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Hello again, 17th Shard. Forum busybody Kobold King here with some general ponderings on the current reputation system, its few failings, and a utopian pipe dream for how this inexperienced newcomer would try to improve it.

 

Today I speak specifically on the anonymous nature of reputation points. All upvotes and downvotes are given from behind a mask, freely dished out with no accountability. I could downvote a dozen posts of my closest forum friends, and they would have no idea that I'd been responsible.

 

In theory, this is a good thing. Downvotes anonymously given can't be retaliated against, right? Upvotes show how the community as a whole feels about your post, not what individuals think... right?

 

Those are the reasons I've seen proffered before, but personally I find them unsuited for the specific moderation of this community. I have discussed before the problem of random downvotes on the 17th Shard. These are uncommon but hurtful, and serve no purpose as they are often given with no notes or indications as to what the voter found offensive about a particular post.

 

I am not innocent in this regard--there have been days where I have irritably downvoted other users without good cause. However, I have always privately confessed what I have done, and have felt shame and regret from the instant I clicked the red arrow. I was a coward, using the anonymous nature of the web to exercise my own bad attitude.

 

Know that I am not advocating this reform solely to curb my own spiteful tendencies; I merely observe my own behavior and extrapolate onto the community at large. I believe that having members be accountable for their actions, their names attached to every upvote and downvote given, would do more good than harm. Members would be compelled to either refrain from exercising random acts of spite or offer constructive criticism towards those they take issue with. After all, it is only posts that I have regretted downvoting that I appreciated the anonymity. Were votes public, I would quite proudly and without compunction stand against posts with vulgar language or content, or posts that showed meanness or spite towards another member.

 

Stealth downvoters are not the only reason I have for advocating public votes. Accidental downvotes would also be less confusing, as downvotes from members known for mistakenly pressing the red button rather than the green could be recognized as such. These are usually confessed anyway, but non-anonymous votes would be useful even in cases in which the mobile site viewer isn't aware they've downvoted anyone.

 

Finally, if retribution downvotes ever became a problem, they would be obvious and easily identified as such. I imagine that the kind of person who would engage in a grudge-driven reputation war with another member is the kind of person who cherishes hiding behind a wall of anonymity. Taking away that anonymity would compel them to either not engage in such pettiness or would make them easier for moderators to track.

 

 

So those are my thoughts on how public voting would benefit the 17th Shard downvote system. I also have a few thoughts on how they would improve the upvote experience, if no one minds me rambling onwards a little longer.

 

I have seen it expressed before that upvotes are a sign of how the community as a whole receives one's posts. And to an extent, they are; you will obviously receive more upvotes if the forum as a whole likes you than if a single individual declares you to be the best thing since wrapped chouta. However, the emergence of sub-communities on the 17th Shard have made upvotes a murkier thing than it needs to be.

 

It is no secret that the Reckoners RPG is a veritable fountain of reputation points. The players there wallow in an endless stream of fun and in-jokes, and upvote one another constantly. What is more subtle to observe is the way the RPG's participants rally around one another on boards unrelated to What Happened in Oregon. Members of the Reckoners RPG display a minor preference towards viewing and upvoting the posts of other members of the Reckoners RPG. This is not a bad thing; this is merely a case of friends liking and agreeing with each other. I strongly suspect that the same happens with players of the Sanderson Elimination games, or Guild participants, or even amongst the tightly-knit group of admins that run this forum.

 

While there is nothing wrong with sub-communities supporting one another across the forum, I for one would find it educational to know which posts of mine are upvoted by my friends of the Reckoners RPG and which are upvoted by forum members that I've seldom interacted with. It's easy to get lost in the references and sub-culture of the site, and it would be quite nice to have traceable upvotes to let me know who my most appreciative audience is on any particular post.

 

 

While I can't express how this would work on technical grounds, but I know that this My Little Pony forum has non-anonymous upvotes, and it seems to use a lot of the same software as we do. I think.

 

 

 

 

As one final disclaimer before I post this topic, let me stress that I don't pretend to know what's best for this forum and this community. That distinction goes to our admins, who have been around since the beginning and have benevolently guided us by the light of their wisdom. While it sounds melodramatic when I say it like that, let me assure you that I mean it definitely.

