-4
$\begingroup$

If a question received an answer before being closed as a duplicate, should I downvote the answer? The answer could very well have been taken from the original question, slightly modified and fed to the duplicate. I don't think the author of the answer deserves the rep for it.

What are your thoughts? Is it acceptable to downvote answers to duplicate questions?

$\endgroup$
2
  • $\begingroup$ I think if it looks like has been copied from any previous answer then we should downvote it. But if there reflects any genuine effort then it should be appreciated. $\endgroup$
    – chail10
    Jun 2 '17 at 5:46
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Remember that no new answers can be posted to closed questions. If it looks like an independent answer, then it's almost certain that it was posted before the question was closed as a duplicate, and should be treated as an honest post to the site. Up- or down-vote on the merits. $\endgroup$
    – hBy2Py
    Jun 3 '17 at 2:32
15
$\begingroup$

No. Answers should be judged entirely on their merit.

  • Is it helpful? ➜ Up-vote, move on.
  • Is it not helpful? ➜ Down-vote, move on.

  • Is it neither? ➜ Move on.

  • Is it plagiarised? ➜ Flag.
    If the answer is plagiarised from another answer (copied verbatim without attribution in the general case, but not limited to) then that is another problem. Such answers should be either clarified, or removed. Please bring these things to the moderators attention, so that we can decide which further measures need to be done.

Voting is not primarily about gaining or loosing reputation. It's a measure to judge the quality of the content. The only question that should be of concern is, how helpful is that going to be in the future and is it useful enough to keep it around.
Obviously voting is something very subjective and that's a good thing. But if enough people vote a tendency can be seen.

$\endgroup$

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .