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When a Meta question is tagged as , allow downvotes to continue, but stop it from affecting the reputation of the user who posted.

Some related questions on the matter include:

Interminable downvoting on poorly received requests and discussions hit new users hard and that's a problem.

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  • 12
    But why only downvotes. If a post gets a status-completed or status-pending, should upvotes no longer count?
    – psubsee2003
    Nov 29, 2013 at 20:05
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    I think you may be conflating the the purpose of voting compared to the [status-declined] tag. The first reflects the community's feelings; the second, the official position of Stack Exchange. Why should one limit the other?
    – Andrew Barber
    Nov 29, 2013 at 20:06
  • Good catch... i did not realized that. @psubsee2003
    – Paulo Roberto Rosa
    Nov 29, 2013 at 20:06
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    @psubsee2003 That should be status-planned or status-review not status-pending ;)
    – Walker
    Nov 29, 2013 at 20:08
  • @AndrewBarber only because some new users cant start growing here because some bad questions, they keep getting decreased rep for a long long while. And to have some "recognition" here you need to have some reputation, as the name of it says, reputation. And i'm saying that because i did read about that here: meta.stackexchange.com/a/44189/243192
    – Paulo Roberto Rosa
    Nov 29, 2013 at 20:09
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    It's worth noting that you have two very badly recieved questions but your reputation has gone up by 50 today. This is by-design for exactly this reason; your positive contributions count more
    – Richard Tingle
    Nov 29, 2013 at 20:10
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    @PauloRoberto: why do you feel your question will receive downvotes from now until eternity? There are only so many of us here on Meta, we cannot vote more than once for a post, and you really didn't get that many downvotes? Can you please stop with the unnecessary dread here?
    – Martijn Pieters
    Nov 29, 2013 at 20:12
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    @PauloRoberto: and I already pointed out: every upvote on an answer counters five downvotes. For questions that means every two upvotes. You really are worrying over nothing here, and in the process digging yourself deeper instead.
    – Martijn Pieters
    Nov 29, 2013 at 20:13
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    @PauloRoberto: You also need to work on your English. I pointed out before you tend to come over very condescending. I fear it is you who needs to calm down a little.
    – Martijn Pieters
    Nov 29, 2013 at 20:14
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    @Tijesunimi, that might work for answers, but only moderators can make questions CW IIRC.
    – Frédéric Hamidi
    Nov 29, 2013 at 20:16
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    What @Richard says. There is no problem here, even heavily downvoted suggestions will end up in a positive rep balance if only a couple of people agree with it.
    – Pekka
    Nov 29, 2013 at 20:22
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    @Bart he's been given the link at least twice today.
    – psubsee2003
    Nov 29, 2013 at 20:22
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    Richard's point is right. You've had a pretty rough first day... my count is 52 downvotes vs 12 upvotes, but yet your rep has increased. And the voting will level out over time. Stop worrying about it. The more you try to stop it, the more you will actually cause more downvotes because you keep bringing attention to the post you want to go away. If you let the post go, it will be forgotten and disappear (mostly) into the abyss.
    – psubsee2003
    Nov 29, 2013 at 20:24
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    The irony of this question is that you have so many downvotes and you want to stop this kind of behavior
    – Domecraft
    Nov 29, 2013 at 20:35
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    Pro tip: The more you complain about downvotes, the more downvotes you'll receive.
    – yannis
    Nov 29, 2013 at 21:17

2 Answers 2

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When a question receive from the moderator the tag [status-declined] then, it automatically do not decrease the OP reputation anymore, but the downvotes continues applying.

Why?

There are some massively-upvoted posts too, you know. Presumably you don't want to stop folks from benefiting from a well-received idea that's been declined - after all, some of them have been implemented eventually, changing that status to completed.

Why should you be immune from the consequences of the community's dissatisfaction with an idea just because it's currently marked, "won't implement"?

Keep in mind, the difference between a well-regarded request and one that's heavily down-voted can be as simple as a failure on the part of the requester to explain why the requested change would be beneficial... I think we should be able to keep encouraging such requesters to improve their requests.

The reputation penalty for down-votes is not that high, but it is supposed to sting a little bit - ideally, folks try to put sufficient effort in to writing a good request, but if they don't then perhaps a little reminder isn't such a bad thing. If you can improve your request, then the rep benefit from the resulting up-votes will more than make up for it...

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  • Perhaps there should be a federal Rep Bailout program that you get reimbursed from when you get downvotes.
    – Pekka
    Nov 29, 2013 at 20:20
  • @Pekka, so we would get to be "too big to fail" too? Interesting.
    – Frédéric Hamidi
    Nov 29, 2013 at 20:23
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I think the problem with this is that this will lead to a slippery slope. If we stop downvotes from occuring when it gets a [status-declined] tag, why not just stop the post from getting upvotes for [status-completed] posts? After all, it has already been implemented so it is useless to upvote it. Furthermore, you suggested that the downvotes will still apply but no rep changes will occur. The problem with this is that then people will complain that this is unfair due to the fact that, even though they are getting downvotes, their reputation is not changing.

In paper it sounds like a good idea but in practice there are too many factors to consider.

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  • totally agreed with you, but maybe there some considerations to add to the solution and consider about apply it might be nice dont you think?
    – Paulo Roberto Rosa
    Nov 29, 2013 at 20:11

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