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When I downvote a question (that doesn't happen often) it is usually because it was really bad. Most of the times, the users get the hint and improve, even within the time window I can undo the downvote (and so I do when possible) . However, there are some users, with >2k rep, gold badges etc, that still ask really bad questions in a series, and get downvoted again and again, to no avail. I'm not talking about the discussion regarding how many downvotes for a specific question is needed in order to get the message. But of a user that has maybe 20 questions that got downvoted and\or closed, most of them in a series, and doesn't care about improving nor about the small reputation loss. It got to the point that I started to disregard that user questions altogether.

Is there a better way to handle this? Can an increasing rep loss toll as function of consecutive questions the got downvoted work? (that's probably too complicated to implement anyway) Do you have a better idea how to handle these users?

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    Do your part and downvote bad posts then let the system handle them. AFAIK, an account ban is universal, regardless of rep. If they ask enough overly poor questions, they'll 'get the message' permanently.
    – SomeShinyObject
    Commented May 31, 2013 at 6:19
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    If you see users consistently asking really awful questions feel free to flag them and we might take "help vampire" action. Try to be as descriptive as possible in the flag message and generally don't worry about flagging new accounts unless it looks like they're escaping.
    – Flexo - Save the data dump Mod
    Commented May 31, 2013 at 6:31
  • " But of a user that has maybe 20 questions that got downvoted and\or closed, most of them in a series, and doesn't care about improving nor about the small reputation loss." Normally, users with enough downvotes on questions will be question banned. If, as you said, this account as a lot of downvoted questions in a row and still keeps going, it might be interesting to tell the devs about that account, they might (not sure) want to tweak the algorithm to get those edge cases, too.
    – Time Traveling Bobby
    Commented May 31, 2013 at 6:49
  • @M.NightDemonbobby I'm not 100% sure, but I think natan is also talking about relatively high-reputation users who ask 'bad' questions. Once you get to a certain point, it's extremely difficult to get an 'automatic' question ban. Some old accounts, for example, have large numbers of high-voted questions from the past. (and in many cases, those questions would be seen quite differently today). Those cases are where moderators can intervene 'manually'.
    – Andrew Barber Mod
    Commented May 31, 2013 at 12:26

2 Answers 2

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When I downvote a question (that doesn't happen often)...

Why not? It's not a bad thing to downvote. Especially if they are bad questions or answers.

Is there a better way to handle this?

For us, no. Continue to do what you are doing.

  • Downvote
  • Flag for moderation
  • Comment

Do you have a better idea how to handle these users?

Being general public, there is not a better way to handle it, other than the aforementioned list, the tools we are provided. However, eventually one day those series of bad questions and answers will catch up to the user, if they choose to continue to violate the FAQ and community standards. Vigilance is key, as is consistency.

Continue to do what you do. It may feel small, but as my father always said:

Be faithful in the little tasks, and you will be rewarded with more responsibility

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    Don't forget voting to close. And maybe reduce emphasis on the flagging option, or being clear it's meant for repeated situations, only.
    – Andrew Barber Mod
    Commented May 31, 2013 at 16:00
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I think that the system was built with this kind of situations in mind, therefore it is capable of handling them. If the bad questions from a specific user are frequent and he is an obvious exception to the norm then you should flag it for moderator attention describing the problem as in detail as possible.

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