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This question is obsolete, as explained.

After asking about why it was not encouraged to ask downvoters to give a reason, I received a number of firm answers that contain a lot of good reasons (and some less good but that's not the point).

Now, only a few days or even hours after I was told there is no way downvoters would be asked such a thing, I downvoted a question and a notification appeared on top of my page reading:

Please consider adding a comment if you think this post can be improved.

Please understand my surprise. Have the rules of downvoting just changed?

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    $\begingroup$ It doesn't say, You must as a comment, just making the suggestion to comment. There is no discrepancy here between being required to do something and suggesting you do something. $\endgroup$
    – Kyle Kanos
    May 12, 2019 at 0:13
  • $\begingroup$ As I was saying to Chris, it must have been a bug on my browser, as I never saw those before. Should I delete this question? $\endgroup$
    – Winston
    May 12, 2019 at 0:18
  • $\begingroup$ @Exocytosis If a "delete" link appears for you, you're welcome to use it, but there's no need to delete the question if you don't want to. A good alternative would be to post an answer yourself. We'd rather not have answers edited into the question, though. (I rolled back your edit that added that) $\endgroup$
    – David Z
    May 12, 2019 at 1:04
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    $\begingroup$ This message is shown to <2k rep users. Here is the announcement for the feature which you describe: meta.stackexchange.com/a/2373 $\endgroup$
    – user191954
    May 12, 2019 at 2:40
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    $\begingroup$ For what it's worth, I'm quite sure you didn't ask why 'it was not encouraged'. Everyone agrees that it's encouraged and that's as it should be; all reasonably explanations I can think of say that it shouldn't be mandatory to comment. $\endgroup$
    – user191954
    May 12, 2019 at 2:45
  • $\begingroup$ @David: I cannot delete it. I find it useless though. I am voting to close it. $\endgroup$
    – Winston
    May 12, 2019 at 4:34
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    $\begingroup$ I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because this is essentially a misunderstanding $\endgroup$
    – Winston
    May 12, 2019 at 4:35
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    $\begingroup$ I don't see why you want to close a support question just because you learned how the feature works: it's fine to ask this kind of a question and then accept an answer which tells you what the system is doing. That's the point of most support questions. $\endgroup$
    – user191954
    May 12, 2019 at 15:20
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    $\begingroup$ Being rude to everyone who doesn't support your opinion does not help. Based on your profile, you cast two (or fewer) downvotes before posting this question, so I find it completely plausible that you missed the notice on the first downvote. Or maybe it's a bug, but that still doesn't justify closing the question. $\endgroup$
    – user191954
    May 13, 2019 at 2:24

1 Answer 1

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That notification has been there for many years at least. Note that it is a request, not a demand. If you want to downvote without leaving a comment, that's your prerogative.

No one's saying that explaining your downvotes is a bad thing. Just that it shouldn't be a mandatory thing.

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  • $\begingroup$ Sorry, there must have been a bug on my browser that did hide those banners before. Ah ok, not mandatory, just suggested. Well I didn't understand that earlier but in the end, I find the system good. $\endgroup$
    – Winston
    May 12, 2019 at 0:16
  • $\begingroup$ Should I delete this question? $\endgroup$
    – Winston
    May 12, 2019 at 0:18
  • $\begingroup$ Well actually, given the fact that was only my second downvote, maybe I missed it the first time. $\endgroup$
    – Winston
    May 12, 2019 at 0:32
  • $\begingroup$ Yeah, the message has been there in its present form since October 2011 and it was introduced in July 2009 (meta.stackexchange.com/posts/2373/revisions). $\endgroup$
    – user191954
    May 12, 2019 at 2:46
  • $\begingroup$ @Chris: Apparently I cannot delete the question as long as there is a positively scored answer. I believe this question does not make any sense after the roll back and more fundamentally my mistake, so if you would be so kind as to remove your answer, vote for deletion, closing, or anything else, I would appreciate. If you think otherwise, please just tell me so I understand your point. Thank you. $\endgroup$
    – Winston
    May 12, 2019 at 9:41
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    $\begingroup$ @Exocytosis The point of leaving posts like this around are to help other users later who may have the same question you had. On the other hand, deleting the question doesn't really serve any purpose. $\endgroup$
    – Chris Mod
    May 12, 2019 at 11:53

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