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In SO, I have seen many comments and answers which have down vote(s) without any comment.

Even I also faced same problem in one of my answer. At that time I need to ask like this:

@downvoter: Can you please tell me which thing I have done wrong? So I can fix it in my answer.

I want to know why SO not making comment compulsory after any down vote or any flag raising time?.

At least Questioner OR Answerer deserve to know why they have down vote?

In Review Processing, moderators should post their comment first before raising any flag to question or answer.

EDITED below portion after answer of Oded

My primary concern is If comment will be compulsory without name of the person at down vote time then questioner or answerer can improve their post. Isn't it? At least they deserve to know why they have down vote.

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  • 11
    This must be the 542789432748032th time someone has asked this question :/
    – DavidPostill
    Feb 17, 2016 at 10:50
  • 4
    from the down vote tooltip: This question does not show any research effort; it is unclear or not useful
    – rene
    Feb 17, 2016 at 10:56
  • @rene :Yes I know it. But what about improvement of post?
    – Ravi Hirani
    Feb 17, 2016 at 10:59
  • 3
    some users might click the up vote button after the edit because: This question shows research effort; it is useful and clear,
    – rene
    Feb 17, 2016 at 11:03
  • I am satisfied with answers given in this thread:- meta.stackexchange.com/questions/17367/…
    – Ravi Hirani
    Feb 17, 2016 at 11:14
  • Thank to all of you for putting your comments before or after downvote ;)
    – Ravi Hirani
    Feb 17, 2016 at 11:15
  • 1
    Force members to leave comments when they upvote
    – gnat
    Feb 17, 2016 at 12:58
  • @gnat: Thanks for your link :)
    – Ravi Hirani
    Feb 17, 2016 at 13:00
  • @David infinity is not a number.
    – M.A.R.
    Feb 17, 2016 at 13:35

1 Answer 1

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Downvotes are the first and best indicator (both to the community and the OP) that something is not OK with the post.

Requiring comments means that we will get a lot less of those - simply because of adding that barrier (the difference between one click and click, type a bunch of things and another click).

Additionally, requiring comments can easily end up with nonsense comments (people bashing on the keyboard just to get through the requirement).

Another issue is that if they are required, it is clear who is the first downvoter, opening them up to revenge voting - votes are supposed to be anonymous here, after all. And this is another reason that people will not vote as much.

Ask yourself - why are you not asking for a compulsory comment for upvotes?

tl;dr

The cost to the community/sites in doing so is seen as too high for the possible benefit it would bring.

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  • Thanks for your answer I am completely agree with you. But my primary concern is If comment will be compulsory without name of the person at down vote time then questioner or answerer can improve their post. Isn't it? At least they deserve to know why they have down vote :)
    – Ravi Hirani
    Feb 17, 2016 at 10:38
  • 2
    There is a reason why the downvote button has a tooltip...
    – Oded
    Feb 17, 2016 at 10:56

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