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I answered this question over at SE a few months back:

How to creating MS Access database without MS Access application?

So someone comes along and edits it (How deleting a single tag is not considered "Too minor" when there are obvious gramatical errors all over the post is beyond me...) which puts the question back on Page 1. Someone comes along and downvotes my answer, after it was accepted and it's definitely correct.

Once an answer is accepted, shouldn't it be locked to prevent this? If it's accepted, it was presumably helpful to the OP and I think it should be immune to downvotes. Someone else can certainly come along and add their comments if they feel they have another answer, or add a comment to the accepted answer explaining why it may not be relevant or whatever a downvote on SE is supposed to signify.

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  • 15
    Accepted means "worked for me" by the OP. Doesn't mean "this is correct".
    – Oded
    Commented Oct 25, 2013 at 15:02
  • 5
    Sometimes the accepted answer is wrong (not saying yours is) so downvotes can't be locked
    – Richard Tingle
    Commented Oct 25, 2013 at 15:02
  • 3
    So every single person that asks a question is infallible; they can never possibly accept an answer that doesn't work, or that is a poor answer despite helping them? You're going to need to prove that if you feel that they shouldn't be voted on.
    – Servy
    Commented Oct 25, 2013 at 15:04
  • What does the edit have to do with this? the fact that you bring it up makes it sound like the tag edit somehow changed the question so your answer was not correct
    – psubsee2003
    Commented Oct 25, 2013 at 15:05
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    Instead of answering the question, shouldn't you be flagging it for moderator attention (since you can't vote to close yet) since it's asking for tool recommendations?
    – LittleBobbyTables - Au Revoir
    Commented Oct 25, 2013 at 15:06
  • 5
    Since you have asserted that an answer that is accepted is obviously perfect and could never possibly be wrong, of poor quality, or unhelpful, in addition to locking downvotes we should also lock upvotes. I mean, we already know that it's the perfect answer, there's no real compelling reason to have other people indicating that they find it useful since we already know that it's perfect.
    – Servy
    Commented Oct 25, 2013 at 15:07
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    @RogerRowland Nope; Will just likes cleaning up tags a lot, so he frequently goes around untagging the evil tag of the day from all questions using it.
    – Servy
    Commented Oct 25, 2013 at 15:12
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    @RichardTingle disagree with downvoting an accepted answer in general, but downvoting a specific answer that you found from a meta post is a little unfair unless there is a very specific reason for it. However, it is a risk you run when you bring your own post up on meta.
    – psubsee2003
    Commented Oct 25, 2013 at 15:24
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    @RichardTingle I consider downvotes on an unhelpful accepted answer to be much, much more important than any other downvotes you can cast. That the answer is accepted means that many people are going to be under the impression that it's a good answer. If it's not, it is very important that readers be given as much indication as is possible that the answer should not be used, and that another answer should be used instead. Even if the author can't delete it, they can still edit it into a helpful answer.
    – Servy
    Commented Oct 25, 2013 at 15:28
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    @JohnnyBones I never used the word "correct" or "incorrect" in my comment. I used the word "unhelpful". Just because an answer is correct doesn't mean it's useful/helpful.
    – Servy
    Commented Oct 25, 2013 at 15:33
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    @JohnnyBones I never said all correct answers aren't helpful, I said not all correct answers are helpful. A correct answer can be unhelpful or it can be helpful.
    – Servy
    Commented Oct 25, 2013 at 15:35
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    As my go to example for an unhelpful correct answer "Java is pass by value, not pass by reference", true but deeply misleading because it passes a reference by value
    – Richard Tingle
    Commented Oct 25, 2013 at 15:38
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    @JohnnyBones votes (down or up doesn't matter) are first of all to help the readers of the post, all the readers, not just (and not even primarily to) asker
    – gnat
    Commented Oct 25, 2013 at 15:47
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    Then I've been voting (and answering, for that matter) wrong this entire time...
    – Johnny Bones
    Commented Oct 25, 2013 at 15:49
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    @JohnnyBones Apparently so. Now you know. That's what we're here for.
    – Servy
    Commented Oct 25, 2013 at 15:50

3 Answers 3

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No, accepted answers should not be immune to downvotes.

There are incorrect accepted answers out there, and downvotes are the only means we have to reduce the visibility of those answers relative to correct but unaccepted ones.

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  • Why would someone accept an incorrect answer? Maybe the person who accepts an incorrect answer should get the ding on their rep for accepting the wrong answer?
    – Johnny Bones
    Commented Oct 25, 2013 at 15:03
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    @JohnnyBones Possibly because they don't know better. It's not like all questions asked on this site are asked by experts in their field that never make mistakes (and, for that matter, even experts make occasional mistakes).
    – Servy
    Commented Oct 25, 2013 at 15:05
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    Evidence, horrible horrible evidence
    – Richard Tingle
    Commented Oct 25, 2013 at 15:05
  • 2
    @RichardTingle a better search for even better evidence
    – psubsee2003
    Commented Oct 25, 2013 at 15:08
  • 1
    stackoverflow.com/…
    – Servy
    Commented Oct 25, 2013 at 15:10
  • 3
    @JohnnyBones- Possibly the latest case.
    – Rahul
    Commented Oct 25, 2013 at 17:14
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People can downvote for whatever reason they like. Same with upvotes. Maybe they think your answer isn't detailed enough. Maybe they don't like Access. Maybe they don't like your avatar. Maybe they're having a bad day.

You can't compel them to tell you why if they don't feel like it.

As for possibly making accepted answers immune from downvotes, that's a bad idea. The OP is often the last person to see what is a good solution to their problem. They, however, are the only ones who can say if a specific answer solved the problem for them.

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4

Yup, that was me.

I'm burning the tag.

I gots the rep, so I can remove a tag without having my edit go through the approval process. Now, I didn't edit the question because it is a turd and I don't polish them, I just cut them. I VTC that bastard (as you will note I'm the first on the close list) and left it for the flies.

I can only spare a bit of free time every day to this kind of thing, and editing crap questions that need to get deleted is not on that list.

Shopping questions are awful and should be punishable by horsewhipping. I can't horsewhip through the intertubes, but I can sure as hell downvote people who ask them and those that help these defilers in their act.

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  • Alas, the roomba doesn't delete questions with accepted answers.
    – user213963
    Commented Oct 25, 2013 at 18:22

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