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I frequently upvote someone's comment only to realise I've fat-fingered it (especially easy to do on a touch phone, but I've also done it with a mouse) and clicked someone else's comment.

Unfortunately I can't find a way to undo it!

The last thing I want to do is upvote someone I vehemently disagree with ;)

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    Just realised this is almost the same as Should I be able to cancel my up-vote on a comment? - that was declined though can't find a reason for that - maybe the question was misunderstood. The point someone made about comments not being editable is also not applicable anymore (notice I've edited this comment). May 12, 2010 at 4:11
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    @MichaelFreidgeim You are editing things into this that aren't part of the original. "I've fat-fingered it" is clearly about accidental upvotes, and is addressed by the duplicate. If you want to request something else, like removing all the restrictions...well, you've already asked that here.
    – Ryan M
    Sep 23, 2021 at 10:50
  • FYI: From the duplicate: "I just added this, but there are some ground rules: You can un-upvote a comment within the first 60 seconds, provided you did not navigate away. " Sep 23, 2021 at 10:57
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    I think this should be retagged "status-completed" as it definitely covers the "fat-fingered" part (even if 60 seconds may seem like an unexpected short time period (perhaps there are good reasons for it)). Sep 23, 2021 at 11:00
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    @MichaelFreidgeim if on the other hand you want a feature request asking for only the time restriction removed since the request to remove all restrictions was denied, you could also post that as a separate question.
    – Ryan M
    Sep 23, 2021 at 11:07
  • @RyanM, I am asking about the same: ability to cancel accidental upvotes (from mobiles/tablets). Yesterday when I hit the same problem again, I found and edited this request before I was able to find my own previous request. Sep 23, 2021 at 22:27
  • @P.Mort.-forgotClayShirky_q, I don’t understand why you consider that issue is completed. There is still no ability to cancel accidental upvotes (that happen often on mobiles/tablets). Sep 23, 2021 at 22:42
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    @MichaelFreidgeim I just upvoted your comment and then cancelled it from my phone. If you mean via the old mobile site, that's no longer supported and is being removed.
    – Ryan M
    Sep 23, 2021 at 23:05
  • @RyanM, you don’t understand the problem with unintentional touch on touch devices. When I hold or scroll a device I can touch/tap any area of the screen. If it is accidentally a vote icon, the comment will be considered as upvoted. I may not noticed it at all or may notice it after 60 seconds Sep 23, 2021 at 23:12

3 Answers 3

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It's funny that Jeff wrote a blog post entitled The Opposite of Fitts' Law about bad UI and accidentally clicking on a button, but in SO he won't change the functionality.

While not exactly contradictory, the upvote and the flag buttons are close enough together that this deserves more consideration.

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I agree, here's my addition to your feature request:

You should be able undo comment upvotes, with a similar restriction as other upvotes: only within X time of casting the vote. It should have a similar UI too: click the upvote button (which is now highlighted) again.

Instead of storing a "cancel vote" in the DB (as is done for posts), the entire record should be deleted (this should alleviate the technical concerns frequently brought up when changes to regular voting are discussed). With a suitably short time limit (15-60 seconds) to change the vote, there is no potential for abuse. If comment editing is a concern for you (e.g. vote -> edit to say completely different), then simply don't vote until the comment is 5 minutes old (the current editing limit).

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  • Yep this all sounds good. The implementation of it doesn't fuss me too much, just the ease with which I can accidentally click one of those blighters, and not being able to undo that straight away. May 12, 2010 at 4:25
  • There at least used to be a similar problem with upvotes: I upvoted an answer, came back a few days later and accidentally un-upvoted it, and then couldn't re-upvote it. May 12, 2010 at 14:04
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You cannot undo up votes on comments.

Jeff believes comments are so insignificant, one up vote doesn't really matter.

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    But accidental upvote removes the ability to flag the comment.
    – kennytm
    May 12, 2010 at 7:54
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    Point is: despite they might be insignificant, it would be better to be able to undo it than not. So, instead of "won't fix" it would be better a "lowest priority": this way, it won't be done anyway, but it would be better.
    – forget it
    May 12, 2010 at 9:06
  • @KennyTM: If a comment deserves flagging, it will get flagged whether you do it or not. If it's borderline, so that your particular flag might actually matter, then it doesn't matter that much whether it's flagged. That's the theory, anyway. May 12, 2010 at 14:03
  • If “comments are so insignificant”, why put so many restriction rules around them? Sep 22, 2021 at 20:21

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