1

I noted a fact on Stack Overflow badges.

● Nice Answer  × 39355
● Nice Question × 7601

(5.2:1 rate)

● Good Answer  × 6433
● Good Question × 1199

(5.3:1 rate)

● Great Answer  × 712
● Great Question × 105

(6.8:1 rate)

All in all, since the badges are awarded for the same amount of accumulated votes in each category, it appears that people tend to vote more for the answers than the questions...

Just a thought...

Improve this question
4
  • This question has been discussed quite a bit on meta before...
    – Pollyanna
    Commented Dec 3, 2009 at 15:18
  • meta.stackexchange.com/questions/9508/… seems to be the definitive tome on the subject.
    – Pollyanna
    Commented Dec 3, 2009 at 15:19
  • yap, duplicate..
    – Stefano Borini
    Commented Dec 3, 2009 at 15:21
  • 1
    Did you take into account the number of questions vs. the number of answers? Questions likely average three or four answers, so that could explain some of the disparity.
    – mmyers Mod
    Commented Dec 3, 2009 at 15:26

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
5

A question is neither wrong or right. It's a question.

Answers, however, can be rated on a number of scales relating to the question - right/wrong, appropriate/inappropriate, elegant/inelegant, etc.

So the answers are naturally going to get more votes than the questions.

Further, there's no real benefit to upvoting the question - it doesn't place it any higher or lower in any normal listing (until it hits hundreds of votes), it doesn't push it back on the front page, etc. It's the equivalent of saying, "Me too!" to the question, but nothing more.

Answers change significantly in ordering (for most users) based on voting.

Improve this answer
1
  • 2
    You are seriously underrating questions. Also, me disagrees about it's nothing other than 'me too'. Sometimes people will vote simply because the question is clear or useful or is humorous or interesting or is well-written...
    – tshepang
    Commented Feb 24, 2011 at 20:32

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .