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This question:

https://drupal.stackexchange.com/questions/109747/webforms-colorbox-not-working-seriously-nothing-happens

How can I ask this question in a way it does make sense? Since I wrote what I tried at all.
Additionally, the answer to my problem (which I included there) actually solved it.

  1. What'd be a good reason to downvote both the question AND the answer?
  2. What'd be a good reason to not force voters to write a mandatory comment to attach to their votes? Since votes reflect an opinion about the Q/A structure: why not to force users to justify their up/down vote? Specially for the down vote, since in the worst scenarios they restrict access to site functions.

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How can I ask this question in a way it does make sense?

Difficult to say - it already makes sense to me.

What'd be a good reason to downvote both the question AND the answer?

No-one can answer that except the person who cast the vote, really. A user's vote is their own to do with as they wish (except for specifically targeting certain users, which the system picks up and revokes).

I personally don't see a lot wrong with question (looks well fleshed out to me, and on-topic). Perhaps others misunderstood, or disagreed that it was well fleshed out, on-topic, etc. Like I say, there's not really any way to tell.

why not to force users to justify their up/down vote?

I won't go into all the reasons why this will never happen, as it's been asked for dozens (maybe hundreds) of times on the main meta site already.

I believe the canonical resource is: Encouraging people to explain downvotes.

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  • Thanks for the link. I'm reading it.
    – Luis Masuelli
    Commented Apr 11, 2014 at 17:12
  • Have a look at some of the linked posts in the sidebar of that meta question too, there are a lot of different ideas/opinions spread across quite a few questions
    – Clive Mod
    Commented Apr 11, 2014 at 17:13
  • currently reading :)
    – Luis Masuelli
    Commented Apr 11, 2014 at 17:32
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I cannot say exactly why users down-voted the question, but surely the fact your code shows you are using the wrong CSS class had a weight in this; users probably took you didn't read the module documentation. Only after, you added a note about having tried the CSS class suggested by the documentation, but probably users think you tried it after getting the suggestion in the answer that is now deleted; in other words, the users think you didn't show any effort in trying the solution yourself. As for the down-vote on the answer, probably the user who down-voted thinks it is not much helpful.

The fact somebody down-voted the question doesn't mean somebody else cannot down-vote the answer; those are two distinct votes that should not be considered as related in any way.

As for requiring a mandatory comment from the down-voters, the main reason is that it would help understand who down-voted, and this is not what Stack Exchange wants. Voting is anonymous by design; not even diamond moderators know the users who voted on a post. It would also not make sense, since I could agree with what said in a previous comment, and being forced to write a comment would just add rumor. What should down-voters write, "I agree with @UserWhoWroteThePreviousComment"?

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  • The answer was deleted by the author in les than 5 minutes (AFAIK I cannot delete answers not being mine) and it suggested me the class change (which I tried but not included in the question beforehand). Reacting to that answer, I edited.
    – Luis Masuelli
    Commented Apr 11, 2014 at 17:30
  • I understand the "I agree with @voter saying your Q/A was helpful/unhelpful", but will be far more constructive to fix the question or answer (by design, that's why votes were created for).
    – Luis Masuelli
    Commented Apr 11, 2014 at 17:32
  • It's not always possible to fix a question; for example, if the question is asking what module to use for a purpose, and the user doesn't report which modules they have tried, we cannot fix the question since we don't know what the user tried before asking the question. In your case, if you report you used a CSS class the documentation doesn't suggest using, there isn't nothing to fix in the question, since we don't know if you tried that CSS class too.
    – avpaderno Mod
    Commented Apr 11, 2014 at 17:49
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    That is exactly the reason why down-voters could have down-voted the answer: You tried the CSS class suggested by the documentation after somebody wrote the answer. That means you didn't read the documentation, which is probably the first step users are expecting to be done. Keep in mind there are users who can see deleted answers; even if the user who answered deleted his own answer, there are users who noticed you tried the correct CSS class after being reported what the documentation says.
    – avpaderno Mod
    Commented Apr 11, 2014 at 17:51

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