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Is it selfish or frowned upon not to upvote another answer (even if its right) so yours will rise to the top faster?

I find myself wanting to un-upvote posts so my answer will do better... But I have been able to push back the evil thus far.

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    If you goal is to collect internet points rather than to help people, you may be on the wrong site. – asawyer Jul 23 '13 at 17:24
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    All I can say is: Sportsmanship – animuson♦ Jul 23 '13 at 17:25
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    Or if your answer is correct too then you could upvote theirs out of politeness and hope they do the same for you. – TronicZomB Jul 23 '13 at 17:25
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    Your answer will do better if it's better. If you want more votes, improve your answer. Other "tricks" are pretty pointless. – Bart Jul 23 '13 at 17:31
  • It also costs you reputation points to downvote answers. You probably won't come out ahead. – ale Jul 23 '13 at 17:33
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    See also: What should be done to people who downvote strategically? – ale Jul 23 '13 at 17:34
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    Even more, to avoid temporary downvotes (retracted later, to hide the trace, or to get the lost reputation back), in 2009 the following nasty but required limitation was implemented: "To help deal with the "tactical downvoting" problem, we have radically reduced the window for undoing votes. There is now only the very briefest of windows where you can undo a vote. (edit: this was increased to 5 minutes) After that, the vote is permanently "locked in", until the post is edited." – Arjan Jul 23 '13 at 17:43
  • Thanks guys. It's not like I've ever actually done it, I just wanted to ask to make sure there was a consensus – James Hurley Jul 23 '13 at 18:04
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    Totally as an aside, it's sometimes nice to just see how the community works. For any question, you can use /posts/xx/timeline to see on which day votes were cast. Like I feel that my late answer to some question is better than the first answer. In the timeline you'll see that often only the accepted, highest voted answer is upvoted. But sometimes both answers, or only my answer gets a vote. I don't care about reputation, but I find it amazing how things work. – Arjan Jul 23 '13 at 19:00
  • Related: Is the "down-voting most/all answers that aren't yours" pattern considered harmful? and The answer to tactical downvoting problem? – Cody Gray Jul 24 '13 at 4:31
  • In general, go with your intuition. It's usually right about such matters. The voting system is designed to get the best, most useful answers to the top, and the least helpful and/or incorrect answers to the bottom. Using it any other way is sketchy. – Cody Gray Jul 24 '13 at 4:33
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No-one is telling you how to vote, your votes are your own.

However, if you do upvote competing answers, there is a nice shiny silver badge to be earned: Sportsmanship.

Up voted 100 answers on questions where an answer of yours has a positive score.

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    You stole my badge link! blows whistle Unsportsmanlike conduct! 50 rep penalty! Automatic badge revocation! – animuson♦ Jul 23 '13 at 17:28
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    @animuson: Had you posted your comment as an answer, I could have upvoted it! Here on Meta I haven't gotten that shiny badge yet! – Martijn Pieters Jul 23 '13 at 17:30
  • @animuson: As for the link, I nicked it from the badges page fair and square. :-P – Martijn Pieters Jul 23 '13 at 17:31
  • Ah, the witty banter of programmers. I love this place. – James Hurley Jul 23 '13 at 18:05
  • Why isn't there an unsportsmanlike badge: 100 downvotes on questions where you have an answer. – Joe Jul 23 '13 at 18:07
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    Because badges are there to promote positive behaviour. – Martijn Pieters Jul 23 '13 at 18:10
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I tend to revisit questions I answered when I notice a new upvote. After I revisit the question, I upvote the other (correct) answers. So (if other users act the same way) upvoting a "competing" answer leads to more upvotes on your answer. Having said that, for me, the gaming factor in Stack Overflow is not to have the highest scoring answer in each question, but to earn the maximum upvotes overall.

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    Or the most badges; Sportsmanship badge, here I come! :-p – Martijn Pieters Jul 23 '13 at 17:49

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