Dear Miranda,

This is a sensitive question. I can but congratulate: you are very courageous!

One can collect the most of upvotes in general questions. Some popular answers are really striking and witty but many of them are but commonplaces and manifestation of opinion compromises (mainstream journal residues).

General threads often do not demand a real knowledge and familiarity of the given subject. I note – fortunately – most of philosophical and cultural subjects – I do not know why – have had high standards in terms of quality and the competency of participants.

I do not want to mention that a kind of personnel popularity can trigger the series of upvotes. I have experienced that a simple thank you has been better evaluated than a really deep answer. Regarding specialized threads, there is not such an opportunity of gaining upvotes and participants are very careful giving such superficial evaluation marks of their opinion. In specialised threads the answers and the discussion matter.

This is but a very elementary and imperfect comment.

Have we been responsible in using the 'upvote' feature?  Are the useful answers often the popular answers?  Each of us including the author of the Question has only 1 upvote to give for a post, so have we been responsible?  Some of us do not downvote, but have received some of that.  Please share your experiences how can we improve the quality of research and interaction among researchers.

Dear Miranda,

We should exercise the maximum responsibility on social media, to be fair and to get the optimum benefits.

I would suggest that the process for up voting a question or an answer is more acceptable if was given in 2 or 3 options or weights. You can very strongly upvote (3), or you strongly upvote (2), or you upvote to a certain limit (1).

Dear Miranda,

This is a sensitive question. I can but congratulate: you are very courageous!

One can collect the most of upvotes in general questions. Some popular answers are really striking and witty but many of them are but commonplaces and manifestation of opinion compromises (mainstream journal residues).

General threads often do not demand a real knowledge and familiarity of the given subject. I note – fortunately – most of philosophical and cultural subjects – I do not know why – have had high standards in terms of quality and the competency of participants.

I do not want to mention that a kind of personnel popularity can trigger the series of upvotes. I have experienced that a simple thank you has been better evaluated than a really deep answer. Regarding specialized threads, there is not such an opportunity of gaining upvotes and participants are very careful giving such superficial evaluation marks of their opinion. In specialised threads the answers and the discussion matter.

This is but a very elementary and imperfect comment.

We may think of  a Progressive Evaluation, like, "when a response is upvoted by 3 people it can progress to another page as "Recommended Response", when it is less then 3 it means some more clarification required etc.,

Dear friends, thanks for your views.  I always ask myself, is it right to upvote answers that come with such great quality links and info (just 1 vote that I have), and also give that 1 upvote to answers that are rather poorly expressed that it's hard to make sense out of it.  Am I risking not understanding what I upvote.  (But unfortunately, I'm also misunderstood, and people downvote me without saying why.  What do you think my friends?  Are people downvoting out of anger, and spite?)

Besides that as researchers who must communicate research, can we afford to be sloppy in language, grammar, and even use text/ sms language on an academic site like RG?  I know that English isn't our first language, but I see all your papers are written in perfect English!  All I ask is just to be able to understand what is written.  (What you have written is perfectly understandable, @Andras.  Most of my Q's are about my research, and I have found research buddies.)

Dear @Miranda, I have found some good colleagues in the area of automation, and their papers have helped me in research. I have not done through the question raised! Younger researchers do it by raising the question of their expertise, where we do give helpful answers. Their answers and experiences are welcome here. Beside, regarding the responsible behaviour at Research Gate, I have got some down-votes in series under different threads. I do find my behaviour here in RG community correct. 

Yes, dear Prof Ljubomir.  Your behavior is fine, so many people visit your threads and are waiting for new questions from you.  I am glad you found good colleagues in automation on RG.  Valentina is also automation engineer, she is many things :)

Dear all,

as of my knowledge I was downvoted (only) 3 times (staying with RG since 2009). Also not knowing why and from whom I got the downvotes. But downvotes are perhaps 0.1% as compared to upvotes in replies or upvotes to my few personal questions (guessing downvotes perhaps may have been done erroneously). As you know for sure I not only enjoy reading questions, answers/comments and find the also literature references (most of my friends on RG starting threads with newquestions) but then also deal with the new insights I can share with posters as well as the attached lit. references or the scientific background of question and answers.

Most of my (scientific) interest  is not related to threads like this (social..., learning...), but more specialized according to my field of "work and research = Electron Microscopy, Light Microscopy, hum. diagnostics in medicine, histology etc., etc. ". I only had some questions by my own, but am answering often to very specific requests aiming to be of help for younger or more unexperienced colleagues. Many of them receive really good and really deep answers but perhaps don't know about the possibility to upvote QUESTIONS as well as answers of a poster/replier. But on the other hand I have got MANY upvotes from colleagues in my field of research and interest I know to be much more sophisticated researchers than I could be ever.

Nevertheless and therefore (I don't really care about being upvoted -though this is welcome! - or downvoted) I adhere to keep my attitude to respond "in depth" (which means:

If you regard all the problems we already have with 1 point upvote, why should we complicate this action by reasoning "was it 1, 2 or three points". Or is our upvote "sympathy, scientific recognition or appreciation for a very (short) matching formulation. We have developed techniques to give additional infos, just remember the smileys.

No, don´t hamper our communication please!

I have observed that if your question is very specific, normally you do not get even one response.  Yes, you have more responses to general questions. Yet,  I like RG very much; I have learned a lot from other researchers' threads. I agree with the suggestion of dear Krishnan related to progressive evaluation.

Dear Prof Mahfuz, you are talking about weighted upvoting, and Umachandran is considering progressive upvoting.  Good ideas.  I hope RG will consider!

Thanks @dear Wolfgang, so you are saying that specific threads also get responses.  I believe that too.  It's the specific threads that helped me in my research, brushed up my rusty knowledge of stats.

Dear Hanno and Debi, please carry on with your communication :)  @Debi, on specific threads I got less answers from members, but they were helpful.  Besides, RG now frowns upon general questions, right?  Perhaps to help us put our priority on our research, not on the score.  But the score is important to some of us who need a better job.

Obviously we should not ask trivial questions, whose answers we are not going to use. Nor should we try to be clever, and give inferior answers to questions outside our area of knowledge.

RG has found me 4 co-authors in the last 2 years, which is 3 more than I expected.

We have usefully summarised a long RG post into a research monograph, a project that would not have got off the ground otherwise.

Dear Palani,

Questions are only partly for fun. I think the most important thing is the idea, possibly independent and original idea. If somebody cites Einstein, the merit belongs to Einstein! In addition, commonplaces cannot be the aim of a thread.

Share all interesting and/or relevant material!

Period!

Thanks dear friends for your views.  Dear @Ian, you hold the record, I think.  I have found partners for 2 research projects only.  @Tobias, on RG and social media, we should be sharing resources for the good of all.  But often, some people don't wish to put useful things that benefit others.  I'm thankful I found great buddies.  

Dear Prof Kamal, you are certainly right that we are here to get our research going, not for voting.  Dear @Andras and friends, actually many of us are not here to collect votes.  I think perhaps that's why RG discourages general questions that won't be useful in research, although it may get many votes.  It may skew the scores of some popular persons.

The first effect of my presence on RG was a greater visibility of my research, which I saw personally in a recent international meeting in which many participants have told me that theyhave read my recent works and known about the topics that I have dealt with in recent times.

A second effect was the beginning of a collaboration with a member of RG I met in a discussion forum about a common topic. The colaboration has produced an article that at the moment is under review.

The third effect, although not strictly science, has a human value and is the invaluable friendship with many researchers working in different fields from mine, but with whom I discovered to have ideological and cultural affinity despite the remote origins. With them you can communicate albeit not strictly technical in many subjects of general culture that enrich our luggage regardless of our expertise. Basically, we are people of science, but also of culture.

Finally, the whole thing can be a stimulus for our fellows to understand the importance of international contacts.

Thank you, @Miranda, for the question and for the opportunity that I had to reflect and communicate my experience in RG.

Thank you dear @Enzo.  It's a wonderful reflection that you are sharing with us.  Just what I need to reflect when I get upset that my post was downvoted or my Question was downvoted.  But it's really unusual, my downvoted Q became a featured question.  I was so surprised that weekend, a few months ago, when we could see which of my questions was approved, and which were demoted, or featured.

Dear friends, actually I asked this question to stimulate our thinking on how RG can fulfill the purpose of FACILITATING OUR RESEARCH.  Not on how to collect upvotes.  Do you sometimes think that we should be more intrinsically motivated on RG?  

Thanks dear Concha, I quite agree.  Now I'm more careful, so that I don't ask so-called 'general questions'.  RG encourages research related Q's, related to my own or other people's research.  So we just be alert and respond to what fits our areas of knowledge.  Thanks.

Interaction, discussion and knowledge sharing is an integral part of research endeavours. Social media like RG are doing excellent job through providing an interactive web-platform for researchers across the world. But at the same time, it is responsibility of researchers to be honest, authentic and fair and use these forums with utmost conscientiousness. Social media dealing with research provide opportunity for researcher to know and interact with professionals of related field and/or from areas of interest. One can easily receive diverse opinions on a particular aspect just at mouse click and then choose best one suited to one's situation. Such forums are beneficial for cross boundary/cultural communication, fulfilment of mutual research interest and collaborative research activities and if used with sincerity, honesty and trust, it would definitely optimize the benefit of research. Using these forums for personal popularity is not proper.

Yes, I agree dear Yogesh.  'Social media like RG are doing excellent job through providing an interactive web-platform for researchers across the world. But at the same time, it is responsibility of researchers to be honest, authentic and fair and use these forums with utmost conscientiousness. Social media dealing with research provide opportunity for researcher to know and interact with professionals of related field and/or from areas of interest.'  But I think it's the group that we got into that really provided motivation and resources.  Some of our virtual friends are really friends in need and indeed.

