This is probably a broad question but I feel it's an important one too.

How do we solve the problem of low-quality questions receiving high reputation? I can't seem to wrap my head around how this happens.

A typical example is this question.

  • The OP put no illustration/code whatsoever
  • The question isn't 100% clear.
  • Users that answer android tagged questions frequently would know that this is an obvious duplicate.
  • The question is more than two years old and has never been edited to implement any of the corrections or changes listed above!

How then did the question get up to 4 votes? There are many questions like this on S/O. What's the best way to maintain the integrity of our reputation system?

My sincere apologies if this question seems broad. I just feel it's a recurrent issue that needs to be addressed.

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    Did you downvote that question? – Patrice Mar 18 at 23:09
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    @Patrice I don't see how that matters but I'll answer your question. Yes, I did. I downvoted it because I felt it was a low-quality post. If you disagree, perhaps you can show me what I'm missing. – Taslim Oseni Mar 18 at 23:11
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    You may be a bit too defensive. I agree the question is bad and deserve downvote. We just often see people who come here with similar complaints as yours, but then haven't taken any of the moderation actions they have at their disposal. I was just trying to make the point that moderation starts with each and everyone of us, and that a question like that one stays on the site, unmoderated, because people just don't apply what they can to the question – Patrice Mar 18 at 23:12
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    Oh, sorry about that. I was just surprised you were asking. I get the picture now. Thanks. – Taslim Oseni Mar 18 at 23:13
  • Of course ^^ no harm done – Patrice Mar 18 at 23:13
  • looks like your question is of low quality judging from the downvote hehe. im kidding but come on. that example shows 1 upvote, which is nothing in comparison really. at least nothing to be considered a serious problem – Alan Mar 18 at 23:17
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    @Alan as of yesterday, the question was at a score of +3. It is now at a score of 0 and the vote count is +3/-3. It probably got the three downvotes since this question was asked. – Pika the Wizard of the Whales Mar 18 at 23:21
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    It's being down-voted into oblivion now. I think the OP got the message. I'm casting delete vote on the post to save all involved from further "meta effect". – Lundin Mar 19 at 9:18

When you see posts like this, downvote them. If you believe they are not useful, badly researched, or otherwise not a good fit for the site, you should downvote.

When the question isn't just not useful and actually off-topic for the site, flag/vote for closure. If enough other users agree with your flag/vote, the question will be closed.

The most likely reason for the upvotes on the question you mentioned is that it is a common problem for users of Android Studio, and some users who found it upvoted it because they found it useful. However, it does not show any effort on the part of the asker. Flag for closure with the reason "Off-topic -> Questions seeking debugging help must include a minimal, complete, and verifiable example".


Out of the top of my head I can think of a few reasons:

  1. The question covers a general problem, that intermediates are familiar with thus trying to answer using that knowledge, even though the question itself is asked in a too broad way. As of why people bother answering: rep

  2. People have the same problem (or problems from the same category) and sympathize with the OP

  3. Fake accounts upvoting themselves


Well, first of all there isn't anything in any of our power that can be done except for:

  • Downvoting the post

  • Flagging if the post's quality is that poor that it requires attention from a moderator

Not much else can be done about low quality posts like these, as new users will come in, they may ask poor questions, get downvoted, and hopefully learn and become a good community member.

As for why this post could have been upvoted, explanations possibly could be:

  • Users irresponsibly upvoting random questions to increase their vote count and earn a badge, though this question had at a point 4 upvotes, so seems unlikely.

  • People have a similar issue and upvote to hopefully draw attention to the question so that there are answers (regardless of question quality)

  • Or, an extreme case, the same user upvoted their own question with multiple accounts.


I think low quality or high quality questions is a wrong meaning, because if we only quest about moderate or complex materials, these questions are not useful for people.

In my opinion, Stack Overflow must disable the downvoting feature. If a question is not useful, it must stay in the current situation (without any upvoting or downvoting) and if it is useful must be upvoted.

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