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I was reviewing past questions and a little surprised to find the linked question with six downvotes without any single close-vote or comment.

Population Is Counted At.

I understand downvoting is not closely related with closevoting as they are not used for the same purpose, but I don't understand the reason why this question would get so much negative response from this community members and there is not a single comment to it.

I think the answer to the question is great and it deserves three upvotes.

But what happened to the question? I don't think the question is so bad compared with other worse questions with upvotes and it could help other users to understand how the word counted could be used.

Is there any reason the question deserves six downvotes?

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    I hadn't seen this question before you brought it up here, and I didn't downvote it, but my guess is that the downvoters disagree with the premise (that was should be used instead of is) but experience has taught them that disagreeing with an opinion the OP of the question has expressed about the proper use of English inevitably leads to a fruitless and enervating debate. So downvoting is a way to express disagreement anonymously, to proved feedback without having to get caught up in discussing the whys and wherefores (which are more often than not ignored at best, and declaimed at worst).
    – Dan Bron
    Feb 11, 2016 at 15:04
  • @DanBron Thanks for your comment. Probably you're right but the Original Poster doesn't seem to assert it should be was. Anyway, seeing a question with 6 downvotes is not very common here and downvoting itself here is rarer than on English Language and Usage. With such a small number of people who are active here, the question does stand out and I just wanted to ask if it is the best thing for us to do for a seemingly legitimate question for learners.
    – user24743
    Feb 11, 2016 at 15:14
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    I think @DanBron is on the right track. These sorts of questions from meatie have proven in the past to not be very productive. I didn't DV because I disagree with the premise of the question, but more because I felt like our time could be better spent answering other questions than navel-gazing about the ways you might possibly change a perfectly grammatical sentence and arguing about willfully misunderstood definitions. I do see how someone who hasn't participated in similar questions from meatie in the past might have a different opinion from mine about the question.
    – ColleenV
    Feb 11, 2016 at 19:32
  • And just as an aside, I do think a real question about "it is counted/measured/weighed" and tense would be interesting.
    – ColleenV
    Feb 11, 2016 at 19:34
  • I am one of the downvoters of that question and I can explain the issue more clearly to you in chat tomorrow, but for now, @Dan is on the right track.
    – M.A.R.
    Feb 11, 2016 at 20:48
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    And I went ahead an up-voted your question, because I think this is a good discussion to have and I think you did a good job asking about the issue (and not because I agree with you that meatie's question didn't deserve the down-votes).
    – ColleenV
    Feb 11, 2016 at 22:18

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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Sometimes it only makes sense to comment about an issue once (or a few times). Repeatedly pointing out the same problem with a poster's questions (or choice of tags) just clutters the website.

But if the user ignores the comments, and continues to post questions with the same problems, then it still makes sense to downvote the questions.

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    For example, I've seen one of their questions in which every one of the Related Questions in the sidebar was also their question... asking about essentially the same words, and usually even the same aspect of those words. (I wish I was kidding.) We don't need that kind of exhausting, repetitive rehashing.
    – Nathan Tuggy
    Feb 12, 2016 at 23:46
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    @Rathony -- Most issues do not rise to the level of being worth suspensions. I don't think that people should be suspended for good-faith disagreements about how questions should be tagged.
    – Jasper
    Feb 13, 2016 at 3:34
  • @Jasper I see. Thanks for your answer and comment.
    – user24743
    Feb 13, 2016 at 3:44

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