Consider this a rant - albeit a small one.

Why in the world won't you people upvote a good thread? For instance, Inheritance, Interfaces, and Code duplication is a damn good thread and a damn good question. But no one upvoted the OP? Why? We should be rewarding not only good answers but also good questions. How else will we get good answers without good questions? I've seen this a lot in the past few months. It boggles me. It truly does.

For clarity. When I say OP, I mean the Original Post that started the thread (ie. First post in the thread).

When I have a problem and someone answers to me I simply upvote him. Simply. Whatever he said I appreciate that he takes care to try to help me. And I let the community add more +1 if this is a very good and judicious answer.

(Sorry for my flood) The rare cases when I down-rated people was when I felt they insult me. (max 5 times ?) But it's way long time ago.

And honestly, I don't get why people don't upvote people that efficiently help ....

More in the topic, I rarely upvote the OP of a thread except if he/she asks something, describes a problem I have myself.

So quite a subjective way of vote, and I let the community add objectivity.

Honestly, the very thought of even upvoting threads had not occurred to me until I saw this.

I have a personal policy of up-voting helpful replies to threads. The point of this message board is to post questions, so I don't feel the original post needs up-voting. That being said, if the original poster was rude, argumentative, posted SPAM, or if the original post is blatantly off topic, I will down vote it and possibly report it.

This thread is not quite on the mark, but still registered some nostalgia.

I up-vote OPs that look particularly well thought-out or interesting, and I've seen some with quite a few votes. Unfortunately one of the problems we'll probably never be able to solve (but damn if we won't keep trying!) is that some topics are missed or don't get the attention they perhaps deserve.

The most recent version of the voting widget along with the addition of a limited number of "participation" points for voting really made a difference on this though: I remember Michael saying that voting increased something like 500% in the weeks after it was introduced.

I up-vote OPs that look particularly well thought-out or interesting, and I've seen some with quite a few votes. Unfortunately one of the problems we'll probably never be able to solve (but damn if we won't keep trying!) is that some topics are missed or don't get the attention they perhaps deserve.

The most recent version of the voting widget along with the addition of a limited number of "participation" points for voting really made a difference on this though: I remember Michael saying that voting increased something like 500% in the weeks after it was introduced.

Yeah.. Overall now it's even better. The participation rate is much much higher than it has ever been, which is awesome. I will say though that this was the reason that following a thread gives the creator points.. to acknowledge that the thread they started has value. If you actually hit the "Follow" button the OP will get points.

I will say though that this was the reason that following a thread gives the creator points.. to acknowledge that the thread they started has value. If you actually hit the "Follow" button the OP will get points.

If you unfollow it, do they lose points?

This is an interesting question and maybe should be moved to Comments/Suggestions/Ideas. I know that when I upvote it's based on "is this interesting and/or useful info?" but that doesn't necessarily always apply to an OP. I know that Stack Exchange has a "questions need love too" reminder every now and then, and maybe it's appropriate here too?