I downvoted an answer today and that downvote shows to have deducted my reputation by 1. Why?

Question

Funny. Though it hurts a lil. :D

Answer 1

Another way to look at it is, once you've earned a few hundred reputation points, you can spend those hard-earned points moving bad answers down.

Downvoting bad questions is free, but downvoting a bad answer costs you one rep point. (https://electronics.stackexchange.com/help/privileges/vote-down) (This only applies to the main site, not the meta site.)

As a practial matter, those rep points are only good for unlocking priviledges (everyone's a moderator, to some degree) and perhaps placing a bounty on the rare overlooked gem of a question that needs more attention.

Still, I know what you mean, the first time I got downvoted on an answer years ago, I "quit" for a week. Then after I calmed down a bit I went back and fixed my answer (which actually was indeed flawed). Since then I've learned to double-check my answers before posting. Engineer types do thrive on carefully-tuned negative feedback.

Can't find the quote, I think it was either Joel Spolsky or Jeff Atwood; when you put a number next to sombody's name, they tend to do whatever they can to make that number increase...

Answer 2

That's the way the system works. Read the rules, then get over it.