I am a retired database programmer. I have a masters in applied mathematics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a masters in pure mathematics from the University of Maine at Orono.

Should I ever down-vote a question or answer, I provide a comment explaining why.

However, I very rarely down-vote. Instead of down-voting I prefer to flag posts, usually answers, as low quality. I may also vote to delete low quality posts should they appear in the review queues. Occasionally, I even vote to close questions. I find this more effective than down-voting.