On Downvotes

[Bunyod he/him]

Yeah, unfortunately it's built into the forum software that we can't do that. Sorry.

Is it possible for me to see who downvoted me twice recently?

Its not good for them buggers to hit hard the newbie here.

Sorry but that's also not possible.

Here is a hypothetical situation for you admins.

Let's say member A for some reason doesn't like member B. A creates other profiles C, D and E.

Then, with these 3 profiles he downvotes B's points.

I hope, you'll be able to fix this situation.

[Zas678 he/him]

In which case you still wouldn't know who's ganging up on you.

We like to keep the rep points anonymous, because that way there is no fear of retribution. We don't want downvote wars going on.

And plus, if someone WAS ganging up on you, they would go through all your posts and downvote everything. If you alerted us then, then we would likely get invovled and try to resolve the situation.

If you look at your rep points, you see that both of your downvotes have an upvote right next to them, which means that those posts are in fact nuetral. They are neither hurting or helping your Rep numbers.

This is fairly common, as someone will downvote, and then someone else will come back and say "Nah, that doesn't really deserve a downvote," so they'll go ahead and upvote it. The opposite is also true. Sometimes someone will stumble onto an upvoted post and say "That post doesn't really deserve an upvote," and so they'll downvote it.

I know I've done both of these things (though not on these posts). Though calling for someone to take care of a post that you think shouldn't be downvoted isn't going to generate much sympathy. If downvoting is happening consistently, PM one of the admins and we'll talk to you about it.

[Chaos he/him]

Here is a hypothetical situation for you admins.

Let's say member A for some reason doesn't like member B. A creates other profiles C, D and E.

Then, with these 3 profiles he downvotes B's points.

I hope, you'll be able to fix this situation.

While this is technically possible, there are methods for us to find illegal votes and correct them. Multiple accounts are explicitly forbidden on 17th Shard for this very reason--unless, perhaps, there are very special circumstances like two siblings sharing a computer or something. In any case, it's very easy to find multiple account offenders once we search for them. We do investigate downvotes, because downvotes are not meant to be used for attacking. We are very aware that this power may be abused, and we may have to revoke the privilege at some later point. However, we very much like downvoting, and would like to preserve it.

Downvoting is not something our members do to attack new members, by the way. Rather, it is an aggregate of what the community feels about a certain post. These things can and do average themselves over time. As tempting as it is to think of downvotes as a personal attack against you, resist this temptation. I have every faith in our community, and they are much, much better than the average people commenting on stuff on the internet. Instead, look at the post, and ask yourself, "Why would someone not like this post?" Chances are, the answer is never "Because they hate me," but rather a reaction on the post itself. Heck, even I've been downvoted (and it was deserved). Use it as an opportunity to look at what and how you post and how maybe you could improve.

And as always, please directly ask the administrators if you feel something was not deserved, and we will be happy to discuss it with you. You're new, and we want to help you

Speaking of wanting to help, I'm splitting this topic into a separate thread, Bunyod. The original topic was resolved a long time ago and you have an independent issue. Thanks!

EDIT: I totally bungled splitting the topic, and didn't move one of Joe's posts over. Sorry about that.

[Eerongal he/him]

While this is technically possible, there are methods for us to find illegal votes and correct them. Multiple accounts are explicitly forbidden on 17th Shard for this very reason--unless, perhaps, there are very special circumstances like two siblings sharing a computer or something. In any case, it's very easy to find multiple account offenders once we search for them.

I'm totally gonna sign up for like 20 Eero accounts now. Alternate which i post on with every post. It will be awesome.

But yeah, almost all downvotes i've seen usually has someone come along and cancel them out. To date, I haven't seen any abuse of them.

[Joe ST he/him]

EDIT: I totally bungled splitting the topic, and didn't move one of Joe's posts over. Sorry about that.

You're fricking useless, Eric... First you dont update the forums, and then you dont update the wiki. And NOW ... well now you're just making a mockery of the place

I say he should have his spikes revoked!

[Chaos he/him]

You're fricking useless, Eric... First you dont update the forums, and then you dont update the wiki. And NOW ... well now you're just making a mockery of the place

I say he should have his spikes revoked!

It is soooo tempting for me to downvote that post, you don't even know

(And come on. There's design related reasons for why we have yet to update the forums--there's serious work to do. The wiki though? Yeah, that's deserved )

[mycoltbug]

I vote to upvote Joe's post

[Joe ST he/him]

I vote to upvote Joe's post

I second that motion!