Voting down another person's answer to a question you also answered...should this be allowed?

Absolutely not! If we have answered a question we should not vote within the question. We should not even be able to vote in the question by a developmental prohibition.

I was worried about this behavior and even warned of it in previous threads about this voting system posted before the new system started. A simple reckless and malicious down vote by a user can eliminate an answer from the possibility of becoming best answer entirely and if someone is allowed to abuse the system like this they will. If I find someone down voting my answer within the thread and they have done so in an obvious attempt to manipulate the system to their answers advantage I will simply down vote their answer to even the score.

I believe a lot of users will do this to combat this type of abuse. I will not just fling the Mahalo Answers Etiquette page and expect this to change the behavior of a user.. I will act appropriately and assume others will as well. The only solution to this is to prohibit voting for any answers in a question we have answered otherwise the chaos of tit for tat down voting will prevail on a much larger scale.. growing larger and larger until the reckless use of the unhelpful button to down vote an answer becomes the norm.

Please Mahalo staff eliminate the ability of a user to vote within the questions they have answered. :) Pretty please I have no faith that any other solution will stop this type of answer abuse.

I also have noticed this occurrence a number of times. Just recently it happened to a question I answered mahalo.com/answers/anonymous/whats-the-f... where my book suggestion was voted down by someone who also answered the question. While it is allowed, it does smack on tampering, especially when no reason is given by the person voting your answer down.

I think at the very least, if a valid reason is not given for voting another person’s answer down then the vote down should be stricken. I have in past voted up another’s answer even though I have answered myself, because their answer was everything I wanted to say and they beat me to it and my answer was just adding a little more to it. I don't think you should be able to vote down another’s answer if you answer the question as well.

At the very least a VALID reason should be given or the vote down does not apply (or better, if no valid reason is given then the vote down is applied against the person themselves - lol). Good observation and thanks for raising the issue.

Well, having suffered 10 down votes by users posing answers to the same question as I did, I was livid. There is nothing we can do about it. What amazes me is that those indulging in the practice don't "get" that we notice, we TAKE note, and we have good memories.

We recognize stupid slimy moves when we see them! If you can determine a solution, I'd love to hear it! This is what we probably should not do!

Well, yes if it really is a bad answer, but for someone to just go in and vote down everyone's answers for whatever reason is beyond me. I don't see the point in it. Maybe voting down an answer should have to give a reason, like reporting an answer does.

In reality, it doesn't matter how many votes you get, because the asker gets to choose best answer. Unless it's a situation like the iPad question where the asker says that the most votes wins (which, BTW, I think judging on votes is inequitable to those who posted answers later, after the thread's enthusiasm had already died down), votes don't count for anything but to make the answerer feel better. When I choose a best answer, I don't even look at votes.

I read each one carefully, sometimes twice, and usually by the time the question is about to expire, I already know who is going to get best answer. Some askers may feel funny giving an answer that gets less votes best answer, but it's truly up to them, no one else. I've had answers where one really popular member got tons of votes, but I didn't choose them best answer because it wasn't what I was looking for.

Take the iPad question Jason posted. The answer with the most votes is very titillating, and IMHO crass. I would never pick that as best answer, but they will get the iPad, because they have the most votes.

BTW, no jealousy here. I don't want the iPad and don't need the $500. I'm just expressing an opinion on voting as a way of determining best answer.

So did I vote that answer down? I don't even remember, but seriously, I may have. When I see something on here that I think detracts from the integrity of the site I will often vote it down or report it.

That being said, sex sells and crude seems to be popular these days, so I'm in the minority here.

I think it's perfectly within the "rules" of MA. I've answered a question AND voted other questions up. If I've seen some poor answers to a question in which I'm an expert, I will answer it and vote down the more terrible ones.

I will typically comment why I've voted down answers, though. There will ALWAYS be people who game the system... This is only a "short term" solution to getting points/M$. The system that we have works... You can always report someone and let the staff look at their patterns.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.