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Possible Duplicates:
Undo a up/down vote after a comment is left

Problem:

I've found multiple times that people downvote, and give reasons why they do so, but that they are actually wrong. The answerer clarifies the matter but the downvoter isn't able to undo his downvote anymore, because the answer wasn't edited in between.

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  • 6
    -1: Not clear what you are looking for
    – epochwolf
    Commented Nov 20, 2009 at 17:55
  • Example: stackoverflow.com/questions/1771117/…
    – Johannes Schaub - litb
    Commented Nov 20, 2009 at 18:04
  • Not sure this is the right solution, but +1 for the addressing the issue (and to counter the pointless down-votes).
    – Noldorin
    Commented Nov 20, 2009 at 18:46
  • I find this to be way too much complexity to add to the system.
    – R. Martinho Fernandes
    Commented Nov 20, 2009 at 18:48
  • @Martinho, agreed. I also wonder about other solution, though. Any ideas? Do you think it's worth figuring out a solution?
    – Johannes Schaub - litb
    Commented Nov 20, 2009 at 18:56
  • 4
    @litb: Just count a comment on a question/answer by the person who posted it as equivalent to an edit for the purposes of vote retraction.
    – womble
    Commented Nov 20, 2009 at 19:18
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    I semi-agree with this idea, but it seems too rare to add this complexity. I think the problem is just the locking mechanism, which seems to save and hinder people. It seems unnecessarily complex, and I'd argue it causes more problems then it helps.
    – GManNickG
    Commented Nov 20, 2009 at 20:33
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    You've misread the question, ChrisF. It's 1) User gets down voted, down voter comments why. 2) User explains why the down voter was incorrect 3) Down voter realizes silly mistake and tries to remove vote but alas!
    – GManNickG
    Commented Nov 20, 2009 at 21:08
  • OK - sorry. Link to dupe removed (can't remove vote to close though).
    – ChrisF Mod
    Commented Nov 20, 2009 at 21:33
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    Exact Duplicate: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/19940/…
    – Pollyanna
    Commented Nov 21, 2009 at 14:11
  • @Adam, agreed, voting to close
    – Johannes Schaub - litb
    Commented Nov 21, 2009 at 15:47

3 Answers 3

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As I proposed in another question, a better idea would be to allow user to retract his downvote if he leaves a comment to the answer. No additional functionality needed.

If a comment is left, then the user is concerned enough to see whether his reasons to downvote are right or wrong. This is enough to allow him to retract the downvote.

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Seeing how my initial proposed solution doesn't justify the complexity added, i would propose a simplier mechanism: A button for the answerer that enables downvoters to retract their downvotes again.

This would not allow retracting upvotes, to prevent tactical upvotes just "out of sympathy", and would avoid that the answerer would be pushed towards the community wiki edit-limit by having useless edits that doesn't change content.

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1

This would actually reward tactical downvoting, not reduce it. If you want your point back, just edit your answer.

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    Can you please show why it would reward tactical downvoting? Without an explicit comment made by the answerer, the vote can't be taken back.
    – Johannes Schaub - litb
    Commented Nov 20, 2009 at 18:50
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    We saw an example right now; @Noldorin just gave you a sympathy upvote which counteracts -5 downvotes. Asking bad questions is good!
    – Dour High Arch
    Commented Nov 20, 2009 at 18:58
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    If you can make an "explicit comment" you can edit your answer. SO already supports retracting votes, your suggestion is unneeded.
    – Dour High Arch
    Commented Nov 20, 2009 at 19:00
  • @Dour, the point is to discourage useless edits to the answer. In my example link, a simple edit that just adds whitespace just to allow retracting downvote isn't any good, in my opinion (and another answer in that thread is also affected). The upvote of @noldorin was for addressing the issue (and i don't really understand the downvotes either), not to have "symphaty" with me. No "tactic" involved here, i think. In any case, my proposal wouldn't change anything with regard to @noldorin's behavior and it wouldn't allow retracting upvotes.
    – Johannes Schaub - litb
    Commented Nov 20, 2009 at 19:20
  • (also notice how a useless edit pushes me towards the community-wiki barrier of edit-counts).
    – Johannes Schaub - litb
    Commented Nov 20, 2009 at 19:21
  • Well, it's either accept the 2 points in the downvote, or get one edit closer to the wiki barrier. I still don't see a problem as you can edit it many times before it's forced to community wiki.
    – Pollyanna
    Commented Nov 21, 2009 at 14:05

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