Dear friends, being an honest person, I must admit that I work hard and work efficiently (work smart) but honestly, whether or not bosses are around to see or not, my work must get done.  Right now, I have just sent off 2 abstracts for a conference.  I hope to present 2 papers paying just 1 fee.  While I observe and admire that many RG folks have lots of time for Q and A, I'm having to restrict the time.   For me, teaching, research and writing must have the best hours.  Have a good day.

Dear @Miranda, my last question was posted on December 18, 2014! The total number of my questions is 48 for 3 years! I like to take part in answers, but it is more time consuming. According to my experience, there are still many trivial questions whose answers are unusable, as @Ian mentioned earlier. Such trend continues! Some of the responsibilities should be not to ask trivial questions and help younger researchers with our advices!

Exchange researches, ideas, putting questions, answering honestly, collaborating with researchers are some uses of RG.

RG has facilitated my research --- for getting research papers for review, ideas, knowing about others' researches, citations, etc.

Dear @Subhash, I am very glad that RG has facilitated your research (getting research papers for review, ideas, knowing about others' researches, citations, etc..).  It has done the same for me.  And I do admit that IT'S ON QA THAT I MET MY COLLABORATORS!

Dear Prof Ljubomir, I agree with you and Ian Kennedy.  We should ask questions on Q and A that are research related, that facilitates our research.  I also like to take part in answers especially when it's in my research areas.  Just now H. Lehtihet just sent a Q to me.  I'm going to that question.  (But it shows that we have learned many things about one another on QA.)

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Why_are_mnemonics_not_provided_to_students_low_and_high_education_in_information-heavy_courses

Dear Miranda,

Dear All,

I have had some resolutions:

1 not to comment for me foreign subjects,

2 to avoid questions dealing with commonplaces,

3 not to use commonplaces,

4 to avoid questions where down-voters have appeared,

5 to be aware that the aim of my being at RG is not to increase RG scores.

I feel keeping these resolutions is a minimum responsibility.

Dear Miranda,

I can understand you.

I repeat your claim with some changes: For me, teaching (intelligent people with real interests), (intellectual, interesting and worthy) research and writing must have the best hours. Unfortunately, I cannot decide on my tasks.

Exchange of thoughts, Q/A, research communications will be more useful if this is between same area/subject RG members. General Q/A benefited us but not that level it should be.

Friends, I found a good link. 'Welcome to our Guide to Social Media for Research. This aims to show how different social media applications can help at all stages of the academic research process.

Ever thought of.............

Following a conference remotely via Twitter?

Promoting your research on YouTube?

Setting up a wiki to collaborate with other researchers?

Using Facebook to involve the public with your work?

Keeping your literature search up-to-date with RSS?

The possibilities are endless.... What's more, social media is flexible, free (usually) and fun.

However, there are some things to think about before you leap in.'

http://libguides.ncl.ac.uk/socialmedia

Dear Andras, thanks for your answer.  It reminds me of Lijo.  He is no longer on RG, but he did say to me that he was so busy on Q and A, that his research was slowed down. After he left RG, he poured in efforts on his research and his Sports.  He was promoted from postdoc to Research Scientist, and he became the Champion for his Global Challenge (Sports).  Do you see, at times we can lose our right priorities?  Even a mature researcher can 'suffer' in this manner.  That's why I always remind myself of my priorities and turn off the wifi from time to time.  (I will communicate with good friends by other means.  They understand my weaknesses and my limitations so well.)

@Ljubomir, all the links and papers you provided have helped me such a lot.  Thanks!

RG allows me to keep a track of recently published papers of those researchers I follow.

You are so welcome dear @Miranda! I do like to help and support researchers!

Dear Miranda,

The scientist community in RG has helped us a lot in several ways.

Very true @Shankhadeep.  Without the scientist community on RG, how could I ever have so much research materials, people who read and review my papers, act as unofficial reviewers, people who collaborate with me.  Indeed I'm so happy to collaborate with them, and do the writing that I enjoy in areas that I have interest and familiarity.  Thanks to them and to RG.  But I have been so busy writing that I cannot get into Q and A.

@Dear Miranda,

+

Many hint/clue/s to my technical questions.

I have learned a lot from RG.

I think it is a necessity for every researcher/academician.

Dear Raoof and all friends, because of RG, I have 4 collaborations right now.  It's getting so hard to make time for Q and A, and you will understand that I must focus on the writing.  It's a responsibility and a privilege.  I will be less active, but I won't disappear entirely, thanks.

Dear friends, today I am back to share the first research paper that I published with Prof Enzo.  So I managed to find collaborators on RG.  Enzo is the first.  The second person is a lady in Romania, but that paper is still being reviewed, and the third person is from Germany. 

Article Motivation and Achievement of Malaysian Students in Studying...

How many collaborations do you have now dear @Miranda? Congratulations for your paper with dear @Enzo. It was a pleasure to read it and to comment, as well as to find my name in acknowledgements!