Quora upvote history: what it records, what the rules bar and what follows
Quora is a question-and-answer platform, and an upvote there marks a reply as helpful; users can also downvote replies they find unsatisfactory. Quora's business page and Ads Support article describe no Quora upvote history for the user who casts the votes. Quora's policy, as TechCrunch reports it, bars offers to trade for upvotes or to reward them, and repeat offenders are warned and can then be blocked.
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Upvote meaning on Quora: the definition and the quality test
Quora describes itself as a platform where people come to ask questions, share knowledge and explore a wide range of topics. Its app listing adds that people read knowledge that is personalized and relevant to them and share their own, and its business page describes a community of highly opinionated users who ask, edit and organize the questions. IONOS notes that each question is assigned to a specific category.
Google Play's listing for the Quora app states the aim in a line: a Q&A platform that empowers people to share and grow the world's knowledge, where a user can ask a question and get helpful answers.
Inside that community an upvote is a reader's verdict on one reply. Shopify's guide says users can upvote the answers they deem most helpful and downvote those they find unsatisfactory, similar to how Reddit works. Inquirer USA states it in one line: users can upvote or downvote a reply to a question.
Contrary Research gives the purpose: votes up and down are cast on quality, so that the most helpful content rises to prominence. That gives the definition its shape: an upvote is a quality judgment attached to one reply, made by a logged-in user, and counted toward how far the reply rises.
Upvotes and downvotes on Quora: two choices on each reply
Downvotes sit beside upvotes on every reply. Shopify's guide describes the downvote as the choice for replies users find unsatisfactory, and Inquirer USA adds that a user can vote on each response in the same thread, so every reply is judged on its own.
Upvoting and downvoting are two of the four actions Quora's Ads Support page lists on a reply, next to sharing and commenting. Of those four kinds of engagement, Contrary Research ties the first two to quality and to which content rises.
Quora upvote history: what the pages describe and what they leave out
The history that is described belongs to the reply. A reply shows its upvote count beneath it, and a collapsed reply stays collapsed whatever votes it receives afterwards, according to TechCrunch.
A voter's own history is another matter. Quora's business page and its Ads Support article describe no screen or tool that lists the upvotes a user has cast.
The two records serve different purposes. The count on a reply is public and shared by every reader, while a list of cast upvotes would belong to one user's account.
Promoted Answers are a Quora product: reach without a ranking change
Quora's Ads Support page describes Promoted Answers as replies that function like any other, apart from a Promoted by label: readers can still upvote, downvote, share and comment on them.
What promotion changes is distribution. The page says promoting a reply grants it greater distribution, meaning it can be shown to more people, and that promotion does not change or influence the reply's ranking on question pages.
The two effects stay separate. Reach is something Quora's own product provides; a vote remains a reader's verdict on the reply once it is seen, and promotion leaves the ranking where it was.
Rules and penalties: what Quora's policy bars, as TechCrunch reports it
TechCrunch reports that Quora's policy does not allow users to make three kinds of offer:
The three offers share one feature: each turns the count into something other than a reader's real judgment of a reply's quality.
The penalties TechCrunch describes start with the reply. Quora collapsed a reply after detecting a policy violation over money changing hands for upvotes, and it stayed out of view however many votes arrived afterwards. Repeat offenders of Quora's policy are warned and can then be blocked.
Content is hit first and accounts later: a violating reply is collapsed, and an account is blocked only after warnings to repeat offenders.
- Money for upvotes: users are not allowed to make offers of money in return for upvotes.
- Rewards: users are not allowed to reward other users for upvotes with consideration.
- Trades: users are not allowed to trade for upvotes.
Remove topic upvotes: Quora's pages tie upvotes to replies, not topics
Upvotes attach to replies, not to topics. In the descriptions Quora and third parties give, users vote a reply up or down, while a topic is the category a question is assigned to.
None of those descriptions gives steps for taking an upvote back, so the steps are not stated here.
The same limit covers removal on a reply or on a whole thread: the descriptions cover casting a vote and its purpose, and none covers its reversal.
Who can upvote on Quora: a logged-in account comes first
A Quora login guide says that to ask questions, provide answers, upvote or downvote content, comment or send messages, a user needs to be logged in. Voting therefore sits behind the same login as every other action on the platform.
Shopify's guide and Inquirer USA describe the act in a line each: a user upvotes or downvotes a reply to a question.
