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Possible Duplicates:
If you bookmark a question, shouldn’t you also be encouraged to upvote it?
Questions with more favorites than upvotes?

If a user favorites a questions, they obviously like the question or want to be able to keep track of it. They would not normally do this for a question that they have no care for (positive or negative).

Yet users will often favorite a question without voting for it.

I really do not understand why?

If you are favoriting (is there a more correct word than favoriting?) it's because it's bad, and you want to track its status, and then downvote it.

If you are favoriting it because it's great, then up-vote it. Even if you feel it only pertains to you, that's still worth a vote indicating that it is of importance to someone other than the OP.

I have read in other discussions that it is much harder to get someone to vote on a question rather than an answer. Well, what if you cannot favorite a question until you have voted it (up or down)?

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6 Answers 6

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I favorite questions I think I can answer, but don't have the time to research right now. Later on in the day, I will come back and if the question is still open, I will answer it and then possibly upvote the question.

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  • A lot of great answers I never thought of, my suggestion probably is a bad idea. But I am glad I asked.
    – JD Isaacks
    Commented Jul 27, 2010 at 19:00
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One reason I can think of is they might be out of votes for the day.

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  • Well that makes sense.. didn't think of that!
    – JD Isaacks
    Commented Jul 27, 2010 at 18:57
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    Ot they might be out of close votes for the day.
    – dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten
    Commented Jul 27, 2010 at 19:01
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I might favorite a bad question just out of perverse curiosity, or so that I can go back and see if it got closed.

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  • Then you should down vote it... should you not?
    – JD Isaacks
    Commented Jul 27, 2010 at 18:57
  • @John Not necessarily. It might be a good question on it's own, but marginal for the site. I certainly don't down vote every question I vote to close. I mean, whats the point? Its just adding insult to injury.
    – dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten
    Commented Jul 27, 2010 at 19:00
  • I do the very same thing.
    – rlb.usa
    Commented Jul 27, 2010 at 19:05
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It may be that the user is not sure how they feel about the question or doesn't have time to read/answer at this point, but wants to come back to it later, like a bookmark. I know I've done this several times.

In this case, mandating a vote in either direction is a bad idea, since votes are locked in after 5 minutes. After all, upon second reading, the user may realize that he/she miscomprehended the question initially because he/she was rushing.

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  • Good point! ...
    – JD Isaacks
    Commented Jul 27, 2010 at 18:59
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I favorite some things that I'm interested in how they turn out in the long run, but I don't really support the issue (in Meta).

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I do it because I view the question's votes as it's "score", and the star as a bookmarking mechanism.

The Programmer Cartoon has 800+ votes, I like the question (starred it), but I don't vote because I think it's score is perfect as it is.

For an obscure "How do I ..." question with only a few upvotes, I might star because I wish to find it later for reference (I'm bookmarking it for later), and I feel it's +single digit score is sufficient for the question.

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    If you find it useful, why not upvote it? Especially an obscure question that would be hard to find elsewhere.
    – mmyers Mod
    Commented Jul 27, 2010 at 19:35
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    @mmyers: The programmer cartoon question is an obscure question that would be hard to find elsewhere?
    – Aarobot
    Commented Jul 27, 2010 at 19:45
  • I'm not talking about the cartoon question, of course. I was responding to the last paragraph. @Aar
    – mmyers Mod
    Commented Jul 27, 2010 at 20:11
  • @mmyers Because I have no opinion on whether the question is "good" or "useful" or not, I'm simply bookmarking it "just in case I might decide to use it later" (If I do use it later, I upvote it). And also because I usually the feel has a "good" score that meets the quality and value of the question already, I won't upvote it.
    – rlb.usa
    Commented Jul 27, 2010 at 21:10
  • @rlb.usa: Ah, we have different theories of voting then. I try to vote on whether I think the post is good or not, not whether I think it's at the proper score.
    – mmyers Mod
    Commented Jul 27, 2010 at 21:46

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