 

These are only my thoughts on the current system, posted here for evaluation by the admins and fellow members that I respect so much. Does anyone agree with me that upvotes should be made public and traceable? Do you disagree? Do you think I'm a buffoon for even suggesting it? Here's the place to say so. :)

 

 

 

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One possible way to implement this change might be to do it on a trial run sort of basis. Make downvotes and upvotes public for a short time--I'd say between one and four weeks--and then allow members to express their opinions on it. Because this idea would constitute a pretty big change, and it might be good to allow members to experience it before it's completely implemented. I think it would be cool to see, but I can also see some potential drawbacks, and a trial run would let myself and others see whether the benefits outweigh them.

Edited by TwiLyghtSansSparkles
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I for one can say that I wouldn't mind public votes, it's not like I'm making a secret out of them or abuse the system. Although, what I'd be more interested in (which is kind of connected) is something to track recent votes (unless something like that already exsists and I just missed it). Making the downvotes public doesn't really help against abuse, if the person in question can just search through your very old posts which exact number of upvotes you don't remember anyway. In a similar fashion I also got hit from random downvotes a couple of times and only noticed them by my overal rep going down and I still have no clue on which post they happened.

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I for one can say that I wouldn't mind public votes, it's not like I'm making a secret out of them or abuse the system. Although, what I'd be more interested in (which is kind of connected) is something to track recent votes (unless something like that already exsists and I just missed it). Making the downvotes public doesn't really help against abuse, if the person in question can just search through your very old posts which exact number of upvotes you don't remember anyway. In a similar fashion I also got hit from random downvotes a couple of times and only noticed them by my overal rep going down and I still have no clue on which post they happened.

That's happened to me a few times, and it's really annoying. Especially when there's no way to tell what was downvoted or why. I tend to assume that if something of mine has more downvotes than upvotes (it's happened) that the post was horribly offensive to someone.

Maybe another good reform to introduce would be not only voting history, but giving users the option of adding a reason for their vote. Not everyone would, just like not everyone always gives a reason for editing a post, but it would give users a way to give constructive criticism rather than anonymous downvotes.

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I think trackable votes woud be a bad idea for several reasons.

 

1) the downvotes are already used very seldom. that's because they are taken as something terribly personal. think, if downvoting would point a red arrow at you, how even less used downvoting would become. we may as well abolish it completely. sometimes anonimity is good because it protects people from retaliation. it is no chance that every democracy has secret vote.

 

2) downvoting would be used even more rarely than now, but, given how personal it is considered (and how it would be considered even more personal because it would be used even less) it would strongly encourage making revenges. you don't even have to do it blatantly, you can just follow all your "enemy" posts and downvote at anything controversial that you would ignore from anyone else. or you can just stop upvoting him. even the argument that the kind of person that would start a downvote war prefers anonimity is not that strong: the kind of person who would downvote in spite would never know who to downvote if its downvoter was anonymous. And may not even care enough, if he doesn't have a quick way to see the culprit.

 

3) knowing who upvotes you would too easily lead to seeing upvotes as an exchange of favors, vote for being voted. Which in my opinion is even worse than people starting downvote wars. people would start upvoting each other reciprocally just to increase their counts. I remember a few months ago somebody started a thread "upvote me and I'll upvote you", and it got well over one page in the few hours before it was deleted, with people enthusiastic at getting free upvotes. really, I think this is a wonderful community, and I am deeply disappointed that there are so many people willing to inflate their reputation that way only to look better to other forumites. What's the point of reputation points if you hadn't earned them yourself? Journey before destination, and all those things.

 

4) the chance to add an explanation after downvoting could be ok, but it is redundant. if somebody makes and offensive post, almost always someone will reply and tell what was wrong with it. if it wasn't self evident from the start. or you could always send a pm.

 

5) I don't want to know who upvotes  or downvotes me. It may lead me to take it personally, and I would never want my opinion of them to be influenced by something like that. And of course, if there was the chance to see who downvoted you, I would look at it. I trust that if other people have a grudge with me, and it is important, they will tell me. if it is not important, if they are willing to look over it, then i trust that it will not be a problem, maybe they just had a bad day, let it all end there. If i was running for a contest and my ffriends were voting, I'd want them to be free to vote somebody else anonymously, because I'd trust that they had a good reason for it.

