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I've noticed that my answer has a score of -3(-6 now that I posted here), and I don't understand why.

Maybe my answer is not the most eloquent of all answers or can completely solve the issue, but I tried helping that person with my little 2 cents worth of knowledge.

I don't particularly see why I deserves that score. Even if I couldn't solve the issue completely. When I ask a question, many people can't solve my problems, but I don't downvote them. They tried to help.

The author of the question has accepted my answer as helpful. How do I get it back up?

It is not a bad answer... even if is not great... there are actually bad answers out there... mine helped the author in some way ...


I amended my answer observing peoples comments, but then somehow after posting here I get another -4 and no further feedback on why or acknoledgement that i tried to improve. Those downgraded were after 30min of posting and with no further feedback and ONCE all fedback was taken into account and amended.

I strongly believe that that kind of massive down vote by neurotic people that just want to see the negative side of anything doesn't encourage people to colaborate or even ask how to improve.

ultimately my answer is not that bad to deserve -6 in its current state. there are wrong things with every single question. Nothing is ever perfect.... ultimately the question is whether it is SO bad that it REALLY deserves to be downvoted to a -6 in its current state?... Why should mine be picked in particularly with -5? there are lots of really really horrible ones with no downvote.... and you provably dont downvote them every single one of them.

I tried to help and I tried to posted here to get feedback and help not to get further downgraded by people who has nothing to do but bully. That kind of behaviour goes against SO.

share|improve this question

closed as not constructive by Daniel Daranas, Servy, Bart, Ben Collins May 20 '13 at 16:37


Seems to me that you're not really answering the question with that answer. He already has onsubmit=ajax_submit() in his code, after all; and the rest of that answer is telling him to use jQuery, which is not related to his question. –  Joe May 20 '13 at 15:23
Just post a comment if you want to help, but can't post an answer. Your answer is downvoted for exactly the reason as mentioned in the tooltip of the downvote button. –  BalusC May 20 '13 at 15:23
Your answer is also wrong: it should be onsubmit="return ajax_submit();" if you want to prevent default behavior when ajax_submit() returns false. –  Frédéric Hamidi May 20 '13 at 15:24
Wait for people to upvote it if they think it deserves it. –  Bart May 20 '13 at 15:33
Nothing unfair about that. Every user is free to evaluate a post and vote as they see fit. Perhaps the OP should not have accepted it. But he is free to do so. –  Bart May 20 '13 at 15:35
Which is perhaps why the score is only -3 and not far worse. Get over the downvotes. Improve the answer as much as possible, and hope for the best. That's all you can do. –  Bart May 20 '13 at 15:39
Good for you. Now wait and see. –  Bart May 20 '13 at 15:43
@Jamiec meta.stackexchange.com/a/19492/161198 –  Bart May 20 '13 at 15:55
@Bart - sure I know about the meme, but are you saying that answer was actually given and actually got 22 upvotes? I always assumed it was somebody's attempt at comedy. Wait clearly its pshopped - look at the answerer names! –  Jamiec May 20 '13 at 15:59
FYI insulting people for downvoting your answer is not likely to make them want to change their votes. If anything it will only encourage people to react even more negatively in response to you. –  Servy May 20 '13 at 16:26
@JonathanThurft Actually, you are. "massive down vote by neurotic people" is an insult. For this reason, I have flagged your post as offensive. –  Daniel Daranas May 20 '13 at 16:29
"neurotic people" ... "just want to see the negative side of anything" ... "people who has nothing to do but bully" –  Servy May 20 '13 at 16:30
@JonathanThurft Let downvotes go. Try to understand them, improve your content if possible, and then move on. There is no need to bring it up here each time you're downvoted. Certainly not if you move into rant territory. In that case the extra attention might not always end up being positive. –  Bart May 20 '13 at 16:32
Most of this question is an insult/rant. That's why it has a negative score. –  Doorknob 冰 May 20 '13 at 16:32
@JonathanThurft At this point your thread (with that edit) seems to me as just whining, sort of like a student going to a teacher asking why they got a C+ on a paper and insisting it should be changed to an A. You got the answer you asked, and ignored some fairly good comments from Bart, Servy, and others. Take those comments and move on from this. –  Joe May 20 '13 at 16:34

2 Answers 2

I think the downvotes are a mixture of misunderstanding the question, and technial inaccuracies/ ambiguity.