That login is also what gives Quora an account to warn or block: TechCrunch reports that repeat offenders of the policy are warned and can then be blocked.
| Topic | What is stated | Stated by |
|---|---|---|
| Login | Upvoting and downvoting need a logged-in account | A Quora login guide |
| Purpose | Mark helpful replies up, unsatisfactory ones down | Shopify |
| Quality test | Most helpful content rises to prominence | Contrary Research |
| Promoted Answers | Can still be upvoted; ranking is unchanged | Quora Ads Support |
| Distribution | Promoted Answers are shown to more people | Quora Ads Support |
| Barred offers | Money, rewards or trades for upvotes | TechCrunch |
| Collapse | A reply collapsed for a violation stays out of view | TechCrunch |
| Repeat offenders | Warned, then can be blocked | TechCrunch |
What to do
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Log in to Quora
A Quora login guide says that upvoting, downvoting, asking, answering, commenting and messaging all need a logged-in account.
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Find a reply to judge
The choice rests on the reply: Shopify's guide describes upvotes as going to the answers users deem most helpful.
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Choose up or down
Users can vote a reply up or down; a downvote marks a reply the user finds unsatisfactory.
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Judge each reply alone
Inquirer USA says a user can vote on every response in the same thread, so each reply is judged on its own.
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Stay clear of offers
Quora's policy, as TechCrunch reports it, bars offers of money, rewards or trades for upvotes.
Frequently asked
What is a Quora upvote?
A Quora upvote is a user's mark that a reply is helpful. Shopify's guide says users upvote the answers they deem most helpful, and a login is required to cast one.
How to upvote on Quora?
A logged-in user can upvote a reply to a question, and each reply in a thread can be voted on separately. A Quora login guide says upvoting, downvoting, commenting and messaging all require being logged in.
What does upvote mean on Quora?
An upvote on Quora means a reader judges the reply helpful, and the design is that quality judgments let the most helpful content rise to prominence, according to Contrary Research.
How to remove an upvote from a Quora topic?
Votes are cast on answers, not on topics, and none of the descriptions of Quora gives steps for taking an upvote back. A topic, in those descriptions, is the category a question is assigned to.
What does Quora do about upvotes that break its policy?
Quora collapsed a reply after detecting a policy violation over money changing hands for upvotes, TechCrunch reports, and repeat offenders are warned and can then be blocked.
Can a reply with many upvotes still be collapsed?
Yes. TechCrunch reports that Quora collapsed a reply over a policy violation, and a collapsed reply stays out of view however many upvotes it receives.
Does promoting an answer change its ranking?
No. Quora's Ads Support page says promoting an answer does not change or influence its ranking on question pages; it grants greater distribution, meaning more people can be shown it, and readers can still upvote it.
Where can a user see their Quora upvote history?
Quora's business page and its Ads Support article describe no screen or tool that lists the upvotes a user has cast. The support article does name the actions open on a reply: upvote, downvote, share and comment.
Cited sources
- shopify.com. shopify.com/ie/blog/what-is-quora.
- techcrunch.com. techcrunch.com/2011/01/09/quora-4/.
- techcrunch.com. techcrunch.com/2011/01/09/quora-4/.
- research.contrary.com. research.contrary.com/company/quora.
- quoraadsupport.zendesk.com. quoraadsupport.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360029041832-Overview-of-Promoted-Answers.
This page cannot show a user's own list of votes, because Quora's business page and Ads Support article describe none, and it cannot add, remove or restore a vote on any account. Quora decides what counts as a policy violation and when a reply is collapsed or an account is blocked. The rules here come from TechCrunch's report of Quora's policy, so a change since that report is not reflected. Nothing here offers a way to raise an upvote count from outside Quora.
Reddit prohibits vote manipulation and counts using voting services, or asking people to vote on specific posts for personal gain, as manipulation. Product Hunt prohibits asking for upvotes, using bots and incentivizing upvotes. The Search for a Champion rules void votes from commercial contest subscriptions and vote-swapping sites, and the organiser may disqualify the entrant.
support.reddithelp.com help.producthunt.com championautoparts.com
Hacker News says it uses software to detect and protect against voting rings, and that its anti-abuse software drops some votes. IMDb says it may apply a different weighting calculation when it detects unusual rating activity. Ordinary participation is a spread of unconnected people voting at different times, which is the baseline these systems measure against, and this describes their checks without offering any way past them.
The documents cited here are platform terms, so the consequences they state are contractual: removal, vote resets, suspension, delisting or account termination. Hyvote prohibits vote manipulation, including buying or selling votes for a server listing. Whether a payment for votes is also lawful in a given country is outside these sources and belongs to a lawyer. Boards whose terms bar paid votes, contests that void them and political ballots are refused.
Once voting closes, an order for a board or contest that has not reached its published count is refunded for the part not delivered. Nothing is refunded for action by the platform: Hytale Servers says servers found manipulating votes face vote resets, suspension, delisting or account termination, and TopG may reset votes and freeze a listing when it catches cheating. No rank or result is promised.