Basically, I prefer to trust people and not second-guess them. If somebody uses my openness to take advantage of me, I just cut contacts with him, and consider whatever harm he's done to me a fair price to pay to have isolated him out. So far, I'm 28 and I never regret having done it. having an upvote and downvote list would harm this policy of mine.

 

6) And most important in my opinion. Reputation is a silly counter of a  sort of approximation of popularity on a silly forum for fans of a  writer of fictious stories. If you care enough about it to want to know who upvoted or downvoted you, then you are taking reputation way too seriously. Luckily, I've  never seen anyone argue "I have more reputation than you, so I am right and you are wrong", but I think tracking votes like that would only encourage people to take reputation more seriously. and that would be bad.

 

heed my plea, and not change the voting system.

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For my part, I would be in favor of a better control of the downvotes. I often get downvoted for reasons outside of my comprehension. Whereas there are some posts I have written I knew would not please and were likely to garner downvotes, there are others which left me baffled as to why I was getting downvoted.

 

I have two very long posts I have made, on my favorite subject on my favorite, where I never say anything negative that shown, for a while, a -2 in terms of reputation. I can get people won't upvote me when I rant on my favorite character as I unfortunately did not end up rooting for one of the popular ones, but downvotes? I can understand the accidental downvote, but twice, on two consecutive posts in the same thread?

 

These are rather harmful as each time I wonder why is it I have said wrong this time around. 

 

I do not necessarily want to see who upvotes me, but I wish those who downvoted me were forced to send in an explanation to justify their action. It could be the name remains anonymous, but I want whoever think my post is worthy of a downvote to take his (or her) keyboard and spell out why.

 

Example: I downvoted you because I think Adolin is an utter moron and you are a dork to even mention his name in a positive way. 

 

There. It may not be a valid reason, but at least it leaves me no room to wonder about what I have done wrong, again.

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4) the chance to add an explanation after downvoting could be ok, but it is redundant. if somebody makes and offensive post, almost always someone will reply and tell what was wrong with it. if it wasn't self evident from the start. or you could always send a pm.

 

But the reasons for downvoting a post aren't always self-evident from the start. The last post of mine that had a score of −1 (that wasn't an accidental downvote, to my knowledge) was what I thought to be an inoffensive Doctor Who joke. I still have no earthly idea why it was downvoted. Did I say something offensive without meaning to? If so, I'd like to know exactly what so I can avoid saying that sort of thing in the future. Did I say something offensive in a different thread and this stealth downvoter just wanted to get their point across? If so, again, I'd like to know what I said that was so offensive. Was it an accident? If so, no hard feelings. I've accidentally done that before, and I think a prompt for a reason would help curb that, or—if the votes were still permanent—would allow the person who voted that way to say "Oops, sorry, finger hit the wrong button on my stupid phone." 

Edited by TwiLyghtSansSparkles
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If you can't tell what's wrong yourself with your downvoted post, chances are the downvote reason is so petty you don't need to waste your time reflecting on it.

Either the reason is clear, or the downvoter had the courtesy to post a reply explaining what they disagree with/disapprove of, or it's a petty downvote/an accident. What you're asking is not for reasons to be clarified but for petty downvotes to go. Why not, but it's... it's just a downvote. Really.

Edited by yurisses
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I side with maxal in introducing anonymous justification for why a downvote was made. If it was an accident (which apparently can be reversed in the new version of the site, according to Chaos), then there's no problem. In fact, the justification 'step' in giving a downvote might give the accidental downvoter an oppurtunity to go back and prevent it from occuring. If it is intentional, then they should have the courtesy to say why. The only problem I can see with an anonymous system is recieving messages like "I'm downvoting you because I hate you, I think you're miserable, and you should never have been born." However, I don't think anyone would do that on this forum.

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I side with maxal in introducing anonymous justification for why a downvote was made. If it was an accident (which apparently can be reversed in the new version of the site, according to Chaos), then there's no problem. In fact, the justification 'step' in giving a downvote might give the accidental downvoter an oppurtunity to go back and prevent it from occuring. If it is intentional, then they should have the courtesy to say why. The only problem I can see with an anonymous system is recieving messages like "I'm downvoting you because I hate you, I think you're miserable, and you should never have been born." However, I don't think anyone would do that on this forum.

