Upvotes and downvotes

[CynicalScouter]

3 minutes ago, David CO said:

One forum member is going back through all of my past posts and indiscriminately down-voting every post I've ever made.

In light of your copious and indiscriminate use of the down vote button, I hardly think you are in a position to complain.

[skeptic]

Sounds as if they are discriminatedly doing it.  Just saying.

 

[johnsch322]

5 minutes ago, David CO said:

I've got that beat.  One forum member is going back through all of my past posts and indiscriminately down-voting every post I've ever made.  I get over 40 notices of these downvotes when I log on to the forum.

I don't care in the slightest about my tally upvotes and downvotes.  

What does bother me is the fact that by constantly cluttering up my notice box, he forces me to ignore all of my notices.  I don't bother going through them anymore.  So I am often left unaware when a friendly forum member has replied to one of my posts, leaving me unable to give them a polite response in return.

If any of you have felt snubbed on account of my not responding to a joke or friendly post, please take no offense from it.  It is not intentional.  I don't have the time or inclination to read notices anymore.  My apologies. 

It’s not that I care when you down vote me (and you do quite often) I would like you to explain what it is you actually disagree with. Maybe I was wrong so put your down vote thoughts together and explain. Maybe I will change my view or learn something new. If I am down voting I always try to explain why. I might even disagree with a post write out my thoughts and not down vote the original post or I might do both. Or I might disagree and do neither. To me aside from being informative a forum is a place for discussion and debate. 

[CynicalScouter]

1 minute ago, johnsch322 said:

It’s not that I care when you down vote me (and you do quite often) I would like you to explain what it is you actually disagree with

Yep. If all a person can do in response is some kind of petty little internet point diminishment (down vote) and offer nothing else, then that's not really contributing anything.

[Eagledad]

8 minutes ago, CynicalScouter said:

In light of your copious and indiscriminate use of the down vote button, I hardly think you are in a position to complain.

Wait a minute. That is hypocritical considering you gave me numerous copious and indiscriminate downvotes. You didn't see me complain.

Barry

[CynicalScouter]

8 minutes ago, Eagledad said:

Wait a minute. That is hypocritical considering you gave me numerous copious and indiscriminate downvotes. You didn't see me complain.

Barry

You would be in a position to complain.

And here. If it means that much to you, have an upvote. On me.

Edited October 5, 2021 by CynicalScouter

[livitup]

Something occurs to me...

If a person agrees with a post they can:

• Upvote the post, which adds value because after enough upvotes, a post is highlighted - making it easier for future thread readers to quickly identify the posts that the community has agreed are of highest value.
• Or they can reply with a "I agree" type post which doesn't add to the conversation, or highlight the high-quality posts.

If a person disagrees with a post they can:

• Downvote the post, which is in effect a low value "I disagree." post without an explanation. I can't discern any additional "consequences" of a downvote.
• Reply to the post with their thoughts which might change someone else's perspective, reframe the topic in a new way, etc.

Thus, I posit:

• The upvote button adds value to the forums.
• The downvote button does not, and should be disabled.

And please, to those who are currently debating the virtue of the current spate of downvotes, remember that a scout(er) is friendly and kind.

[CynicalScouter]

2 minutes ago, livitup said:

Downvote the post, which is in effect a low value "I disagree." post without an explanation. I can't discern any additional "consequences" of a downvote.

Yep. Its petty if THAT it response in its entirety.

Edited October 5, 2021 by CynicalScouter

[Eagledad]

14 minutes ago, CynicalScouter said:

You would be in a position to complain.

And here. If it means that much to you, have an upvote. On me.

I admit I have little tolerance for hypocrisy.

Barry. 

[skeptic]

I seldom used an up or down vote for years, but recently, it is easier than getting caught up in the accusatory language of some if you should disagree.  I no longer often am patient enough to deal with trying to "explain", especially when it seems pretty clear to me already.  Shrug and mostly ignore, or hit the down or even up.  Easy-peasy.  😑

[HelpfulTracks]

2 hours ago, HelpfulTracks said:

I don't think I have ever used the downvote, maybe I should start and just keep my comments to myself. 

