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Why is that the person who downvotes an answer get a downvote himself? Isn't this unfair. I mean that the answer is not right or up to the standards so I downvote it but I also get a downvote but I never played a role in the answer. Why does this happen. Also I want to know that why was this idea introduced in the first place. This sometimes decreases your spirit of removing the answers which are not up to the mark in the fear of getting more and more downvotes

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  • $\begingroup$ "This sometimes decreases your spirit of removing the answers which are not up to the mark in the fear of getting more and more downvotes." this might be true for you, but is not true for e.g. me. I have now over 3000 downvotes cast, and I am still going strong. $\endgroup$
    – Mister Benjamin Dover
    Commented May 10, 2015 at 13:22
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    $\begingroup$ @Herrmann the majority of your down-votes is not on answers though. $\endgroup$
    – quid
    Commented May 10, 2015 at 13:41
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    $\begingroup$ @quid: fair enough $\endgroup$
    – Mister Benjamin Dover
    Commented May 10, 2015 at 14:55
  • $\begingroup$ @MisterBenjaminDover It might not be true for you, but it might be true e.g. for me. I feel that my ability to contribute to a better MSE site if hampered by the decision to penalize downvotes on (what I consider wrong,inadequate) answers. I cannot rule that the same applies to many MSE users, and that, in the end, mediocre answers are promoted. Please see my questions and an answer: math.meta.stackexchange.com/q/30935/188367 | math.meta.stackexchange.com/q/30933/188367 | math.meta.stackexchange.com/a/30938/188367 $\endgroup$
    – Mirko
    Commented Nov 25, 2019 at 6:28

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It is the case that casting a down-vote on an answer costs one point (except if the answer is CW); it is not really a down-vote one receives though. Moreover, the point is returned when/if the answer is deleted.

The idea is to have a disincentive on down-voting to prevent down-voting in inconsiderate ways. It used to be the case that this applied to questions, too, but it somehow worked "too well," so this was changed at some point to encourage more down-voting on questions.

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  • $\begingroup$ I believe that it works "too well" on answers too. I would appreciate if I could cast one downvote per 24 hours without penalty math.meta.stackexchange.com/a/30938/188367 $\endgroup$
    – Mirko
    Commented Nov 25, 2019 at 6:40