I would imagine admins, and maybe mods, would be able to see who up/down votes something, and if not, that it'd be something that could be added. So if it was used to 'anonymously' send hate messages, then you would still be able to report it to the staff, and they would be able to deal with it.

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I would imagine admins, and maybe mods, would be able to see who up/down votes something, and if not, that it'd be something that could be added. So if it was used to 'anonymously' send hate messages, then you would still be able to report it to the staff, and they would be able to deal with it.

 

Well, I would like if the admins or the mods were to revised the downvotes (I do not know how much work this entails) and advise those who downvotes for no other reason they disagree with the point you are making not to use this system to express themselves. I also feel many downvotes may have been made by people who simply think the downvote button is to be press whenever you disagree with the statement being made. 

 

The admins or the mods could also have a list of the most frequent downvoters and if someone looks like he or she is abusing with the onsystem, then they could contact the person, in private, and try to understand what is going on.

 

Whereas this is an amazing forum, I am not entirely convinced the downvotes are never used for petty vengeance... 

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Well, I would like if the admins or the mods were to revised the downvotes (I do not know how much work this entails) and advise those who downvotes for no other reason they disagree with the point you are making not to use this system to express themselves. I also feel many downvotes may have been made by people who simply think the downvote button is to be press whenever you disagree with the statement being made. 

 

The thing is, that's the point of the rep system. Upvote things you agree with and/or like, downvote things you disagree with and/or don't like. It's not a Like system such as the one Facebook employs, it's a reputation system. A downvote does not necessarily mean the person wanted to attack you, that's just the stigma that has become attached to the system.

 

My personal opinion is to keep the system anonymous. Though I do believe our current user base is kind enough and smart enough to not abuse a non-anonymous system, we are an ever growing community. An anonymous system will likely be a necessity eventually, so I don't feel there is a reason compelling enough to make the change worthwhile.

 

That being said, I do believe adding a quick form of why a downvote is being cast should be added, for more reasons than those stated above. Though I don't place much importance or value in my reputation number, knowing whether I've offended someone is very important to me. I love this community and everyone in it, and as such I want to respect everyone here. Knowing what I've said that offended you allows me to avoid doing so in the future. It also allows me to potentially explain myself too, as perhaps it was a mere misunderstanding, because I'm not as eloquent with words as Kobold. I don't care about my rep count decreasing by one. I care about you, and how I've hurt you, and how I can avoid doing so in the future.

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Okay. This isn't coming from zas678 the admin- just Zas the member. So this isn't neccessarily the will of the staff collectively.

 

 

But for me- I like anonymous upvotes/downvotes. Yes, there is the capability for people to anonymously downvote some of your things that they don't like without you knowing about it. But let's look at what is the reputation system.

 

Upvotes are a way of saying "Hey, I like this post. This is cool/funny/really intelligently made." Downvotes are a way of saying "I don't like this post. It doesn't seem like there was much effort made, or it's offensive, or it makes me uncomfortable." Sometimes upvotes are used to balance out downvotes- someone says "I don't think that post really deserves a -1 rep. I'll go ahead and upvote it." I wouldn't be surprised if some people used downvotes the same way. "I don't think that post deserves 20 rep. It was funny, but it wasn't that funny." Now obviously this doesn't happen often, or everyone would have a lot lower rep. But it does happen. 

 

So the rep for an individual post ends up being the kind of "consensus of the forum" on what they think of that post. If a post has 0 rep, odds are the forum was "Meh." If it was 10 rep, it was something witty or really funny.  If it is 25 than it was a really well made and timed post. -5 means that it was probably an offensive post and you should really relook over it. The rep system is a lot less about the individual opinions of the post- that's what posting is for- to raise potential problems or holes in a theory, or to say "That's hilarious!", or whatever. 

 

 I think that threat (and damage) of the anonymous system is a lot lower than the potential hurt feelings of "Hey! Why did you downvote my post?!?" Thankfully, I don't think we have any right now, but I could see a high drama member receiving a downvote, getting offended at the person who did the downvoting, asking that person for a reply, than that person giving a poor response, then drama ensues. 

