Downvoted questions

Question

My feeling is that more questions are downvoted here on https://bricks.stackexchange.com/ than on the other stackexchange sites I use. Of course, I might be wrong in that feeling, but for the rest of the question I assume it to be correct.

A number of similar questions pop up again and again, such as identifying a bag with no pictures or real information. These are often downvoted before being closed. I can understand this.

But then there are questions like this: Can I buy replacement bags through Lego? I cannot see why this is downvoted. Is it because something thinks he should have done more investigation on his own? Is it because it is deemed as off topic? Or just because people here do not like knock off products of Lego? I think it is completely fair to have something against these knock offs, but is that a reason to downvote? If there is something wrong with the question then why not recommend changes in a comment?

The point of my question: Should this subsite be more welcoming to new members? Or is it too difficult to actually understand what is on/off topic here?

Answer 1

Thanks for bringing this up. It is important to be reminded of how we are interacting with new folks in our community. Your question is similar to my first post on Meta where others reflected on voting and similar behaviors.

Should this subsite be more welcoming to new members?

Yes.

There is always room to be more welcoming. As a community built around the shared joy of block-based building toys, we should be continuing to create a fun and inviting space by removing any sharp edges that make it difficult for newer folks to feel at home here.

I think it is completely fair to have something against these knock offs, but is that a reason to downvote?

Questions about LEGO-compatible systems are welcome here. I've asked at least one. My guess is that the negative sentiment is related to the question asking for support for a set that falls outside of what would be legal to produce and sell in many jurisdictions. It sounds like the set violates both TLG's and Lucasfilm's intellectual property, and I can imagine folks not wanting support that sort of product.

Comments and extended discussion about whether that sort of content is appropriate in our community would probably be a better way to address this than downvoting a new user's question.