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Again, here we go.. the invisible hand, the warrior without face.. and my comment being downvoted... Do people really read 1k+ comment threads? Isn't this supp

Again, here we go.. the invisible hand, the warrior without face.. and my comment being downvoted... Do people really read 1k+ comment threads? Isn't this supposed to work as a community? If people would upvote comments they agree with wouldn't the most voted ones be on top? So what's wrong with what I just said?

projectramo 10y ago
Well, suppose you think a comment is really bad for whatever reason (pick the vilest comment you can think of for political, personal, or other reasons.) It is unhelpful, angry, incoherent and whatever else. Now for some reason the person has some friends who upvoted the comment. Do you really think you want to express your displeasure by upvoting every other comment relatively speaking? What if you don't particularly like any of the other comments, or don't have time to read them all?
- vmateixeira 10y ago
  I agree that upvoting every other comment is not a solution. But maybe the 'art of ignore' is. If no one would comment, that someone would eventually give up. After all, that's what those bad comments are seeking for: attention, support of any kind or just annoying someone. Have you thought that by downvoting you could be leaking to that person that he/she annoyed you, therefore empowering him/her to continue with such bad comments? In the other hand, if you downvote a comment just because you disagree with it you may be leading that person to give up on commenting/contributing.
  - projectramo 10y ago
    The purpose of downvoting is not to signal your displeasure to the person making the comment. It is to lower the priority of the comment for the majority of regular viewers, and to replace it with the better comments.
dpark 10y ago
An upvote and a downvote are just two faces of the same thing. Upvoting everything you think adds to the conversation is functionally the same as downvoting everything you don't think adds to the conversation. You aren't more positive just because you prefer upvotes to downvotes. By choosing to not use downvotes, what you're actually doing is treating neutral comments (that neither add nor detract from the conversation) the same as comments that actively detract. You are making your rating binary when you don't have to. I'll be entirely honest, I downvoted your comment. The question was about why downvotes are sometimes not available, and your comment about how it's negative to use downvotes at all seems unhelpful. So I downvoted it. I don't feel like that makes me negative. I also don't feel like it makes me positive when I upvote. I'm helping the comments sort more effectively, that's all. Also, complaining about downvotes is also a sure way to get more.
- JoeAltmaier 10y ago
  That would all be true, except for the greying-out thing. Its quite a bit different to downvote, particularly as an early responder. It can make disagreement appear as disapproval.
  - dpark 10y ago
    Do comments turn gray after a single downvote? I honestly don't know. I personally don't care much about whether comments are gray unless they've turned the "I can barely read this" gray. The standard (first level?) gray just tells me that someone (or a couple of people) downvoted the comment, but that doesn't mean much. I've often "rescued" gray comments. The ultra-light gray often does indicate something and I'm less likely to read those.
- vmateixeira 10y ago
  Thank you for your explanation. It was helpful on understanding your motion towards upvoting and downvoting. I upvoted it, and am now explaining you why, because I think this is how we should justify ourselves. I kind of agree on you downvoting my comment for being off-topic, but is it really? I think I tried to bring something to this discussion, although not necessarily answering the OP question. Anyway, it's up to the individual but I think we shouldn't be that closed. Otherwise this would be solely a Q/A forum. Regarding the downvotes, I was already aware of that, and was expecting them. I don't care much about the 'karma' thing and am now actually thrilled to see the outcome of this experiment. I give much more value to an answer like yours, as I can learn with it, than the whole point system really. Thanks!

projectramo 10y ago

Well, suppose you think a comment is really bad for whatever reason (pick the vilest comment you can think of for political, personal, or other reasons.) It is unhelpful, angry, incoherent and whatever else. Now for some reason the person has some friends who upvoted the comment. Do you really think you want to express your displeasure by upvoting every other comment relatively speaking? What if you don't particularly like any of the other comments, or don't have time to read them all?

vmateixeira 10y ago
I agree that upvoting every other comment is not a solution. But maybe the 'art of ignore' is. If no one would comment, that someone would eventually give up. After all, that's what those bad comments are seeking for: attention, support of any kind or just annoying someone. Have you thought that by downvoting you could be leaking to that person that he/she annoyed you, therefore empowering him/her to continue with such bad comments? In the other hand, if you downvote a comment just because you disagree with it you may be leading that person to give up on commenting/contributing.
- projectramo 10y ago
  The purpose of downvoting is not to signal your displeasure to the person making the comment. It is to lower the priority of the comment for the majority of regular viewers, and to replace it with the better comments.

dpark 10y ago

An upvote and a downvote are just two faces of the same thing. Upvoting everything you think adds to the conversation is functionally the same as downvoting everything you don't think adds to the conversation. You aren't more positive just because you prefer upvotes to downvotes. By choosing to not use downvotes, what you're actually doing is treating neutral comments (that neither add nor detract from the conversation) the same as comments that actively detract. You are making your rating binary when you don't have to. I'll be entirely honest, I downvoted your comment. The question was about why downvotes are sometimes not available, and your comment about how it's negative to use downvotes at all seems unhelpful. So I downvoted it. I don't feel like that makes me negative. I also don't feel like it makes me positive when I upvote. I'm helping the comments sort more effectively, that's all. Also, complaining about downvotes is also a sure way to get more.

JoeAltmaier 10y ago
That would all be true, except for the greying-out thing. Its quite a bit different to downvote, particularly as an early responder. It can make disagreement appear as disapproval.
- dpark 10y ago
  Do comments turn gray after a single downvote? I honestly don't know. I personally don't care much about whether comments are gray unless they've turned the "I can barely read this" gray. The standard (first level?) gray just tells me that someone (or a couple of people) downvoted the comment, but that doesn't mean much. I've often "rescued" gray comments. The ultra-light gray often does indicate something and I'm less likely to read those.
vmateixeira 10y ago
Thank you for your explanation. It was helpful on understanding your motion towards upvoting and downvoting. I upvoted it, and am now explaining you why, because I think this is how we should justify ourselves. I kind of agree on you downvoting my comment for being off-topic, but is it really? I think I tried to bring something to this discussion, although not necessarily answering the OP question. Anyway, it's up to the individual but I think we shouldn't be that closed. Otherwise this would be solely a Q/A forum. Regarding the downvotes, I was already aware of that, and was expecting them. I don't care much about the 'karma' thing and am now actually thrilled to see the outcome of this experiment. I give much more value to an answer like yours, as I can learn with it, than the whole point system really. Thanks!