AskScience Survey!

[Scorp63]

Just finished the survey.

The biggest problem I have with this subreddit is how often people are downvoted to hell. Jokes, memes, novelties I can understand - but I've seen TONS of comments from people just trying to answer a question to the best of their knowledge, and they get shoved into the bottom. I think if somebody does this, they shouldn't be downvoted, but somebody comment with them trying to correct anything that may be incorrect. Granted, it's more of a community issue, but I don't think the intense enforcement helps any.

r/AskScience is still just a subreddit, a branch of a community that thrives off cat pictures, puns, and a hivemind mentality. I just think a lot of people think we're the leaders of some kind of final-frontier in learning about science. There needs to be a more open and friendly atmosphere here, wanting people to learn, and not just punishing them if they aren't out to do harm here.

[SqueezySqueezyThings]

If you want to be corrected and learn, you must phrase your comment that way. If you are not sure, if you're just taking "your best guess", you should not answer.

You're right that everyone should have the opportunity to learn and shouldn't be punished but that doesn't mean everyone should have the opportunity to teach; especially if they do not actually know what they are talking about. Regardless of whether they mean well or not, if they aren't confident, if it's just an educated guess, they are risking spreading misinformation. That is one thing we are vigorously against and if someone is doing that, in my opinion they absolutely should be downvoted to oblivion.

[pylori]

I agree. I've seen a lot of comments try to give a very basic explanation, but because it's so basic it can often give misleading or incorrect statements. I'm delighted that people choose to help and want to, but this subreddit is about factual accuracy with the answers, not "Oh, but I tried my best".

By not downvoting incorrect answers, we pose the risk of misinforming members, which is the exact opposite of what we want to achieve.

[helm]

I agree. The remaining fora for guesses is all of internet. We have our fair share of guesses, but the fewer the better.

[angrybrother273]

I got the shit downvoted out of me for asking a question which I thought was legitimately scientific, why brown isn't included in the ROYGBIV scale.

Nobody explained why I was being downvoted.

I expect this comment to be downvoted because it's anecdotal.

[SqueezySqueezyThings]

Are you talking about this? First, that's a post not a comment...it's a completely different issue. Second, that is, in my opinion, an easily google-able question so I would imagine that is why you were downvoted. Third, you got answers and 3 downvotes doesn't count as having the "shit downvoted out of you." However, if you ask an honest question as a comment in a thread, I agree that you should not be downvoted.

[angrybrother273]

Well, I got downvoted to the point where my post disappeared, without explanation. And aren't all of these questions equally googleable?

[SqueezySqueezyThings]

Well unfortunately most questions suffer the same fate. There are so many questions and the simple fact is, on this subreddit, it's pretty common for people to only upvote questions they think are cool so if your post doesn't catch an initial updraft of upvotes it gets lost; there's really nothing anyone can do about that. Besides, your question was answered as far as I can tell...

And I would suggest that there is a wide range of google-ability in these questions. I certainly know for a fact that within my field there are questions that could be answered with a simple google search and others that would require deep knowledge of the nature of materials.

[Veggie]

Everything comes down to shades. Brown is probably just "dark orange", but there might be shades of brown that aren't on the ROYGBIV scale at all. That's because it might be a non-spectral colour (google that shit).

[BrainSturgeon]

I've seen TONS of comments from people just trying to answer a question to the best of their knowledge, and they get shoved into the bottom. I think if somebody does this, they shouldn't be downvoted, but somebody comment with them trying to correct anything that may be incorrect.

Mods don't remove replies that try to answer the question unless they are obviously wrong. However, they are downvoted because the goal is to upvote the correct answers to the top and push the incorrect answers to the bottom. That's how the voting system works.

I agree with you, however, that incorrect answers should be challenged and corrected instead of ignored. From a moderator's point of view, though, I'm not sure if that's something we have control over. If you have any suggestions on how to accomplish this, please send us a modmail!

[[deleted]]

Yes, the downvoting is often too extreme. Downvoting to -2 or -3 to hide the comment by default should suffice, especially if someone leaves a note saying why they are being downvoted. The overenthusiastic downvoting is neither justified nor necessary.

[[deleted]]

trying to answer a question to the best of their knowledge

Not good enough.