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When I log into StackOverflower proper, this is what I see:

enter image description here

I am inclined to think that perhaps the Vote-count is unnecessary information on the front page

I.E how about we make it look like so:

enter image description here

The reason is that the vote-score is premature information to the viewer at the moment he/she is at the front page. I never even read the question, but I'm being told it's bad or good. Why can't I read it first and see?

Furthermore, there is another factor at play. And it is the view-count + the answer count.

If we notice, the high-quality questions attract more-views and more answers. That is shown above - 108 views for a +17 question and 93 for a +12 views question. Thus, we can infer some qualitative information already( I have hunch that 93 views is likely good ).

I realize that old questions get bumped up, and that's where the 24-hour number comes in. So, we will still see view count on the famous "RegEx match open tags except XHTML self-contained tags"

This way, another benefit may be that fresh questions are easily distinguished from classic ones that got edited.

The method of "hiding" votes can simply be to show no symbol at all.

EDIT: This proposal is only for the "Interesting" tab on StackOverflow-proper

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    On SO's "interesting" tab on the front page, it might not actually be a bad idea (as that's what guests see when they first come onto the site). Anywhere else I don't think it'd be suitable. – Qantas 94 Heavy Oct 19 '13 at 1:37
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    I'm referring to when you go directly to the home page. – Qantas 94 Heavy Oct 19 '13 at 1:42
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Personally I think the vote count is rather useful. I would rather be able to see the opinion of those that viewed the question before me. As in if the question has only been viewed a handful of times and has already accumulated several upvotes, its a fair assumption that the question is fairly interesting or at least legible and worth a look. On the other hand if a question has only been viewed a few times and has accumulated several downvotes its a fair assumption that its not a very good question and (unless I'm in a close vote sort of mood) I'll likely skip it and look for something better.

I never even read the question, but I'm being told it's bad or good. Why can't I read it first and see?

If you would rather use a "benefit of the doubt" approach... go for it.

SO receives thousands of new questions a day, part of the point of having the vote system is to help users sort through them all. Don't fix it if it isn't broken.

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  • @Uphill Luge Thanks for the correction – apaul Oct 20 '13 at 5:04

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