  1. The OP is asking whether his code at the bottom is suitable. You completely ignore this point.

  2. He's already got onsubmit="ajax_submit()" in his HTML

  3. He needs onsubmit="return ajax_submit()" instead.

share|improve this answer
He accepted it anyway, oddly enough. –  BoltClock's a Unicorn May 20 '13 at 15:25
I'm often shocked by the answers that are accepted. In this case perhaps the advice to use jQuery was useful - even though it's not really appropriate for SO per se. –  Joe May 20 '13 at 15:26
@Joe: Oh, but it is. –  BoltClock's a Unicorn May 20 '13 at 15:27
@BoltClock'saUnicorn he accepted becaus my answer was helpful. thus if the author find it helpful, it shouldnt be downgraded. –  Jonathan Thurft May 20 '13 at 15:29
@Matt I changed the my answer to solve the return issue and it somehow addresses the issue. maybe not perfectly but its not to deserve a massive downgrade. there are far worse answers outthere that are not downgraded. plus the author accepted my answer –  Jonathan Thurft May 20 '13 at 15:30
@JonathanThurft: The fact the OP accepted your answer isn't usually a lot to go by. There are many users on Stack Overflow clever than the OP, me and you. Just because the OP doesn't spot anything wrong with your information and code and accepts your answer, doesn't mean another user won't come by and tear it apart with bugs and inaccuracies. Sure, it'll be useful if these downvoters could leave a comment explaining why, but hey ho. –  Matt May 20 '13 at 15:32
@JonathanThurft: As for how to get your answer upvoted again, you can't per-se. Just learn from your mistake; test your code first, and gain knowledge from being pointed out on your mistakes. Still, (-3 * 2) + 15 = +9, so it's still a winner on your part. –  Matt May 20 '13 at 15:34
Also doesn't seem like the OP even thought your answer was very helpful. His comment to your answer was not "Thanks, that solved it", but "Thanks, I might try that if I can't figure this out"... –  Joe May 20 '13 at 15:35
@joe i dont know how your post is constructive in anyway. –  Jonathan Thurft May 20 '13 at 15:37
@Matt I amended my answer now the advice I gave him/her is correct. –  Jonathan Thurft May 20 '13 at 15:40
@JonathanThurft If the only thing that mattered was whether or not the answer was helpful to the OP then there wouldn't be any reason for others to vote on answers, or at least no need to tie that to rep. The whole point of SO is that the OP's opinion of an answer only matters a little bit more than any other user's; the primary judge of an answer is the whole community, not just the person who asked the question. That's a fundamental concept of SO; you shouldn't just post whatever the OP wants to hear if others know it's a bad solution. –  Servy May 20 '13 at 16:18
@Servy Exactly. The point of StackOverflow (or SE in general) is to build a database of useful information (a really big FAQ, basically). The point is not to serve as a helpdesk. Helping the OP is almost incidental - that is why "Too Localized" exists as a reason to close a question (if the answer would be too specific to help anyone other than the OP). –  Joe May 20 '13 at 16:20

I personally probably wouldn't downvote your answer in its current form, but I don't know much about jQuery, so I wouldn't be voting much there anyway.

However, by the looks of it, one of those downvotes came when the answer was in its first revision - which is definitely a souped-up link-only answer. If it were not edited, it would have been deleted.

Your second revision is actually just the first revision, with a bit of random code. That code has no context or explanation, making it questionably downvotable.

I don't know what the technical accuracy of the answer is (see the above answer), but as far as quality standards go, this definitely isn't up to par.

share|improve this answer
the author of the question has accepted my answer yet i have been downgraded how do i get it back up? –  Jonathan Thurft May 20 '13 at 15:31
You don't use jQuery? Inconceivable! –  ɥʇǝS May 21 '13 at 2:03

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