It is obviously nothing personal, if we are downvoted, but does it mean we have failed other people or even ourselves?
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3See What purpose does downvoting questions serve?, Why do you cast downvotes on answers?, Why are people afraid of downvotes? and also Are downvotes a bad thing? Should I take it personally?– NotThatGuyCommented Sep 19 at 8:06
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4Most of my answers get downvoted and nearly always with no reason given. You just to learn to shrug it off.– BumbleCommented Sep 19 at 12:42
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I've never downvoted anyone. I would rather leave comments for improvement. I can see downvoting, perhaps, in really egregious situations, which I assume does not apply to the Andros or Bumblebee. I worry it discourages participation.– GerryCommented Sep 20 at 11:42
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3 Answers
As to failing others that's a common decision involving participants, mods, SE functionaries. And of course yourself.
As to failing yourself I'd strongly suggest you don't define your value, (leave aside your self) based on others' opinions. Least of all opinion of random folks on the net whose face even you've never seen.
Speaking more as a phil-SE participant, I'd like to see much more downvotes and correspondingly less close-votes. This has nothing to do with you or your questions. I vaguely remember: I've only downvoted you once to a answer which was subsequently deleted.
No.
This website is not a game, there is no winning or losing, no success or failure.
Some posters here continue to post exactly the same way regardless of how many downvotes they earn, because there are not here to be popular, but for other reasons.
The crucial question seems to be whether anyone gets more downvotes than they expect. Or whether downvotes feel surprising. If so, the mental model of what the audience here will fee bothered about enough to downvote seems inadequate.
If in addition to surprise, negative feelings like anger, shame, or disappointment appear, a poster likely lacks emotional maturity for this kind of site, and would feel better in other philosophy forums without votes.
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strange inferences, but yeah, why not?– user71399Commented Sep 19 at 10:59
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Seeking social acceptance, disliking social rejection and not wanting to be "wrong" are all very normal human things that many or most people carry with them for their entire life, and upvotes and downvotes are some representation of that. Although it's certainly worth trying to recognise and appropriately contextualise those things, to minimise the downsides of that (those have the potential for some pretty severe negative consequences). And people who can't handle the occasional downvote should indeed probably find someplace where downvotes aren't a thing. Commented Sep 19 at 12:23
I wouldn't take things too personal. First, this is a free site on the Internet. The whole Internet. There are people here with all sorts of ways of thinking, and a lot of participants aren't even formally trained philosophers. In fact, when it's all said a done, there isn't much downside by being rejected. You're not losing money. You're not losing fame. Besides, I have routinely watched some of the obviously professionally trained philosophers who have a command of their material (and are likely both PhDs and former university professors) be downvoted by know-it-all randos. Just remember, life is absurd. ;)
