@Caleb That's close to where I'm leaning these days as well. Though I'm a bit more stringent on ups. Naturally, they have to answer the question, but they have to answer it well. Probably the biggest determinant in not upvoting for me is hard to follow thought process. If I have to put pieces together out of your post to actually understand the answer then I don't think they did a good enough job. I often comment though about it.

I am trying to use downs as a way to discourage failing on those things. I sometimes comment then to hopefully encourage them.

In retrospect, I think my first few downs, which can early in my participation here, helped me slow down and think about what is really going on. It helped me slow down and think about what I was doing.

I recently have been trying this on InsideOut. A new user who have posted almost ten times in just a few days. They are good posts, and he writes well, but they are not really hitting where they should be.

I think he'll come around soon.

lol. I couldn't think of person that I would pick for a third choice, so I picked me.....

@fredsbend I generally upvote any answer that is good enough that I don't feel I need to answer

(if I don't know the answer, it is any answer where I don't feel I'd have to answer if I knew the answer)

I do always comment when DVing unless it is obvious though. I really want people to be able to improve and don't want DVs to be taken poorly, but rather as an incentive to make it better.

if it is really, really bad I might not comment though

@fredsbend exactly, that's the goal of the system. The point is to help people "get" the system and be able to make good, organized use of it that everyone can benefit from