Hey Askvillers,
Several of you have asked us what are the standards for giving an answer a great, good, okay, weak, or awful vote and what types of answers are acceptable to give on Askville. We posted a blog entry about this topic in January, which we encourage everyone to read:
http://askville-blog.amazon.com/2007/01/understanding_t.html
A couple of additional thoughts about voting:
- If you receive a negative vote, you should not always assume it is the fault of the asker, especially when you have multiple answers to a question. Every answerer has the option to vote too.
- Just because you received an Okay rating does not always mean that no one voted. In most cases, users have voted and your rating has averaged out to an Okay score.
- Opinion based questions are very subjective by definition. When you answer an opinion based question, you need to realize that your opinion may not be popular, which could result in a negative vote. That said, please use the discussion board to respectfully discuss/voice your opinion and hopefully you can sway other voters to your side!
- Not everyone you meet within Askville will share the same beliefs as you, which we believe is a good thing. When you interact with other Askvillers who have different views than you, it’s very important that you respect their views and philosophies. It’s perfectly okay to disagree so long as you do it in a respectful manner – as the old saying goes, “intelligent people can agree to disagree”. However, if you publicly chastise, harass, or disrespect other users who have a different viewpoint, that is not tolerated and is a clear violation of our community guidelines. So please be nice to your neighbors and treat others as you would want them to treat you.
Voting is a very important part of the Askville community. We really ask users to vote objectively on all answers provided. Many of our users spends significant amount of time researching and providing very thoughtful answers. In return, we ask you to judge each answer fairly.
Favoritism or other forms of voting manipulation to game the voting process is a direct violation of our community guidelines. That said, not everyone is fully aware of how one should behave and/or vote in Askville, especially newbies. Everyone makes honest mistakes and what you may think is malicious intent may be just an honest error of judgment. We strongly encourage our veteran Askvillers to lead by example and warmly welcome newbie users and respectfully advise others about how to use the site via private messaging. Finally, veteran Askville users who have earned enough experience points in specific topics can use their voting Superpower to objectively vote on answers to ensure that the best answers get rewarded in every topic.
Please also use the report abuse function when you see inappropriate behavior or other violations of the community guidelines. We investigate all report abuse filings (although we do fall behind on occasion); however, our philosophy is that there must be clear evidence of wrongdoing in order for us to take action. Thanks for everyone’s feedback and we will continue to work hard to make Askville a great place to ask… answer… meet… play.
-The Askville Team
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