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i experienced that I got far more upvotes on Space Exloration.SE, than on other sites like Stack Overflow. How is it possible? I mean, my questions are not always cover important of popular aspects. Also, there aren't so many active members yet.

This question may be downvoted, I can see clearly. But I seriously want to know the possible reasons. :D

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    $\begingroup$ I would say votes in general, up or down. I didn't notice our users being shy in downvoting, when that is deemed necessary. And all that is good. I've also personally been encouraging members to vote more frequently (ie. if they read it, they might as well vote, no?) in our main Space Exploration Chat room, with hope it creates a more productive atmosphere and at the same time more members with high rep site privileges, so this feeling of democracy starts happening for us as well. Constantly relying on moderators to hammer / nuke / ... posts does not reflect good on any site, IMO. $\endgroup$
    – TildalWave Mod
    Commented Sep 5, 2013 at 15:50
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    $\begingroup$ Worth mentioning - and you get shiny new badges if you use 30 votes (max on votes on answers per day), and 40 votes (max total votes per day, questions & answers). These are one time only badges, but it still goes to show that this care for voting is built into the Stack Exchange system. ;) $\endgroup$
    – TildalWave Mod
    Commented Sep 5, 2013 at 18:21
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    $\begingroup$ PearsonArtPhoto have mentioned the limit below. I didn't know that I can even get badges for them! $\endgroup$
    – Zoltán Schmidt
    Commented Sep 5, 2013 at 18:25

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The culture of each Stack Exchange site is different from all other SE sites, even when the topic is similar. One of the more subtle differences is in voting patterns. Some SE sites, users are encouraged (by mods and each other) to vote for good questions and answers. Others, such as SO itself, nobody cares if you ever get any votes. Seriously, how can you have an accepted answer where even the person who asked the question didn't even bother to vote for the answer that they accepted? That's just crazy.

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  • $\begingroup$ @called2voyage Yeah, and so damn true! $\endgroup$
    – Zoltán Schmidt
    Commented Sep 5, 2013 at 16:12
  • $\begingroup$ Maybe the solution answer works, even though it's a bad one (bad coding, or perhaps just a link to a blogpost somewhere)? $\endgroup$
    – gerrit
    Commented Sep 5, 2013 at 18:16
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Essentially, small sites have a natural tendency to get more votes than big sites. Why? First of all, there is a finite number of questions to look through. If you only have to look at a dozen questions per day, you can probably make a decision about them, and even read all of them. If you have 100 questions a day, that's not possible, and don't even talk about SO.

Furthermore, there is a maximum number of votes per day, being 40. One just can't vote on as many questions as one would like if that limit weren't around.

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    $\begingroup$ I've never heard about the vote limit. Glad to see that the creators of Stack Exchange are so prepared for preventing serious issues. $\endgroup$
    – Zoltán Schmidt
    Commented Sep 5, 2013 at 17:11
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On beta sites, the mods will try and encourage voting activity for a couple of reasons:

  • It helps new members feel welcome
  • It is a useful tool to highlight the questions we want on a site
  • It helps move more users to rep levels where they can function as a community (as opposed to leaving everything to the mods)
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    $\begingroup$ You tell it like if wouldn't be true for non-beta sites. Which is possible, though. $\endgroup$
    – Zoltán Schmidt
    Commented Sep 5, 2013 at 16:13
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    $\begingroup$ It isn't as true once a site gets to be huge. SO is just so big it seems unmanageable :-) $\endgroup$
    – Rory Alsop Mod
    Commented Sep 5, 2013 at 17:01
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    $\begingroup$ True! I still appreciate the effort some people put into it - and in fact, it's a good site to find answers to the most common (and even some less common) questions. Being helpless is another topic. $\endgroup$
    – Zoltán Schmidt
    Commented Sep 5, 2013 at 17:09
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    $\begingroup$ Beta status might also be associated with more enthusiasm, at least early on. People eager to build the community would presumably vote more frequently. $\endgroup$
    – user56
    Commented Sep 7, 2013 at 3:49

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