0
$\begingroup$

This is an interesting pickle. So, on the brink of what seemed to be covering angular motion entirely, I realized that I had big misconceptions.

Like any sane individual would do in this case, I knocked out my Physics teacher with a brick, ran to the nearest computer and logged into StackExchange Physic to ask my question.

However, there were some wrong answers. I upvoted a wrong answer. And now I can't take back my upvote. At the time of upvoting, I had assumed that the answer would be right due to the upvotes it had received, but now realize that I should've asked for citations.

This is the wrong answer.

So what do I do now? How can I take back my vote?

$\endgroup$
1
  • $\begingroup$ It can be a bit frustrating to regret an upvote that has been locked by the system, but honestly - it doesn't matter that much. Just move on, and the site will sort itself out on that. $\endgroup$
    – Emilio Pisanty
    Apr 5, 2015 at 22:04

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
5
$\begingroup$

How can I take back my vote?

As John's answer said, you can change your vote within 5 minutes of casting it. After that, it's locked in until the answer is edited. So something you can do is edit the answer so that you can change your vote. Of course, don't make a frivolous edit, but nearly every answer has something you can fix up (maybe the math syntax, or adding paragraph breaks, fixing spelling, etc.) which would improve the answer and justify a good edit.

Something else you can do is post a link to the question or answer in chat, or here on Meta if you have some reason to ask a meta question about it, and that will draw more attention and more votes to the answer. (Of course that's exactly what you did in this case.) If downvoting the answer is justified, presumably it will tend to get more downvotes the more attention it receives. Conversely if upvoting is justified, it will tend to get more upvotes.

$\endgroup$
1
$\begingroup$

You can click again on the up arrow to remove an upvote, though I think this is only possible for a limited time. I see you have accepted the answer - you can click again on the tick to un-accept the answer and there is no time limit on this.

You should un-accept the answer if it isn't an answer to your question, but I wouldn't worry about the stray upvote. After all, the person posting the answer has put a lot of effort into it, and even if the effort was misdirected it deserves some recognition.

$\endgroup$
5
  • $\begingroup$ My mistake, I should've linked the wrong answer. Please observe the changes in my question. $\endgroup$
    – Vatsal Manot
    Apr 5, 2015 at 5:40
  • $\begingroup$ @VatsalManot: ah, OK. I still wouldn't worry about the stray upvote. $\endgroup$
    – John Rennie
    Apr 5, 2015 at 5:42
  • $\begingroup$ I really feel that people should be aware that that particular question is wrong. Angular motion is sort-of a confusing topic for beginners (as far as I've observed), and I don't want them to stray into the darkness. Should I explicitly state it in my question then? $\endgroup$
    – Vatsal Manot
    Apr 5, 2015 at 5:44
  • $\begingroup$ @VatsalManot if you meant to say people should be aware that that particular answer is wrong, no, don't state it in your question. $\endgroup$
    – David Z
    Apr 5, 2015 at 8:10
  • 3
    $\begingroup$ @John: I take issue with your last sentence. If an answer is outright wrong, I'd say it deserves to be recognized as such, i.e. downvoted. Upvoting an incorrect answer because the poster put a lot of effort into it seems counterproductive. (I suspect that's not what you meant, but it does kind of read that way.) $\endgroup$
    – David Z
    Apr 5, 2015 at 8:17

You must log in to answer this question.

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