 

That's the big danger of public downvotes. The other side effect is that no one will ever give downvotes, because they don't want to be publicly shamed for it. How often do you see someone post "I dislike this post" on facebook? People don't often want to be seen as dislikers or downvoters. I think that because it's anonymous, we get a lot more honest feedback in the rep of what the forum thinks, and I think if we changed, that feedback would disappear. If I get -5 on a post, I know something's wrong, and I'm going to try and fix it, or if I don't see what I did wrong, I'll PM someone else to help me see it. But I think if it were made public, I wouldn't get 5 people telling the world that they don't like it- or even 5 people PMing me to say I don't like it. I'll just think it was a fine, or meh post. 

 

So I think we should stay with the rep system anonymous- it isn't about the individual upvote or downvote- it's about the "consensus" of the forum as a whole. If downvotes became a serious problem, and people really started abusing the system, than I bet the staff would choose to either make it public, or, more likely, just remove the feature, and turn it basically into a "like" system. 

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Upvotes are a way of saying "Hey, I like this post. This is cool/funny/really intelligently made." Downvotes are a way of saying "I don't like this post. It doesn't seem like there was much effort made, or it's offensive, or it makes me uncomfortable." Sometimes upvotes are used to balance out downvotes- someone says "I don't think that post really deserves a -1 rep. I'll go ahead and upvote it." I wouldn't be surprised if some people used downvotes the same way. "I don't think that post deserves 20 rep. It was funny, but it wasn't that funny." Now obviously this doesn't happen often, or everyone would have a lot lower rep. But it does happen. 

 

So the rep for an individual post ends up being the kind of "consensus of the forum" on what they think of that post. If a post has 0 rep, odds are the forum was "Meh." If it was 10 rep, it was something witty or really funny.  If it is 25 than it was a really well made and timed post. -5 means that it was probably an offensive post and you should really relook over it. The rep system is a lot less about the individual opinions of the post- that's what posting is for- to raise potential problems or holes in a theory, or to say "That's hilarious!", or whatever. 

 

 

 

This is exactly where I have a problem. Whereas it may be possible to see posts with high numbers of upvotes into the RPG section of the forum (or others), for those who dwell mostly into the Stormlight Archive sub-forum, posts with 10 upvotes are a rarity. Most posts do not get any upvotes at all. 2 upvotes even is not that common, so when you manage to get more than one upvote on a post, it is a success. And when that upvote gets nullify by a by-comer: it sucks and it hurts.

 

You also state (I may not have quote this specific part of your post) people would downvote posts they believe did not receive enough thought or work. Whereas I do believe it may be true, the reverse often happen and is extremely hurtful. When you spend over an hour to carefully craft your post, to try to pass an opinion you know will not be popular, to try to state it in a respectful way and you still get downvoted for it: it hurts. When you try to explain yourself in better words, you still get downvoted. However, the worst has to be the post you spend hours writing and detailing that contained nothing offensive, but people still downvoted it because they probably just do not like the character you are hardly trying to defend.

 

Garnering upvotes into the Stormlight Archive sub-forum is difficult. People won't upvote you simply because your post is nice, they will only upvote you if they agree 100% with every single thing you say and may downvote you simply for disagreeing. For each two uapvotes I get, I usually catch one downvote. I would like to say I do not care so much about my rep, but I actually do. I see it as a measure to your level of contribution to this forum.

 

Therefore, on my side, downvotes are extremely hurtful. I sincerely wish for a better control.

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@maxal I'm surprised that has been your experience. I have spent the majority of my time in SA, (though more recently in Signings and Cosmere Theories, and admittedly I read a lot more than I post) but I don't think I've noticed much down voting. I guess I do avoid the threads that argue about character merits, so maybe that's where the problem is.

Re: the question of anonymously voting...

My attitude about rep probably influences my stance here, which is basically agreeing with zas. I admit that I'm pretty proud of my few popular posts, but to me that number is a proxy for, "Hey, people came and read this post even if they didn't respond. I contributed something!" My aggregate rep doesn't matter much to me after having passed the fuzzy number threshold that in my brain means "no longer a newbie."

That said, I use my upvotes exactly how zas described, and though much more infrequent, I have also used downvotes as outlined by zas. I haven't ever given a down vote because of disagreement, and unless it's something inappropriate/offensive I never drop posts below zero, but I do think downvotes as aggregate feedback on posts is a worthwhile feature of the system.

