Almost every question get's at least one up, even if they are bad

Question

I'm not one of the big-regulars on this but lately it's come to my attention that almost every question on gamedev get's at least one up vote. But as I see it, some questions really don't deserve this upvote. A few examples:

V8 JavaScript Engine and Mac App Store (single line question)

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6478818/java-using-strings-as-code (got updvoted on gamedev, but doesn't belong here)

Bitmap & Object Collision Help (code sample is useless, question too vague)

As you can see all these questions got +1. But why? Do people get points for upvoting other threads?

I've also looked at the scoring of questions on the first 5 pages, there was only one question in the negative. That's not quite what I'm used too on the SE network. Of course we don't have to bash everyone around, but maybe people could check in on the scoring of questions?

Answer 1

I agree with what you're saying, but we generally have more of a problem with not enough voting than too much:

http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/10/vote-early-vote-often/

So on the scale of "things that harm a site" too much voting is fairly harmless.

That said, I suggest voting on these questions as you (or anyone else) deem appropriate to attain a balance. Remember that

• question downvotes are now free, that is, they do not cost any reputation

• you now get up to 40 votes per day, as long as you use 10 of those votes on questions

If you see questions that, per the tooltip on the question downvote icon:

This question does not show any research effort; it is unclear or not useful (click again to undo)

Don't hesitate to vote appropriately!

Answer 2

But why? Do people get points for upvoting other threads?

Yes.

Electorate (gold): Voted on 600 questions and 25% or more of total votes are on questions https://gamedev.stackexchange.com/badges?tab=general

Please note: "Questions" really means "questions" although some people think it means "posts".

The changes causing downvotes on questions not to result in reputation loss anymore was very recent and did not get broad attention.