I noted that if I downvote an answer I lose one point. However I don't understand the reason of this. If I downvote an answer which is wrong, I help the other reader to understand which answers are correct. Can someone explain me this fact?
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2$\begingroup$ This question may have an answer here: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/62130/… (not on MSE, though). $\endgroup$– AndreasFeb 28, 2017 at 20:47
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2$\begingroup$ This seems to be a recurrent question here on meta: Deduction in rep for downvoting, Why does the person who is downvoting an answer get a downvote himself? -1 for downvote? $\endgroup$– Martin SleziakFeb 28, 2017 at 21:07
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1 Answer
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Receiving a downvote is not nice and they should thus not be cast carelessly. As a disincentive against careless or even vindictive downvotes, one had to invest a point to downvote a post (unless it is in CW mode and points are moot).
It is true that this can lead to legitimate votes not being cast, and this is a problem, too. Indeed, at some point it was decided that for question post this point is waived, so that now it is only for votes on answer posts that there is a point to be invested.
In the end it is a trade-off. The current balance works about alright.
Finally, if there is an actual error in a particular answer it will make sense to explain it. The down-vote in addition then becomes not that crucial. This is slightly different for questions, which can be considered as a reason for the different handling.
