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I asked this questions about fishing in lava in Minecraft, and it has been getting some mixed reviews.

Initially, I didn't really show much effort (even though I had researched it prior), which attracted some downvotes. That's fair enough. I can also see how some people might not see this as very useful (who would want to go fishing in lava?? There's no point!).

However, it's in the game, and after testing this myself (as I have shown in the answer I provided) it has some interesting characteristics. I myself can't really see if or how it could be useful, but there are some creative minds out there that might see it differently.

So my question is: can I, and should I ask questions about in-game mechanics that aren't exactly part of the main game?

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Why shouldn't you?

Remember, Downvotes aren't Close Votes. The latter means your question is in some way problematic; either it has serious flaws and needs to be fixed, or it's simply off topic and does not belong on this site. Your question does not, and has not had, any of these.

What your question did receive are downvotes. Downvotes DO NOT indicate that a question is 'off topic'. They indicate that the voter does not like the question. This could be because they feel, as the tooltip suggests, that the question does not show any research effort, that it unclear, or that it is not useful. It could be because it is Upside Down Thursday, and the voter in question browses the internet upside down on Thursdays and does not adjust their voting button usage accordingly. It could be because they do not like you as a person and want to take your reputation away. It could be because they feel the question is in poor taste, or not interesting. It could be because they feel it was poorly written and proofread. It could be because the question is about Minecraft and the voter does not like Minecraft.

Downvotes happen for all kinds of reasons, and can mean all kinds of things. The one thing that they do not mean, now or ever, is that this question is off topic and does not belong here and ought to be closed.

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  • A good summary of downvote ambiguity. All that said, what good is a downvote? Surely the absence of up votes is sufficent to indicate the quality of a post
    – user61492
    Jan 10, 2015 at 13:03
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    @Alex no it isn't.
    – LessPop_MoreFizz
    Jan 10, 2015 at 14:41
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    thank you. why is that?
    – user61492
    Jan 10, 2015 at 14:43
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    @Alex there are plenty of questions (and answers for that matter) that are top quality, but have few if any upvotes. One reason for that could be that the subject matter is obscure, or there aren't that many people who play the game. Just because they don't have upvotes doesn't mean they aren't good.
    – MBraedley
    Jan 11, 2015 at 19:41

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