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There's been some confusion regarding the statistics used in the question and its answers, so I'll take a moment to clear those up. In the bottom right of the "summary" subtab of a user's Activity tab, there is a Votes Cast section. Those counts do include votes on deleted posts; relevant MSE. On your own "votes" subtab, you don't see up/downvotes on deleted posts. (You can see closure and deletion votes on now-deleted posts.) The Data Explorer's UpVotes and DownVotes columns in the Users table are the same as the Votes Cast section. I'm not sure that there's a right way or wrong way to measure voting using these figures, but we should be clear about what we're counting.

All data aside, I agree that it's a Good Thing to comment when downvoting. Forcing people to comment when downvoting has been requested many times, but there isn't a good way to make that work. Relevant MSE, one of many.

• Should we have a policy about "too much downvoting"?
• Should I be concerned about my upvote/downvote ratio?
• Am I downvoting too much, or are things really that bad?

There's been some confusion regarding the statistics used in the question and its answers, so I'll take a moment to clear those up. In the bottom right of the "summary" subtab of a user's Activity tab, there is a Votes Cast section. Those counts do include votes on deleted posts; relevant MSE. On your own "votes" subtab, you don't see up/downvotes on deleted posts. (You can see closure and deletion votes on now-deleted posts.) The Data Explorer's UpVotes and DownVotes columns in the Users table are the same as the Votes Cast section. I'm not sure that there's a right way or wrong way to measure voting using these figures, but we should be clear about what we're counting.

All data aside, I agree that it's a Good Thing to comment when downvoting. Forcing people to comment when downvoting has been requested many times, but there isn't a good way to make that work. Relevant MSE, one of many.

• Should we have a policy about "too much downvoting"?
• Should I be concerned about my upvote/downvote ratio?
• Am I downvoting too much, or are things really that bad?

You will be happy to know that, in general, there are far more upvotes in play than downvotes. This tiny query tells us that Super User has more than 10 times as many upvotes as downvotes (not counting votes from deleted users or the automatic downvotes on red-flagged posts). This other query counts the votes on posts by new-ish users, those with less than 500 reputation. The upvote proportion is even more extreme here: almost 12x as many positive votes as negative ones. Of course, that doesn't include deleted posts, but it's still interesting.

You will be happy to know that, in general, there are far more upvotes in play than downvotes. This tiny query tells us that Super User has more than 10 times as many upvotes as downvotes (not counting votes from deleted users or the automatic downvotes on red-flagged posts, but counting votes on deleted posts). This other query counts the votes on non-deleted posts by new-ish users, those with less than 500 reputation. The upvote proportion is even more extreme here: almost 12x as many positive votes as negative ones. Of course, that doesn't include deleted posts, but it's still interesting.

There's been some confusion regarding the statistics used in the question and its answers, so I'll take a moment to clear those up. In the bottom right of the "summary" subtab of a user's Activity tab, there is a Votes Cast section. Those counts do include votes on deleted posts; relevant MSE. On your own "votes" subtab, you don't see up/downvotes on deleted posts. (You can see closure and deletion votes on now-deleted posts.) The Data Explorer's UpVotes and DownVotes columns in the Users table are the same as the Votes Cast section. I'm not sure that there's a right way or wrong way to measure voting using these figures, but we should be clear about what we're counting.

There are some rare cases where commenting is actively undesirable. I once dealt with a user (on a different site) who repeatedly posted non-answers. Each time, I gently reminded him of the site's requirements, but he became increasingly upset. Eventually I realized that he would not listen, and when I removed his last post with no comment (and therefore no notification), he left of his own accord.

The system as it stands allows people to vote as they please, so long as the votes aren't targeted (e.g. revenge downvoting, sockpuppet upvoting). The site is so large that one voter with unusual preferences will on the whole be counteracted by another with the opposite patterns.

Executive summary: commenting to explain downvotes is a very good thing to do. Doing that consistently is far more important than shooting for any up/downvote ratio. Fortunately, we also have plenty more upvotes going around than downvotes.

There's been some confusion regarding the statistics used in the question and its answers, so I'll take a moment to clear those up. In the bottom right of the "summary" subtab of a user's Activity tab, there is a Votes Cast section. Those counts do include votes on deleted posts; relevant MSE. On your own "votes" subtab, you don't see up/downvotes on deleted posts. (You can see closure and deletion votes on now-deleted posts.) The Data Explorer's UpVotes and DownVotes columns in the Users table are the same as the Votes Cast section. I'm not sure that there's a right way or wrong way to measure voting using these figures, but we should be clear about what we're counting.

For what it's worth, there are some very rare cases where commenting is actively undesirable. I once dealt with a user (on a different site) who repeatedly posted non-answers. Each time, I gently reminded him of the site's requirements, but he became increasingly upset. Eventually I realized that he would not listen, and when I removed his last post with no comment (and therefore no notification), he left of his own accord.

The system as it stands allows people to vote as they please, so long as the votes aren't targeted (e.g. revenge downvoting, sockpuppet upvoting). The site is so large that one voter with unusual preferences will on the whole be counteracted by another with the opposite patterns. Even someone who only downvotes but always leaves constructive explanatory comments can be an asset to the site. "Mentoring" has far more to do with consistently commenting on individual encounters than a person's ratio of vote types.