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I've seen many SE users (even high-reputation and experienced users) upvoting to counter a previous downvote. This mean many up-votes are being cast based on the fact that someone else dislikes the question.

This leads to a biased voting system. I understand this encourages new users to continue using SE. But votes based on another's vote is not constructive at all.

Analogy (TL;DR): You work for the local jury. A defendant is brought into court for some legitimate crime they committed. But you dislike the prosecutor, so you vote to release the defendant.

Is this proper use of upvoting?

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  • Hm... Another duplicate from me. I can't even delete the post though.
    – unbindall
    Commented Dec 29, 2014 at 16:13
  • 2
    You can't delete because there is an answer with upvotes blocking you from doing so
    – random
    Commented Dec 29, 2014 at 16:15
  • So - with my understanding of SE - I would have to flag this for a moderator to delete?
    – unbindall
    Commented Dec 29, 2014 at 16:16
  • Yes, but they probably won't despite the answer posted on your question being a copy of the one from the master question
    – random
    Commented Dec 29, 2014 at 16:16
  • For what reason? According to some other questions, it is recommended to delete duplicates.
    – unbindall
    Commented Dec 29, 2014 at 16:18
  • When the answers are the same, some mods will merge and delete duplicate answers. Others will let you continue getting downvotes. But deleting duplicate questions, they're usually left around to point to the master
    – random
    Commented Dec 29, 2014 at 16:19

1 Answer 1

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You should be voting on the post, not whether or not it has received upvotes or downvotes.

Upvoting a post to counteract a downvote would not be the proper way of voting. Your votes should be cast based on the quality/helpfulness of the content not based on how others are voting.

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