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I'm new to the website and am enjoying the discussions I've been finding. I've contributed to multiple conversations but in most cases am having my responses downvoted and questioned, despite having provided what I felt were helpful responses. I was wondering what might cause these?

In particular, in the Snowboarding section. Having been an avid snowboarder for many years, I passed on some personal experience to help but was met with downvotes. I'm wondering how I might improve my responses.

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  • I like your question, and I totally agree. Being also new to sports StackExchange. I just gave one answer which, in my view, improved the existing answer by sharing a link to an extensive database which covers that question. However, I immediately received two down votes. And I do not know why this is the case? I do not think that this would have happened at Crossvalidated for example.
    – Arne
    Commented Dec 19, 2016 at 17:18
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    @Arne Answers that are "barely more than a link to an external site" are not encouraged. However, you do a fine job explaining what that link is and how it is useful to answering the question. Maybe your answer works better as a comment under the accepted answer, to which you agree with? I'm not sure. This meta question may be related and applicable to your situation.
    – user527
    Commented Dec 19, 2016 at 19:06

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Stack Exchange sites, including Sports, are not for discussions or conversations. They are for questions and answers. People may downvote your answers because:

  • they aren't answers, but just your thoughts on something vaguely related to the question or that the question reminds you of, or a reply to another answer.
  • they are poorly written (grammar, spelling, formatting)
  • they are factually wrong

Any one of these three might apply to your answers. Take a firm look and see if you can improve them to be concise and sensible answers to what was actually asked.

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  • As a non-native English speaker, I think the second bullet point is problematic. I understand that poor language may be a reason for a downvote, in particular if you have the feeling that the user just put minimum effort into a question or an answer. It the answer is informative, however, one should edit and improve a post rather than downvote it and discourage participation.
    – Arne
    Commented Dec 19, 2016 at 17:27
  • @Arne absolutely. If you're able to puzzle out the meaning of a poorly written post, regardless of the reason (laziness, second language, very upset at time of writing) then editing it is a generous and pleasant thing to do. But downvoting, to indicate the question is not currently at the quality level required by the site, is not wrong, and some people will do that instead of editing. Either is a valid action.
    – Kate Gregory
    Commented Dec 19, 2016 at 17:33
  • Thanks Kate. I just think that the practice of downvoting at Sports seems to discomfort some users here, see here, here or, of course the question were are talking about. And I have not had this impression at other StackExchange sites so far (with my limited experience).
    – Arne
    Commented Dec 19, 2016 at 17:44

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