Feature request: question/answer feedback or 'constructive criticism'.

Question

When a question/answer is voted down, the first thing the user wants to know is "why?". This is often because they weren't given any constructive criticism. They were told their question or answer is wrong, but not why it's wrong.

Could be the voter is biased or hateful? Could be the voter just wasn't presented the immediate opportunity to provide feedback, so it never crossed their mind. What can be done to encourage people to provide feedback before the user feels the need to ask "Why did you downvote me?"?

After the vote up/down feature is used, I'd like to see a link activated somewhere around the up/down buttons: provide feedback so that the voter is encouraged to do so. The feedback link wouldn't need to do more than focus the comment textbox following the question or answer voted upon. I believe this would be quite beneficial for the communities running this software.

Answer 1

Some tweaks can easily be added using small javascript snipets. Here's something that might work for you:

<script type="text/javascript">

$(function() {
   var old_func = response_commands['update_post_score'];

function new_func(id, inc) {
      old_func(id, inc);

if (parseInt(inc) < 0) {;
          $('#comment-tools-' + id + ' .add-comment-link').trigger('click');

var $box = $('#comment-' + id + '-form .commentBox');
           $box.focus();
           $box.val('Please explain why you downvoted');           
      }
   }

response_commands['update_post_score'] = new_func; 
});
</script>

Put it in the <header> section in the admin page, and adjust to your likings.

Feature request: question/answer feedback or 'constructive criticism'.

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