What to do about downvotes because people don't like the question?

Question

I asked this Q at SO and it's being upvoted and downvoted. It's about validating if the Windows version is genuine or not, which I want to do to prevent people from using my software on pirated Windows version. And with good reasons, since people who pirate Windows are likely to pirate my own products.

Now, I can understand that people disagree with me, but I don't understand why they downvote this Q simply because I want to use this check in my code. No one is forcing them to use Windows, nor will anyone force them to use my software. Several answers are nothing more than noise, basically telling me to bugger off and ignoring the fact that all I want is to stop piracy.

But for some reason, several members think it's better to use pirated software instead of using an alternative, free product. This is bad in my opinion since pirated software tends to include some unwanted extra's like spyware and botnet-plugs. It also harms the market for Free products since people will just continue to use the pirated products instead of supporting the free alternatives.

Anyway, I understand that people disagree with me asking this question and thus hinting others about how to do the same. I can understand that some members really hate the Windows Genuine Validation. But would this be a reason to just downvote a question, hoping it disappears?

Answer 1

You should be pleased. The question's gained you 58 rep so far. It's a perfect example of a reputation generator; a controversial question or answer that causes emotional, polarised voting, both on your question, and on the responses.

In any event, there's nothing you can 'do' about it. It's not really surprising you got reactions like this after writing up a detailed opinion in your question. If you were only interested in the answer, you could have phrased the question much more concisely and theoretically, e.g.

• "Is it possible to tell whether the underlying operating system has a valid licence?"
• "Is it possible for a userspace program to access the Windows piracy validation API?"

But that wouldn't have gotten nearly as much traffic or rep...

Answer 2

Try not to take the actions of anonymous (or not) people on the internet too seriously. It's so easy to be critical; it takes no effort really, and much harder to actually engage in a legitimate discussion with the poster.

I wouldn't let it get to you. You got your answer; I support your right to ask the question, and the question is solved.

The fact is that, in life, people may take offense at what you do; just ignore them and do what you think is best. If it comes down to actually affecting the results of your SO question, then maybe it's worth some more thought, but given that it was all solved, I'd just ignore the haters and move on.

-- Edit

Though I will add, to some degree, people who comment and downvote, may be worth engaging, just to see if they have some useful opinions. It is likely that the people are quite passionate about what they are saying, and may (or may not) have good reasons for it. Can't hurt to try and find out what they are, and judge for yourself their appropriateness to your case.

Answer 3

I wouldn't downvote it because I disagree with it; I'd downvote it because of the excessive amount of opinion in the question. Asking a technical question is one thing, and I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt without motive. Asking for opinions is iffier, and I'd want that to be CW. Giving opinions on potentially controversial subjects in a question is, I think, outside the scope of SO.

Answer 4

You didn't just ask a technical question. If you had, it might have generated some controversy, but I doubt it would have garnered anywhere near the amount of attention and subsequent discussion that it did.

No, the technical part of your question was brief and to the point, and pretty much fit entirely within the title. The rest of your question - six paragraphs worth after the last edit - appeared to seek out opinions as to whether you should be doing what you wanted to do.

And you got 'em, in spades!

As for the down-votes: ask an opinionated question, and you'll get folks expressing their opinions via the voting buttons. If you don't like it, stick to asking straight technical questions and leave the discussion to another site.

Answer 5

I reckon an individual question should not contribute more than X percent of a user's points. That is, if a person just happens to post a question that is controversial, they shouldn't suddenly get a huge boost in rep.

Likewise with down-voting: you shouldn't lose more than X number of points off a down-voted question.