 at 5:03
  • @MichaelFalciglia: I clearly mentioned in the answer!!! What did you not get from my answer?
    – Somnath Muluk
    Commented Dec 27, 2013 at 6:52
  • your answer was good, I even voted tried to vote it up, but I dont have enough points :(, I just thought the last line "There should be transparency in voting" goes against what you said. If there was transparency then we would know who was voting up and down.
    – Michael Falciglia
    Commented Dec 27, 2013 at 7:13
  • Yes... "There should be transparency in voting" might be confusing. I mean by "transparency" that voting should be democratic. No one should know who voted for whom. Removing last sentence to clear idea.
    – Somnath Muluk
    Commented Dec 27, 2013 at 7:44
  • It was Christmas and I was having a few drinks with the family before I came online...lol. I think the word anonymity would fit it well.
    – Michael Falciglia
    Commented Dec 27, 2013 at 7:48
  • I agree with your answer but stackoverflow should ask for the reason because few people down vote without any reason just to gain more REPUTATION.
    – Mohan Singh
    Commented Dec 12, 2018 at 10:28

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