answers.downvote()

Casts a downvote on an answer to indicate it is not helpful, incorrect, or low quality.

Syntax

async downvote(questionId: number, answerId: number): Promise<AnswerSummaryResponseModel>

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
questionId	number	Yes	The unique identifier of the question that contains the answer
answerId	number	Yes	The unique identifier of the answer to downvote

Return Value

Returns a Promise<AnswerSummaryResponseModel> containing updated answer summary information including the new vote count and score.

Examples

Basic Downvote

import { StackOverflowSDK } from 'so-teams-sdk';

const sdk = new StackOverflowSDK({
  accessToken: 'your-access-token',
  baseUrl: 'https://[your-site].stackenterprise.co/api/v3'
});

// Downvote an answer
const result = await sdk.answers.downvote(123, 456);
console.log(`Answer score is now: ${result.score}`);

Downvote with Feedback

try {
  const answerBefore = await sdk.answers.get(123, 456);
  console.log(`Current score: ${answerBefore.score}`);

  const result = await sdk.answers.downvote(123, 456);

  console.log(`Score after downvote: ${result.score}`);
  console.log(`Score decreased by: ${answerBefore.score - result.score}`);
} catch (error) {
  console.error('Failed to downvote:', error.message);
}

Conditional Downvoting

async function downvoteIfInaccurate(questionId: number, answerId: number) {
  try {
    // Get current answer to review content
    const answer = await sdk.answers.get(questionId, answerId);

    // Example logic: check if answer has negative score already
    if (answer.score > -5) { // Only downvote if not already heavily downvoted
      const result = await sdk.answers.downvote(questionId, answerId);
      console.log(`Downvoted answer ${answerId}, new score: ${result.score}`);
      return result;
    } else {
      console.log('Answer already has low score, skipping downvote');
      return answer;
    }
  } catch (error) {
    console.error('Error in conditional downvote:', error.message);
    throw error;
  }
}

await downvoteIfInaccurate(123, 456);

Team Context

// Using team context
const teamSDK = sdk.forTeam('team-123');
const result = await teamSDK.answers.downvote(123, 456);

// Or with direct client initialization
import { AnswerClient } from 'so-teams-sdk';
const teamAnswerClient = new AnswerClient(config, 'team-123');
const voteResult = await teamAnswerClient.downvote(123, 456);

Vote Management Workflow

async function changeUpvoteToDownvote(questionId: number, answerId: number) {
  try {
    // First, remove existing upvote
    await sdk.answers.removeUpvote(questionId, answerId);
    console.log('Upvote removed');

    // Then cast a downvote
    const result = await sdk.answers.downvote(questionId, answerId);
    console.log(`Changed to downvote, new score: ${result.score}`);

    return result;
  } catch (error) {
    console.error('Failed to change vote:', error.message);
    throw error;
  }
}

await changeUpvoteToDownvote(123, 456);

Handling Vote State Changes

import StackOverflowSDK, { ForbiddenError } from 'so-teams-sdk';

async function toggleDownvote(questionId: number, answerId: number) {
  try {
    // Try to downvote
    const result = await sdk.answers.downvote(questionId, answerId);
    console.log('Downvote successful:', result.score);
    return { action: 'downvoted', score: result.score };
  } catch (error) {
    if (error instanceof ForbiddenError && error.message.includes('already voted')) {
      // If already downvoted, remove the downvote
      const result = await sdk.answers.removeDownvote(questionId, answerId);
      console.log('Downvote removed:', result.score);
      return { action: 'removed_downvote', score: result.score };
    } else {
      console.error('Vote error:', error.message);
      throw error;
    }
  }
}

const voteResult = await toggleDownvote(123, 456);
console.log(`Action: ${voteResult.action}, New score: ${voteResult.score}`);

Error Handling

This method can throw the following errors:

Error Type	Status Code	Description
AuthenticationError	401	Invalid or missing authentication token
TokenExpiredError	401	Authentication token has expired
ForbiddenError	403	Cannot vote (already voted, own answer, insufficient permissions)
NotFoundError	404	Question or answer with the specified ID does not exist
SDKError	Various	Other API or network errors

Example Error Handling

import StackOverflowSDK, { NotFoundError, ForbiddenError } from 'so-teams-sdk';

const sdk = new StackOverflowSDK({
  accessToken: 'your-access-token',
  baseUrl: 'https://[your-site].stackenterprise.co/api/v3'
});

try {
  const result = await sdk.answers.downvote(123, 456);
  console.log('Downvote successful, new score:', result.score);
} catch (error) {
  if (error instanceof NotFoundError) {
    console.error('Answer not found');
  } else if (error instanceof ForbiddenError) {
    if (error.message.includes('already voted')) {
      console.error('You have already voted on this answer');
    } else if (error.message.includes('own answer')) {
      console.error('Cannot vote on your own answer');
    } else if (error.message.includes('reputation')) {
      console.error('Insufficient reputation to downvote');
    } else {
      console.error('Vote not allowed:', error.message);
    }
  } else {
    console.error('Failed to downvote:', error.message);
  }
}

Safe Downvoting

async function safeDownvote(questionId: number, answerId: number) {
  try {
    const result = await sdk.answers.downvote(questionId, answerId);
    return { success: true, score: result.score };
  } catch (error) {
    if (error instanceof ForbiddenError) {
      if (error.message.includes('already voted')) {
        return { success: false, reason: 'already_voted' };
      } else if (error.message.includes('own answer')) {
        return { success: false, reason: 'own_answer' };
      } else if (error.message.includes('reputation')) {
        return { success: false, reason: 'insufficient_reputation' };
      }
    }
    return { success: false, reason: 'error', message: error.message };
  }
}

const result = await safeDownvote(123, 456);
if (result.success) {
  console.log('Downvoted successfully, new score:', result.score);
} else {
  console.log('Could not downvote:', result.reason);
}

Notes

• Users cannot vote on their own answers
• Each user can only vote once per answer (upvote OR downvote, not both)
• If a user has already downvoted an answer, calling this method again will typically result in a ForbiddenError
• To change a downvote to an upvote, you must first remove the downvote using removeDownvote(), then call upvote()
• Downvoting may require a higher reputation level than upvoting on some platforms
• Downvotes typically decrease the answer score by 1, but this may vary by platform configuration
• The returned AnswerSummaryResponseModel contains updated vote-related information
• Vote counts and scores are updated immediately and reflected in the response
• Some answers may be protected from voting due to special circumstances (locked, deleted, etc.)
• Downvoting may have reputation costs for the voter on some platforms