I think the low-threshold-to-action, low-impact version of anonymous voting makes more sense. I wouldn't be very bothered if it changed, but I think anything that puts more emphasis on reputation points is a bad thing. If there are tools to look at who is voting on your posts, I think people will get more fixated on the votes, to the detriment of the discussion. Frankly I'm a bit surprised that people (e.g. Kobold, since he brought it up) notice when their rep fluctuates up and down. I like the way that reputation is fairly unobtrusive, (especially true now that I use the mobile site more than half the time).

It occurs to me that if badges/awards do get implemented and widely adopted, there is potential to partially divorce rep from contribution achievements, in which case other changes might make sense. But I don't think you can ever fully decouple those, and in my opinion finding more ways to focus on reputation will only hurt the openness (e.g to newcomers with low reputation counts) and friendliness (e.g. enable vindictive voting/posting) of the community.

Edited by ccstat
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I prefer it how it is right now. I like people not knowing if I upvoted, or, on very, very, very rare occasions downvoted their posts. I think it protects the integrity of the reputation system. If you know who's upvoted you, then you are more likely to upvote them in return later. Same with downvoting. I think it should be an anonymous measure of post quality given by the community, not favors that are given back and forth.

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The thing is, that's the point of the rep system. Upvote things you agree with and/or like, downvote things you disagree with and/or don't like. It's not a Like system such as the one Facebook employs, it's a reputation system. A downvote does not necessarily mean the person wanted to attack you, that's just the stigma that has become attached to the system.

 

I think that brings a good point: different people mean different things with votes. for example, i almost never upvote to say i agree. that vote would be indistinguishable from an upvote for any other reason. instead i upvote to reward posts that bring some solid facts into a discussion. people linking to some relevant word of brandon generallly get an upvote from me, and peple using math properly also get upvotes. sometimes i also may upvote a post if it is well argumented, and that's coompletely unrelated to whether i agree with the post or not.

of course, i also upvote a post if it makes me laugh.

anyway, maybe some of the difference of opinions come from the fact that we mean different things with votes. i givve votes to the construction of a post, not to the content. other people do the reverse.

the most thorough way to deal with it would be to use separate votes, like "i agree" "i disagree" "this was funny" "this was rude", but it would become unnecessarily byzantine.

 

anyway, maybe that's the simplest explanation for unmotivated downvotes: people new to the forum, coming from other forums where downvotes are a way to express agreement, who just downvoted because he disagrees. it is a bit like a foreigner meeting you and doing a rude gesture at you because in his country it has a completely different meaning.

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@maxal I'm surprised that has been your experience. I have spent the majority of my time in SA, (though more recently in Signings and Cosmere Theories, and admittedly I read a lot more than I post) but I don't think I've noticed much down voting. I guess I do avoid the threads that argue about character merits, so maybe that's where the problem is.

 

I admittedly do not spend much time in the Cosmere Theories, but I'd wager it is hard to get a downvote there unless you come as a completely rude and say: "Dude, your theory sucks".

 

In the character talk though, downvotes are common. It has got to the point where it is nearly impossible to discuss certain characters because any dissident comment gets automatically downvoted, no matter how well it is phrased. And since I spend most of my time discussing characters... well I do get downvoted. There was a time where I would get downvoted on nearly all of my posts: it has slowed down since, but two of my posts were downvoted a few days again. Why? I have no idea.

 

For my personal experience, these discussions tend to get personal and emotional rather quickly. Some people also have the downvote button rather quick if you express dislike on their favorite character. I think my personal dislike for downvotes is well known and I personally never downvote anyone. The rare times I have used the system: I made a public post to explain myself as to why I thought I needed to downvote this post.

 

 

I think the low-threshold-to-action, low-impact version of anonymous voting makes more sense. I wouldn't be very bothered if it changed, but I think anything that puts more emphasis on reputation points is a bad thing. If there are tools to look at who is voting on your posts, I think people will get more fixated on the votes, to the detriment of the discussion. Frankly I'm a bit surprised that people (e.g. Kobold, since he brought it up) notice when their rep fluctuates up and down. I like the way that reputation is fairly unobtrusive, (especially true now that I use the mobile site more than half the time)..

