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It happens that a day or two after I have written an answer, I myself see a strong need for improvement and do some editing and wonder why upvoting took place at all before the editing was done.

Thus sometimes I feel like questioners click "upvote" on my answers because they want to honor that I made an effort.

This is sweetly meant. However, this may undermine giving other readers a criterion to decide if the answer is actually good/useful. It could also affect my self-perception regarding the quality of my answers in a way that is not really constructive.

How should I handle things when I have the impression that there is a situation that could to some degree be based on this phenomenon?

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    How do you know what anyone was thinking when they voted? Maybe you should just try to avoid making assumptions.
    – Robert Longson
    May 28 at 12:51
  • Was it the only answer? If not, what was the (objective) quality of the other answers?
    – This_is_NOT_a_forum
    May 28 at 13:03
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    How do you know it's the questioner who upvoted you? I'd just enjoy the upvote and move on. Or try to write better answers from the beginning, so feel you deserved the votes. :)
    – HolyBlackCat
    May 28 at 13:36
  • @HolyBlackCat > How do you know it's the questioner who upvoted you? Good question. The other regulars who know better wouldn't. ;-> Apart from that, there is the phenomenon that from one moment to the next every answer is upvoted and somewhere a comment like "+1 for all who answered" appears...
    – Ulrich Diez
    May 28 at 13:55
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    Users can use their upvotes however they want, for whatever reason, so long as they aren't misusing that system. There's really nothing you can do about it...
    – Justin
    May 28 at 14:28

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How should I handle things when I have the impression that there is a situation that could to some degree be based on this phenomenon?

By doing nothing at all. This is what it is, and unless there is case of someone who is clearly upvoting many low quality posts on purpose (e.g., they admit it via comments), there's really nothing wrong about it.

In case you think to post comment like "Did you upvote my answer just to give me honor?", better not do it. The risk of this going downwards is too big, plus comments are not meant for that. If the question author shares contact info in their profile (email, Twitter, etc.) you can try to contact them by those means instead.

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