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I'm always happy when someone brings up regulation in the context of IT. I'm a big proponent. Everything from closed-source to monopolies and ads. I find it wei

by dmos62 8y ago

I'm always happy when someone brings up regulation in the context of IT. I'm a big proponent. Everything from closed-source to monopolies and ads. I find it weird that it's not talked about more often. I wonder why that is. In some ways it's a relic of the American free-market capitalism, but that can only be part of the picture.

dmos62 8y ago
If someone disagrees or thinks this is an inappropriate comment, I'd prefer an argument, rather that a downvote. I don't think that what I said has any negative effect on the discussion.
- em-bee 8y ago
  your comment does sound a bit snarky though. you might want to elaborate how you see the benefit of regulations and their discussion. greetings, eMBee.
  - dmos62 8y ago
    I do see how my comment was snarky, thanks for pointing that out. Also in many ways it's off-topic. Your clear headed response helped me see that.
- plainOldText 8y ago
  You seem to have a very simplistic view of how voting works. Why would you assume downvoting is a feedback mechanism to signal negative posts only? People downvote for all sorts of reasons. I for instance downvoted your comment, for supporting a blanket regulatory attitude across the IT spectrum. It's tantamount to proposing a single programming language across the whole stack. That portrays a very narrow view of the world. Not to mention it can lead to being counterproductive. Do note, human communication is a complex endeavor. We employ all kinds signals and techniques for information exchange and a simple downvote in an online forum is a perfectly valid signal, albeit an ambiguous one.
  - dmos62 8y ago
    > blanket regulatory attitude across the IT spectrum That's jumping to conclusions. I didn't elaborate at all what kind of regulation I support or how granular. I now feel that my comment wasn't up to the standard, because it has a bad mix of off-topic and terse "snarkiness". As to the usage of downvotes, of course you can use it however you like, just like you can dismiss anyone you like whenever. I'm referring to a common _regulation_ in communities, that a comment shouldn't be dismissed if you don't like it, but only if it has a negative effect on the discussion. What do you hope to achieve by downvoting those you disagree with? Force their opinions to the bottom of the discussion stack? I.e. silence them? That's what you're effectively doing, and it's not conducive to a healthy community.
    - plainOldText 8y ago
      I rarely downvote those I disagree with. And when I do, my goal is to have them reconsider and question their position and not at all to silence them. I fail to see how I jumped to conclusions. You clearly stated that vis-a-vis regulation: > I'm a big proponent. Everything from closed-source to monopolies and ads. If this is not an extreme pro-regulation attitude then I don't know what is. And just to be clear, comments are clearly superior to downvotes, though we'd hardly get any work done had we written replies to all comments we disagree with; thus, occasionally replying via downvotes.
gojomo 8y ago
See comments above from ~hughjd, ~jseliger, and myself: there's a good chance that it's regulation itself that created this particular kafka-esque situation. State tax/regulatory authorities disfavor contractor relationships, even when clear-eyed counterparties prefer it. That's probably why the buyer does all their contracting through Upwork – it's a bigger risk to do it any other way – and also why Upwork has certain patterns-of-intense-work they must either block, or convert to the government's preferred payroll-relationship.

by dmos62 8y ago

dmos62 8y ago

If someone disagrees or thinks this is an inappropriate comment, I'd prefer an argument, rather that a downvote. I don't think that what I said has any negative effect on the discussion.

em-bee 8y ago
your comment does sound a bit snarky though. you might want to elaborate how you see the benefit of regulations and their discussion. greetings, eMBee.
- dmos62 8y ago
  I do see how my comment was snarky, thanks for pointing that out. Also in many ways it's off-topic. Your clear headed response helped me see that.
plainOldText 8y ago
You seem to have a very simplistic view of how voting works. Why would you assume downvoting is a feedback mechanism to signal negative posts only? People downvote for all sorts of reasons. I for instance downvoted your comment, for supporting a blanket regulatory attitude across the IT spectrum. It's tantamount to proposing a single programming language across the whole stack. That portrays a very narrow view of the world. Not to mention it can lead to being counterproductive. Do note, human communication is a complex endeavor. We employ all kinds signals and techniques for information exchange and a simple downvote in an online forum is a perfectly valid signal, albeit an ambiguous one.
- dmos62 8y ago
  > blanket regulatory attitude across the IT spectrum That's jumping to conclusions. I didn't elaborate at all what kind of regulation I support or how granular. I now feel that my comment wasn't up to the standard, because it has a bad mix of off-topic and terse "snarkiness". As to the usage of downvotes, of course you can use it however you like, just like you can dismiss anyone you like whenever. I'm referring to a common _regulation_ in communities, that a comment shouldn't be dismissed if you don't like it, but only if it has a negative effect on the discussion. What do you hope to achieve by downvoting those you disagree with? Force their opinions to the bottom of the discussion stack? I.e. silence them? That's what you're effectively doing, and it's not conducive to a healthy community.
  - plainOldText 8y ago
    I rarely downvote those I disagree with. And when I do, my goal is to have them reconsider and question their position and not at all to silence them. I fail to see how I jumped to conclusions. You clearly stated that vis-a-vis regulation: > I'm a big proponent. Everything from closed-source to monopolies and ads. If this is not an extreme pro-regulation attitude then I don't know what is. And just to be clear, comments are clearly superior to downvotes, though we'd hardly get any work done had we written replies to all comments we disagree with; thus, occasionally replying via downvotes.

gojomo 8y ago

See comments above from ~hughjd, ~jseliger, and myself: there's a good chance that it's regulation itself that created this particular kafka-esque situation. State tax/regulatory authorities disfavor contractor relationships, even when clear-eyed counterparties prefer it. That's probably why the buyer does all their contracting through Upwork – it's a bigger risk to do it any other way – and also why Upwork has certain patterns-of-intense-work they must either block, or convert to the government's preferred payroll-relationship.