 

I do not notice every single downvote, but I see most of them. Often, I have a hard time finding out which post I was downvoted on. Again, some downvote, I can tell why, but for most I can't. Hence my growing frustration about them.

 

I prefer it how it is right now. I like people not knowing if I upvoted, or, on very, very, very rare occasions downvoted their posts. I think it protects the integrity of the reputation system. If you know who's upvoted you, then you are more likely to upvote them in return later. Same with downvoting. I think it should be an anonymous measure of post quality given by the community, not favors that are given back and forth.

 

I do not advocate to remove the anonymous upvote/downvote system, but I wish for those who downvote to be forced to write in an explanation as to why. The explanation could be forwarded to the author of the post via an anonymous writer. 

 

I would then know if the people downvote my posts because: 1) they just disagree with it and have not understand it is considered rude on this forum to do so, 2) they made a mistake, but did not bother to notice it, 3) they hate me and want to downvote me as often as possible.

 

 

 

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I don't mind the rep system as is, but I do agree wholeheartedly with adding a feature to leave an explanation.

 

I am one of those who cares about rep, though less so now that I'm at a decent level. I do notice when I get downvotes, and it baffles me when that happens. Maybe it's my own bias, but I can never really tell why a post got downvoted. I try to stay as unoffensive as possible, so it would be nice to tell what the storms I said that was so disagreeable. 

 

I personally only give a downvote if I feel what was said was offensive. 

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Example: I downvoted you because I think Adolin is an utter moron and you are a dork to even mention his name in a positive way. 

 

There. It may not be a valid reason, but at least it leaves me no room to wonder about what I have done wrong, again.

 

Don't let the reputation determine what is right or wrong, only what is of popular opinion. Maybe you are the only one with your opinions, but you may very well be the only one who is right. And its your opinion. If we correct our opinions until all opinions are the same, we miss out on awesome discoveries!

 

 

 

I would like to see a three-color rep system. Red for the Dark Side of the Force. Green for the Light Side. Blue for the Cool Side. B) There could be a sweet blue arrow that does a loop.

 

Jah4Hcb.png

Edited by Turos
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Don't let the reputation determine what is right or wrong, only what is of popular opinion. Maybe you are the only one with your opinions, but you may very well be the only one who is right. And its your opinion. If we correct our opinions until all opinions are the same, we miss out on awesome discoveries!

 

Downvotes hurt. And when you often get downvoted, you end up not wanting to post anymore. After a while, it becomes a statement. It gets very hard to not make the link between "we don't like what you are saying" and the "we don't like you". It could I simply am an overly sensitive person, but I cannot fathom I am the only one who is bothered by it.

 

What is right, what is wrong? I have debated for the longest time on this one. I believe all opinions have the right to co-exist, providing they are phrased decently enough (I am not saying all my posts were decently phrased, the early ones were rather abrasive, but that was over a year ago). In theory, most people accept this. In practice, why do post praising character X gets hordes of upvotes while posts praising character Y hardly get any? For the same kind of quality posts (or what I estimate to be)? Why can I talk negatively at length about character Z, but as soon as I launch the idea character X may not be perfect, I get downvoted? The fact is, in character talk, there are characters you can openly hate and there are characters you just can't. It gets hard, really hard.

 

Therefore, for quality unbiased characters talk, the downvote system need an update.

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Don't let the reputation determine what is right or wrong, only what is of popular opinion. Maybe you are the only one with your opinions, but you may very well be the only one who is right. And its your opinion. If we correct our opinions until all opinions are the same, we miss out on awesome discoveries!

 

 

 

I would like to see a three-color rep system. Red for the Dark Side of the Force. Green for the Light Side. Blue for the Cool Side. B) There could be a sweet blue arrow that does a loop.

 

Jah4Hcb.png

I didn't read the bottom part of your post, and so got really confused when I saw the blue button. After pressing it 5 times with nothing happening, I realized how stupid I am.

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I think people assume the downvote is done intentionally. I haven't really gone to the mobile site, but if I were to scroll up and down with my finger on the touchscreen, what are the chances of accidentally downvoting a post? And since I'm scrolling mindlessly, I might not even notice to try to get it corrected. 

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