Sometimes my post receives downvotes with no explanation on what I've done wrong. Even worse, sometimes I just get snarky comments!
It seems like this is especially bad for new users, who are made to feel unwelcome by veteran users. Stack Exchange's rules can be difficult to grasp, especially for newbies, and downvotes can feel hostile and discouraging.
Several ideas have been proposed for how to fix this, including:
- Every downvote should be accompanied by a mandatory comment
- Downvotes should be accompanied by a mandatory, anonymous comment
- Downvotes should be accompanied by a reason selected from a drop-down menu
- The first downvote should be accompanied by a mandatory comment
- Downvotes should cost reputation points unless accompanied by a comment
- …and other variations.
However, whenever someone suggests one of these changes on Meta, it gets unceremoniously rejected and (ironically) downvoted without a detailed explanation!
Why are all of these ideas rejected?
Is it because people here are curmudgeonly trolls who just hate people and don't want new users to feel welcome?
This question was originally from this Meta Stack Overflow question. While there are many posts related to this issue which get closed as duplicates of Encouraging people to explain downvotes, that question doesn't adequately explain to new users why this is always turned down. The purpose of this question is to be the network-wide community-approved FAQ to be used as a duplicate target for questions asking for mandatory feedback on downvotes.