What is meta? ×

I was thinking, should people that posted an answer awhile back for posted an answer on a question before it was closed, be able to continue to receive negative reputation a year or two down the road? I mean if they received down votes in the first place they probably looked at why they were wrong and now know the correct answer. So should people a year later using google to search for information and stumble upon stackoverflow.com continue to gain negative rep based upon an answer they posted long ago?

Now if other answers are voted up for if they were helpful then that should be fine.

share|improve this question
a downvote without a comment on why it was downvoted? –  Bot Sep 16 '10 at 15:46

1 Answer 1

up vote 5 down vote accepted

Yes. If they realized they were wrong, they should have deleted their post. Our goal here is to produce correct answers to questions – incorrect answers should be clearly marked as such.

share|improve this answer
And there's a badge you earn for doing just that IIRC. –  Jim Leonardo Sep 16 '10 at 4:32
I have deleted answers before yet it just marks it as deleted. I can still view it in the question. –  Bot Sep 16 '10 at 4:42
I guess even though the alt says "vote to delete" it actually marks it deleted but the user that posted the answer can still see it to undelete at a later date? –  Bot Sep 16 '10 at 4:59
@jostster Yes, certain categories of users, such as the OP, 10k rep users, and moderators can view deleted posts. –  waiwai933 Sep 16 '10 at 5:16
But I don't believe deleted posts can be voted on by anyone. –  Jon Skeet Sep 16 '10 at 6:13
You get a popup if you vote on a deleted post and the vote is not cast. (Although it was possible somewhere in the past). –  Toon Krijthe Sep 16 '10 at 6:24
@Jim: However, caving to peer pressure is usually considered pejorative and some are happy to avoid that badge. –  Gnome Sep 16 '10 at 8:30
@Gnome- let me put the emphasis on WRONG. If others maybe didn't like your response, but you thought it was ok, then that's peer pressure. If you misread the question or otherwise were just completely off, then it's not peer pressure, it's cleaning up the mess. –  Jim Leonardo Sep 16 '10 at 15:05
@Jim: The badge is named "Peer Pressure," that's not a term I made up for it. –  Gnome Sep 16 '10 at 17:36

You must log in to answer this question.

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