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Concepts guidelines

Quick guidelines for how to identify and refer to different conceptual units present on Stack Overflow

  • Questions, answers, and other types of Posts have scores.
  • A post’s score is calculated by subtracting the total number of downvotes from the total number of upvotes.
  • In almost all cases when referring to the sum of votes, we will use the term score.
  • Use of the term votes to refer to the post’s score is only acceptable in cases where we need to present the data in the format {ScoreValue} votes (as is done in the post summary component). In this case, "votes" stands in for the "balance of votes (up minus down)" on the post.
  • Upvote and downvote (one word, no hyphen) should be used when referring to the individual types of votes cast on a post.
  • While the unit for score is obstensibly "points", use of this unit in reference to score or votes is not encouraged.
Incorrect Correct
Highest voted posts Highest scored posts
Total number of votes for this answer Total score for this answer
Only top voted answers are eligible Only top scored answers are eligible
When in the Post Summary only:
8 score 8 votes
Score: 8
8 points
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