5

When an OP asks for a down vote clarification, power users should be able to click a button to add the following comment:

In the absence of a specific comment, you might find it useful to assume that a downvote means the downvoter thought that "This question does not show any research effort; it is unclear or not useful", since that's what the downvote button offers as a tooltip.

4
  • I generally do this when I see downvoted posts with no explanation.
    – enderland
    Dec 6 '13 at 15:04
  • 4
    You can script that, FYI.
    – Monica Cellio
    Dec 6 '13 at 16:35
  • @MonicaCellio: Umm... That's awesome!!! Thanks, Monica!
    – Jim G.
    Dec 6 '13 at 16:35
  • 1
    Ok, if that addresses the need I'll put it in an answer.
    – Monica Cellio
    Dec 6 '13 at 16:38
9

This user script from StackApps allows you to add pro-forma comments to any post on any site. It comes with some standard ones, but you can edit the list to either change those or add new ones. A "welcome to our site" message is a good one to have (with link to the "about" page, optionally). You can use this script to create a comment like the one in the question.

When using pro-forma comments you should always review for that specific context before just clicking "post". The script gives you an edit buffer, not a posted comment, for just that reason. Please don't be mindlessly mechanical, but there's no reason to keep typing the same message over and over again by hand either.

-3

Maybe at least as soon as the overall rating is negative, there could be an 'info' icon with that as the hover text.

I know that's already the hover of the downvote button, but people apparently don't get that (I didn't know until today) and this request is about making this detail obvious.

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