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I posted this answer to this question.

I got no upvote and a downvote with no explanatory comment.

I believe there is something wrong with my answer, but I'm unable to see what.

After the downvote, I added an edit to ask for explanations, but I got none.

I don't know if a meta question is appropriate, but I don't see what else to do.

Let me insist: I know I often make mistakes. I'd just like to know which mistakes I made in this post. This would be useful for me of course, but also for the user who asked the question, and for the people who read the thread.

Thank you very much in advance for your help.

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    $\begingroup$ I have added (specific-answer) tag (see also the tag-info for more details). If I misunderstood your post and you have a more general question - and the linked answer is just an example - feel free to remove the tag. $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Apr 15, 2018 at 12:21
  • $\begingroup$ @MartinSleziak - That's perfect! Thank you very much! $\endgroup$
    – Pierre-Yves Gaillard
    Apr 15, 2018 at 12:22
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    $\begingroup$ When one hovers over the downvote arrow, the tooltip "This is not useful" appears. If someone thinks that your answer is not useful, they can downvote it. No other explanation is required---it is possible that someone simply didn't find your answer helpful. I wouldn't worry too much about it. $\endgroup$
    – Xander Henderson Mod
    Apr 15, 2018 at 14:47

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According to this FAQ, there are five reasons your posts may be downvoted:

  • They believe that you did not show enough research effort.

  • They disagreed with statements made in your post.

  • They disagreed with opinions stated in your post.

  • They disagreed with how you presented your post. (The "tone" of your post).

  • They disagreed that the information you presented was on-topic.

You said that your answer is downvoted, so it can be any of the last four reasons. The word "disagree" is just the users' opinion, so it may be a pretty "soft" opinion, or different between many different users.

Any way, you shouldn't be worried about a single downvote at all, as it only takes away a small bit of your reputation and the linked question also stated that:

Don't take a downvote here or there personally. If you are 100% sure that your post can't be considered to fall under any of the above, just ignore the down vote. If you've gotten more than one down vote, you should probably try to improve your question - even though it could look perfect, some may be looking at it differently than you do. Even if you're sure nothing's wrong, it always good to take the time to see how your post can be improved. It can only help!

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    $\begingroup$ It should also be noted that any user with sufficient reputation can downvote any question or answer for any reason they like. There are guidelines that try to set some norms, but, at the end of the day, no justification is actually required. $\endgroup$
    – Xander Henderson Mod
    Apr 15, 2018 at 21:11
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    $\begingroup$ There is (at least) one more reason a post may be downvoted: someone clicks the wrong place by accident. Come on, we've all done that. $\endgroup$
    – Gerry Myerson
    Apr 15, 2018 at 21:33
  • $\begingroup$ @GerryMyerson You wouldn't want to do that, because you will lose $1$ reputation. $\endgroup$
    – user061703
    Apr 16, 2018 at 5:04

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