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I suggest that when a post is migrated from one site to another, that the question vote score get reset to zero (or perhaps only a negative vote score is reset to zero). Often people will downvote a question when the only thing that's "wrong" with it is that it's posted on the incorrect site. After migration, those downvotes hang around as a negative score and may unfairly bias the treatment of the question.

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I'd like it if the upvotes were zeroed too. –  womble Nov 26 '09 at 19:45

3 Answers 3

up vote 6 down vote accepted

As Jon has suggested, a migrated question with a negative score will now be reset to 0.

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First off, I don't think people should downvote a question that belongs elsewhere, especially if it is from a new user. However, I think resetting the vote counts is a very good idea.

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I agree but some people are left with no other choice. It even happens that people will flag it as spam to avoid losing their own rep while registering their opinion on the appropriateness of the question. –  tvanfosson Jul 17 '09 at 16:52
I strongly disagree. The votes should be copied over. Some people have put hard work into posts that may end up getting moved (FAQ, third party tools, etc) and they deserve to keep the points earned. –  Kyle Cronin Jul 17 '09 at 16:56
I only suggested resetting negative votes, not positive votes. You would still be able to keep any points earned but the question would not be penalized for originating in the wrong forum. –  tvanfosson Jul 17 '09 at 16:59
+1 for only resetting positive votes. –  jamuraa Jul 24 '09 at 20:17
+1 Agree, people are less likley to look at a question with a negative score after migration –  Nifle Jul 27 '09 at 20:20

I think just resetting negatives to 0 would be better than wiping it out completely.

If people have upvoted a question despite it being in the wrong place, that's an indication that it's a really good question - or possibly just an old question which had nowhere better to go at the time of posting (i.e. before Meta/SU/SF came about).

I don't see any reason to remove the community's approval of such posts - being moved to the right place is unlikely to make anyone approve of it less, but wiping out negative scores is reasonable as it may well make people disapprove of it less.

The only downside to this is the possibility that a user could vote on it twice, once on each site - I don't know if the vote "owners" are transferred via account associations.

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People in the wrong place don't necessarily have the capability to judge what is a good question. –  womble Nov 26 '09 at 20:23
I suspect that's true in a minority of cases... I would suggest that as the sites are at least in the same ballpark it wouldn't be the case very often. Note that it's much easier to judge a question as well-written etc than an answer. –  Jon Skeet Nov 26 '09 at 20:36

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