But generally speaking, if something bothers me enough to downvote then I will make a comment. 

Also, it is pretty easy to abuse the downvote system, particularly if it is programmatically tied to capping or restricting post. 

Oh, I forgot the whole overuse of downvote showing a lack of maturity thing. 

[Sentinel947]

3 hours ago, livitup said:

Something occurs to me...

If a person agrees with a post they can:

• Upvote the post, which adds value because after enough upvotes, a post is highlighted - making it easier for future thread readers to quickly identify the posts that the community has agreed are of highest value.
• Or they can reply with a "I agree" type post which doesn't add to the conversation, or highlight the high-quality posts.

If a person disagrees with a post they can:

• Downvote the post, which is in effect a low value "I disagree." post without an explanation. I can't discern any additional "consequences" of a downvote.
• Reply to the post with their thoughts which might change someone else's perspective, reframe the topic in a new way, etc.

Thus, I posit:

• The upvote button adds value to the forums.
• The downvote button does not, and should be disabled.

And please, to those who are currently debating the virtue of the current spate of downvotes, remember that a scout(er) is friendly and kind.

If you read earlier in this thread, from when it was originally made, there was some discussion about the voting feature, back when it was new. It's a fairly stock version of forum software, and the moderators cannot turn it off without contacting the developer. I'm not sure if that's a worthwhile spend of money, since this forum is already paid for by @SCOUTER-Terry's generosity. 

A certain number of upvotes triggers a label on a persons post. We tested down to 12 downvotes, and it had no effect on the post in question. Your thought process was the general consensus at the time. Downvotes do have a small value in identifying spam, off topic or factually incorrect posts, in my opinion. 

There isn't much merit in keeping downvotes, the cost to remove it probably isn't worth it, and the feature is only now becoming an issue after 3 years... which would imply it's less a inherent disfunction of the forum, and more of a disagreement between forum member as to what the feature means and the feelings involved in that. 

Maybe a few mods @RememberSchiff@MattR @desertrat77 can mediate some of the issues folks are having?

[qwazse]

3 hours ago, CynicalScouter said:

Yep. If all a person can do in response is some kind of petty little internet point diminishment (down vote) and offer nothing else, then that's not really contributing anything.

What point diminishment?

And wouldn’t the converse be true? If all a person can do is a point increment and nothing else, then that would not be contributing anything either. If it is true, shouldn’t you be aggressively asking someone to expound on why they might agree with you, if they haven’t taken the time to do so?

Anyone who doesn’t see things the way I do, they are welcome to downvote. It means a lot to me. I won’t bully you for anything beyond that. I believe the only correct reply (if it didn’t clutter up the forum) would be, “Thank you for weighing in.” My apologies to anyone who expected that from me and didn’t get it.

For those of you who’ve ever upvoted anything of mine, please consider getting professional help.

[yknot]

42 minutes ago, Sentinel947 said:

 

Maybe a few mods @RememberSchiff@MattR @desertrat77 can mediate some of the issues folks are having?

Let's not give the moderators anything more to do. I don't know any of them, but to me it seems like they are doing a lot trying to keep up with the volume of posts over the bankrutpcy.

Maybe we can just try to get less offended or not worry about tiny arrows. Some of it might be generational. For example being told to Google something isn't really a pistols at dawn comment, it's just functional. We're living in a world where High School reference libraries are being turned into multimedia coffee bars because the answer to virtually anything you want to research is at your fingertips. It's more like -- Don't believe me or like my source? Just go look it up yourself and see what you find. 

 

[HelpfulTracks]

8 minutes ago, qwazse said:

For those of you who’ve ever upvoted anything of mine, please consider getting professional help.

I have, I seriously have. And it wasn't pretty.