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I have seen people downvoting any questions without reading the question properly, just the title and hit the downvote without caring to read the content/question. Once I asked the question, I got downvote in 3 seconds, common in 3 seconds, I cannot even finish reading the first line, the person cared to downvote without any explanation (comments in most case) and hit close this topic. Isn't this bullying ?

Its good to help the SE network and work as inspector / moderator, whatever, but does that give a license to be bully ?

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    No, downvoting a question and voting to close it is not bullying, regardless of how fast that happens. Now, if you have reasonable suspicion or evidence that the same person(s) have downvoted and voted to close a lot of your questions, then we might have something worth looking into. Commented May 1, 2013 at 10:13
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    But, if this is only about one question then you are overreacting and I'd suggest you calm down, and perhaps consider that the question isn't as good as you seem to think it is. There's room for improvement in almost every question, and people around here are always eager to help - especially if you don't call them bullies. For the record, it took me less than 3 seconds to read this question and decide it's "not constructive". Commented May 1, 2013 at 10:15
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    @YannisRizos, I agree this question is non-constructive, but still I'd care to read before voting it. I am positive about SE and people here who are here to help. I don't mean to call them bully, but some people cannot help themselves to surf around and hit the close button as fast as they could. Yeah it sounds like overreaction but there are always some genuine questions which may not have genuine answer but may have collection of answers to satisfy the questioner. Commented May 1, 2013 at 10:36
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    @JhilkeDai "I don't mean to call them bully" If you've regretted your characterizations, you can still edit your question here. "but some people cannot help themselves to surf around and hit the close button as fast as they could" I know. How's that a bad thing? It can be, when the question shouldn't be closed, but you haven't really told us what question sparked this Meta discussion so I can't really tell if it should or shouldn't have been closed. Commented May 1, 2013 at 10:43
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    btw, since your Meta question is attracting downvotes: Downvoting on Meta is different, in all probabillity people are downvoting to show that they don't agree with you that there's (large scale) bullying on the site, or that downvoting and voting to close constitute bullying. Commented May 1, 2013 at 11:22
  • I rolled back the question to previous state, as I am going to delete the original question, so, the link would not go to 404 Commented May 1, 2013 at 15:39
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    @YannisRizos, I don't regret saying bully to the bullies, again it was meant for some minority (hence the word some) not for the majority of good people here. Most bullies doesn't realize they are bullying others, it just part of them Commented May 1, 2013 at 15:49
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    Again: What bullies? Your question was not suitable for the site. People tried to explain why, and they voted to close it. That's the normal process for every question that's not suitable for the site, where's the bullying? I get that having your question closed stings a bit, but lets dial down the name calling a bit, please. Commented May 1, 2013 at 16:01
  • I see programmers is still making its new users feel warmly welcomed! Commented May 16, 2013 at 8:58

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Yeah it sounds like overreaction but there are always some genuine questions which may not have genuine answer but may have collection of answers to satisfy the questioner.

Your question is legitimate and appropriate for a discussion forum, Reddit or Slashdot but we actively discourage such open ended broad questions here. We are looking to build a site around peer reviewed, specific questions, within the scope of the FAQ and have clear concise peer reviewed answers that actually address the problem with facts or experiences.

Your question is good, but it will invite a lot of really bad answers and a lot of conflicting answers.

I think PHP Framework X is the BEST!

and...

I think PHP Framework Y is the BEST!

Then how does that help you? You might think the one with the highest votes is the correct answer but in fact the one with the highest votes is the most popular framework. That doesn't really help anybody make the best framework choice for their specific situation and that is what we mean when we say a question becomes a poll. We are a Q&A site, not SurveyMonkey.

I don't mean to call them bully, but some people cannot help themselves to surf around and hit the close button as fast as they could.

You can't speak for what is in other peoples hearts and minds. You can't claim to know what they are thinking. There are bullies on every site as in every aspect of life, and just for the sake of argument lets say that 1 out of 5 people on this site happens to be a bully (I am guessing on the high side).

It still takes 5 people to close the question so if one bully closed it for the lulz, then you can only assume the other 4 had a very good reason to. Don't worry about the bully or the quick close vote, why did 4 other people decide to close and downvote?

I am positive about SE and people here who are here to help.

Most of us are here to help and we want to welcome new users. The challenge for us is explaining to new users like yourself HOW we are different and WHY we are different than any other site out there. When new users get frustrated or angry then I feel like we have failed in explaining.

Please don't take downvotes and close votes as a personal attack or insult. It is the way that we rank content and nothing more. It only becomes an issue if it is a repetitive habit. Furthermore we do take bullying seriously. There are algorithms in place to identify, reverse and punish those that target users with downvotes and close votes. Downvotes and close votes should be directed at content and not people.

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    This is the best answer I have ever read here. Commented May 1, 2013 at 15:42
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    @Jhilke Dai: I agree. maple_shaft is one of StackExchange's best moderators. Commented May 2, 2013 at 11:11
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    @JimG. Thank you I appreciate that, although I disagree :) Commented May 2, 2013 at 11:58
  • @maple_shaft - it's because you disagree that we know it's true ;-) Commented May 3, 2013 at 9:06
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I can't recall the podcast edition where Joel Spolsky made a comment about question evaluation/voting. One point he made was to evaluate questions on how they are asked and not just whether you agree with the premise or whether or not it belongs on the site.

  • Having a good title.

  • providing enough information and using appropriate tags

  • Formating your code.

    Getting to the point instead of wasting people's time with 17 paragraphs ranting about your boss before asking a about a framework is the sign of a bad question. Constructive comments for downvotes is a good thing and I agree should be used more often.

Just be thankful you didn't get treated like this post.

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