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I really don't take "down votes" personally but do try to use them to learn how I can improve. I'm relatively new here and want to give back a bit to other new members when I can help answer a question.

I was a little surprised to see that my accepted answer was down-voted, here:

Create users from frontend without password

No comment, no offer of an alternative answer, just down-voted. Which gives me no opportunity to learn to improve how I can answer questions. Now I'm thinking that my answer might have been wrong or incomplete - so the person who asked the question is at risk.

or, maybe someone was just cranky?

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    Please note that "downvote without explanation" is considered normal on SE, since some people react really really badly to downvotes and take it out on those who get openly involved. You are always welcomed to ask about this on meta and we will do our best to sort it out. :)
    – Rarst Mod
    Commented Jul 11, 2016 at 14:12
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    Down votes are used mostly to entrench those with power and privilege; and to scare newbies (and others) away. Rarst's explanation is interesting, suggesting that it's better to make anonymous down votes, since otherwise people may get a chance to question you directly. ;-)
    – Monkey Puzzle
    Commented Jul 16, 2016 at 10:07

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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I didn't downvote your answer but I would imagine because all you posted was links to something off-site. Link only answers are frowned upon and rot over time because links go bad. Answers should be detailed, include the needed or recommended code and be able to survive years to come. Your answer doesn't do that.

I would imagine if you made an edit with detail the person who downvoted it would remove their downvote as you're allowed when an edit is made.

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  • ok, understood - thanks. I didn't realize that links to WP codex were considered "risky" but I get the point. In the case of this particular question there is way too much code he needs for a complete answer (integration with mailchip, etc) -- but the "create a user in WP" piece is simple enough....
    – C C
    Commented Jul 11, 2016 at 13:58
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    well, per a Q&A awhile ago I was led to believe the codex is going away and you do not include the code plus some could take your answer as somewhat rude. You can include the basics for explanation in your answer. Providing a full detailed answer I wouldn't necessarily do as the question in itself is poor and I would downvote it as well as it shows no effort.
    – user9447
    Commented Jul 11, 2016 at 14:01
  • well, I updated the answer. It looks like my answer has really ticked some people off so I will probably just delete it later today...sorry for the trouble and confusion about this - next time I will just downvote the question as that seems to be the desired procedure. I'm still trying to learn the culture and "vibe" here...
    – C C
    Commented Jul 11, 2016 at 14:06
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    @CC please do not delete your answer! Your time and effort are always appreciated here, the details are just a learning curve. :)
    – Rarst Mod
    Commented Jul 11, 2016 at 14:09
  • ok, thanks @Rarst. I depend on you guys to help me, and I do want to "give back" help to the community when I can, so I am very conscious of not wanting to irritate people. I do understand better now, what is expected of a "good" answer to a question.
    – C C
    Commented Jul 11, 2016 at 14:11
  • FWIW, I might have downvoted your original answer if I had seen it at the time too. Nothing against you personally - the answer is much better after your edit. It's just that link-only answers are discouraged right across the SE network, whether to official documentation or not, and they even often get deleted in the low quality review queue if they're not improved on. There is no reason to delete your answer now though: you're clearly not the type who just 'drops by' without trying to understand how the site works (there's heaps of people like that). It's great to have you here =]
    – Tim Malone
    Commented Jul 12, 2016 at 0:05
  • @CC ^ ping for above, + you might also find the FAQ at uber meta useful - it answered a lot of my questions when I started playing around on SE!
    – Tim Malone
    Commented Jul 12, 2016 at 0:06

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