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On the User page it lists Questions, Answers, Votes, Tags and Badges for the currently selected user.

Every time I look at the Votes section I briefly panic, thinking that I have been downvoted, before I realize it is a record of the votes cast BY me, not ABOUT me.

I think the Votes section should give a separate summary for votes given, AND votes received, e.g. 

Votes  
  Votes cast             Votes received
  50 up  6 down          20 up  0 down

Update: I am making two suggestions:

1) Clarify that the existing stat means votes cast, not votes received.

2) Maybe add a new stat to show a summary of the up and down votes received (as Shog9 points out, the per answer votes are already shown on the "reputation" page).

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  • Slightly related point: the FAQ says that when you get to 1000 rep you get "Show total up and down vote counts" for all questions, which is quite interesting as you can tell how controversial a question is. Original feature request for that: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/747/…
    – Dan J
    Commented Dec 4, 2009 at 22:18

4 Answers 4

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Being voted upon is an intensely personal experience, something that many asberger type geeks don't seem to get. grin It hurts to get downvoted.

I like your suggestion, specifically the label change, and think it deserves some serious consideration by the devs. Simplicity and clarity are king when it comes to UI design. If it's unclear to you and causes a negative emotional reaction, then it should probably be changed (since it likely affects others the same way).

And no, I don't think your question is either boring or irrelevant. So keep asking.

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Let's ignore your boring suggestion and instead focus on what really matters: your insane reaction to the possibility that you have been downvoted. If all it takes to panic you is the possibility that you have been downvoted, then you ought to reconsider participating on StackOverflow. Sometimes you're wrong, sometimes others don't agree with you, sometimes you just get downvoted because someone else is stupid, or a jerk, or a stupid jerk, or even all three.

Yes, that's right, there are some stupid, jerkish, stupid jerks on the SO sites. You may not have realized that such a thing could exist, in which case I suspect you must be new to the internet. I could even provide specific examples of such people, but then they'd just downvote me, because they are stupid, jerkish, stupid jerks. You know what? Just to demonstrate that you should not be afraid of a few downvotes, I will go ahead and out one of these people: Pesto. Man, I hate that guy.

Anyway, downvotes are not the end of the world. Hell, in regards to reputation, they hardly even matter. I have a useful suggestion for you and those of your ilk: don't worry about downvotes. Only when a post has been downvoted far more than it has been upvoted should you even bother to wonder what, if anything, you've done wrong.

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  • 3
    Thanks for the patronizing and useless answer. My mild sense of panic is because I'm afraid I've said something wrong or stupid myself. I would be grateful for a downvote that pointed out a mistake I've made. I also think a fear of downvotes is healthy, and is one of the big reasons that makes Stackoverflow so much better than similar question/answer sites.
    – Dan J
    Commented Dec 4, 2009 at 17:19
  • I am a way bigger stupid stupid jerk jerk than you, Pesto Pesto.
    – Welbog
    Commented Dec 4, 2009 at 17:39
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    Gentleman, gentleman, settle down. I'm sure we can resolve this amicably by merely joining together and declaring me to be the biggest, stupidest, jerkiest jerk ever to grace this site.
    – Pollyanna
    Commented Dec 4, 2009 at 18:29
  • Mmm... jerky...
    – mmyers
    Commented Dec 4, 2009 at 18:51
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    @Adam: I take that taco. And where the hell has Rich B been hiding?
    – John Rudy
    Commented Dec 4, 2009 at 19:24
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    @Dan: and yet, his snarky answer caused you to clarify the question tot the point that I no longer feel its a stupid question. I still don't agree with it, but its no longer a stupid question.
    – AnonJr
    Commented Dec 4, 2009 at 19:44
  • @AnonJr: I would have clarified it for lots of other reasons - the rudeness is unnecessary. The question is a sensible feature request, and it deserved a polite answer!
    – Dan J
    Commented Dec 4, 2009 at 20:15
  • Related: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/21080/…
    – Troggy
    Commented Dec 4, 2009 at 21:26
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    @Dan J: Polite answer? What are you talking about? This is META!
    – Ladybug Killer
    Commented Dec 4, 2009 at 22:10
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Folks aren't voting on you. They're voting on what you write. And that information is displayed on the "reputation" tab... (also alluded to in the scores displayed next to your questions and answers, but these are not split out into up- and down-votes on your stats page)

The "stats" tab displays information about you and what you've done. The questions you've asked, the answers you've provided, the tags you've been active in, the badges you've collected, and yes, the votes you've handed out.

Including information on the votes you've been given wouldn't really fit with this. Indeed, it might give some folks the wrong impression...

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    If Stackoverflow deliberately don't want to show the votes given summary information, then I'd humbly suggest it be changed from "Votes" to "Votes cast" to clarify it. Given that the Answers section immediately above shows the net up/downvote score for each answer, IMO it's easy to confuse what "Votes" means. I think it would be useful to have a summary of the votes received as that does tell you a lot about the person. I'd always assumed that as far as Stackoverflow is concerned, I am what I write...
    – Dan J
    Commented Dec 4, 2009 at 17:57
  • In a perfect world, people are only voting based on content.
    – OMG Ponies
    Commented Dec 4, 2009 at 18:34
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Yes, more stats on the user profile would be handy. It's been discussed before, but I won't link to the posts because some of them are mine and I keep getting downvoted relentlessly every time I bring it up, as if I'm trying to censure users or something. Even if it's private (visible only to to yourself on your own profile page), it would be nice to see data like the number of up- and down-votes I've received, and the mean and median score of my questions and answers.

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