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Looking at the responses to 39 questions of mine deleted, and counting. How do you expect users to write well written questions? it strikes me that upvoting questions which warrant upvotes is needed more than what is currently happening.

As I mentioned in a comment, I think the lack of upvotes can also be an indicator of the range of members here. Those who would find such niche questions useful to them surely would upvote?

The questions discussed in the first link are niche questions but it doesn't mean they are not useful to someone else. Even though they may be niche questions, surely they would be useful to general practitioners who have patients suffering with tendinopathy related problems?

I think the upvoting issue does need addressing. I try to remember to do so myself, but we need to be upvoting more as a community. If the question is on-topic and well researched, it can be useful to others so it should be upvoted. That way, issues like the automatic deletion of good questions won't arise though no upvoting.

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It's not just upvoting that's neglected. Downvoting is lacking as well. For example, when I see a question flagged for closure, I should also see at least one downvote but quite frequently I don't. If you think a question is so flawed that it should be closed then surely it deserves a downvote. In fact, quite often downvotes should be sufficient to drive a bad question to the bottom of the pile without the need for the more drastic step of closure. That's the stackexchange model and how it's supposed to work. In general, voting should drive the content, not moderation.

I think that actually makes for a friendlier site. Users can see that it's the community not liking their question rather than just a single mean old moderator. It's also a lot harder to argue with unknown downvoters than it is a moderator.

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    That's a different perspective than I have. Closure isn't always for 'egregiously bad', but primarily it should be (apart from our site issues with quality) "put on hold", look for improvement, dv optional, esp warranted for perceived badness or if intent for removal after improvement and RO happens. If 0 vote, hold/close cycle completes the Q will be removed anyway (as evidenced by 39 above). That said, there are a lot more bad As in the world than bad Qs. As no roomba takes care of As, that's where I try to focus my DVs. DVs are often seen as unfriendly per se. Qs are from newbies, so
    – LаngLаngС
    Aug 5, 2019 at 8:30
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    I thought heavy DVs on hapless newbies should be avoided. If stubbornness or intentional badness come into play it's another matter. The added perspective of argumentative posters and their burden for mods is sth I didn't factor in much so far. But then, I probably also assumed a mod has habituated more/thicker skin than regulars, as the effect from individual posters should be similar to everyone trying to help via comments if controversy arises? (And yeah, that happens too often)
    – LаngLаngС
    Aug 5, 2019 at 8:35
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    @LangLangC A good example is both Qs and As without supporting references. What I would hope to see in that case is a single downvote with a comment explaining it. The user then adds references and the DV gets retracted. I wouldn't want to see piling on of DVs. That is indeed unfriendly. Instead what usually happens is I come along, add the standard comment about missing references, and wait a day or two until the user has signed back on and had a chance to see the comment. There's still no DVs, so from the user's perspective it's solely the mod disapproving, not the community.
    – Carey Gregory Mod
    Aug 5, 2019 at 14:14
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    My impression was that in most cases regardless of user status the commenter gets the blame and argument for "policing", even if that's exactly the purpose of all actions in that regard. – And in case of newbies I tríed to wait a while, hold-vote immediately, but DV only after either UV (to counterweight 'crazy vote') or no reaction (negative incentive). Guess I have to be a bit swifter?
    – LаngLаngС
    Aug 5, 2019 at 15:38
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    @CareyGregory - What I do is leave a comment and wait a couple of days. If no attempt is made to rectify then I vote to close. I must admit I haven't downvoted in the past and if there is no downvote registered I think, like you said, I will put one on as it indicates no attempts made to rectify a bad question which has had a pointer given.
    – Chris Rogers
    Aug 5, 2019 at 15:38
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    @ChrisRogers The hold could be much quicker, as it should be 'easy' for the rest of the community to reverse that (or even disagree in the first place). Hold message is also another hopefully helpful comment in itself. It is indeed suboptimal to read Carey's handle under every close msg (alas, I feel that far too many posts are still from Mayflies where it wouldn't matter one way or another). The "one-DV-indicator" looks like a useful guideline though.
    – LаngLаngС
    Aug 5, 2019 at 15:43
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    @ChrisRogers It hasn't escaped my notice that you're often the first to jump on inadequate posts and comment with the standard reply. I appreciate that.
    – Carey Gregory Mod
    Aug 6, 2019 at 4:46

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