NOTICE: Ratings Abuse - Knock it off, Seriously

[BTTA]

What a nice way to call someone weird.

Ha. FWIW, we share the passion for learning. And I think if you managed to escape the education system much, you were better off than I.

 

[MassPats38]

I hit "dislike" and "disagree" on posts I dislike and disagree with. No hidden meanings. Pretty simple. And I plan to continue to do so.

I have to say I can't even begin to comprehend that anyone would actually care enough or take the time to file a complaint with Ian over "dislikes" or "disagrees". So fire away with disagrees or dislikes -- I honestly could care less.

Then why post on this 'discussion' board? If you believe you present unique insights and others are hanging on what you say in your perceived monologues, then guess again. I would assume you visit the site to talk sports rather than offer an amateur opinion piece without response or reply.

'Agree' means you find no issue with a post. 'Like', pretty much the same. 'Disagree' or 'dislike' means you take issue with a post but give no indication why you take exception with the post with no further explanation. If something is worth hitting 'dislike' or 'disagree' on, then do the discussion a service and say why you take issue with it. As an exercise, try responding using the words "I disagree" with nothing more in live conversations at work or at home and let me know how that conversation flows. Or say a calculation is incorrect with no explanation why. People tend to have an annoyed response due to the lack of dialogue, especially when offering opinions.

And if does not matter what others do with that function in your posts, then why use it? Do you actually believe others care what you think and are writing for your non-specific opinion on what they say?

Public service announcement over. And no, I didn't complain about the practice. Change or not, I like your unwavering view, but you may want to check Ian's rule because you may be one of the targets and thus may not need to worry about the function much longer. Problem solved. No hidden meanings. Pretty simple.

 

[Deus Irae]

Seriously though when I do I also reply as to why I dislike or disagree.

That's important, IMO, especially when a post has more than one thought/take in it.

 

[patchick]

I seldom use the negative ratings but I do think there's a world of difference between Disagree and Dislike -- and I'm not sure the Dislike rating is even useful to have around.

You can disagree (or Disagree) on issues of fact. If a poster makes a claim you strongly disagree with and 5 other posters have already given detailed rebuttals, clicking Disagree is a reasonable way to add your vote without repeating what's already been said.

Dislike is fact-free, just pure negative emotion. I've seen people use it as a natural reaction to negative info, like a report of a serious injury -- thus "shooting the messenger" by putting a negative rating next to their name. If you dislike the poster him/herself, well, put them on ignore. If you dislike the way the poster is treating other people, report the post as abusive.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

I hit "dislike" and "disagree" on posts I dislike and disagree with. No hidden meanings. Pretty simple. And I plan to continue to do so.

I have to say I can't even begin to comprehend that anyone would actually care enough or take the time to file a complaint with Ian over "dislikes" or "disagrees". So fire away with disagrees or dislikes -- I honestly could care less. You'll notice I've never complained in public (or in private, though of course I have no way of proving that) about any ratings. Even when you started your silly thread bashing me.

Disagree
"So fire away with disagrees or dislikes -- I honestly could NOT care less."

 

[Galeb]

Ha. FWIW, we share the passion for learning. And I think if you managed to escape the education system much, you were better off than I.

I like school and got a lot out of it. I simply believed that I often had better things to do at the time. Ironically, I lament not finishing my degree and am seriously considering going back to school and eventually changing careers. I'm in my 40s. :S

 

[PatsDeb]

I'm mad that Ian has to waste any time on this issue. What is the consequence of multiple dislikes? Does it affect the "disliked" person's ability to post? While I certainly would not enjoy being trolled by someone else, if it doesn't affect anything else, not only should the trollers knock it off, but the "trollees" probably should grow a bit of a thicker skin.

Ian already does too much for all of us, people who post on here way too much and take it way too seriously included. KNOCK IT OFF DUMMIES.

 

[neuronet]

Stack Overflow crawls through its database once a day and removes serial downvotes from butthurt posters trying to seek petty revenge. It's very easy to automate the detection of this behavior. They also remove serial upvoting, as it is not deserved either (i.e., it isn't based on the merit of the posts). I wouldn't be surprised if it sent the offenders an automated warning message to stop.

But Stack Overflow's entire economy is based on reputation, with lots of perks added based on your reputation votes. Without reputation, Stack Overflow collapses.

Here it's very different. Here the little likes/dislikes are minor: content is everything. The like system is a minor social feedback loop: votes let the poster know your feelings, and can draw other people's attention to a thread (as each thread shows the modal vote type and number). People doing serial voting should grow up, but the victims: don't worry it really isn't a big deal. Feel free to publicly call the offending party out, public shame is often a good corrective for trolls.

I like the system, as it allows lurkers to express their opinion without having to post and get sucked in. So I disagree with those saying people should post why they downvoted something. I also think we shouldn't do away with the system, because it is a cute helpful little parallel/underground communication stream.

Could always do what facebook does, and only have positive votes: like/agree/useful/winner. That's what the Colts have on their message board. Oh, and banners. Lots of banners.

This week, after our first loss in a while, people have definitely been acting weird here more than usual. The chicken littles at one extreme, but much more prevalent are the opposite: those acting like we have already won the Super Bowl and are offended at the suggestion that we legitimately lost to the Broncos. And then we have Quantum Mechanic in some superposition of states that is pretty much incomprehensible.

When the most sane poster on your forum is Off the Grid, you are in deep ****.

 

[Galeb]

I'm mad that Ian has to waste any time on this issue. What is the consequence of multiple dislikes? Does it affect the "disliked" person's ability to post? While I certainly would not enjoy being trolled by someone else, if it doesn't affect anything else, not only should the trollers knock it off, but the "trollees" probably should grow a bit of a thicker skin.

Ian already does too much for all of us, people who post on here way too much and take it way too seriously included. KNOCK IT OFF DUMMIES.

Giving undeveloped people a means to repeatedly lash out sort of reinforces their negative perspective and behavior. The consequences of such things can be significant.

 

[PatsDeb]

Giving undeveloped people a means to repeated lash out sort of reinforces their negative perspective and behavior. The consequences of such things can be significant.

Only if you pay any attention to them.

 

[Galeb]

Only if you pay any attention to them.

The lion's share of the negative consequences are felt by the ones lashing out. Indulging in such behavior contributes to the stunting of their development.

 

[Danger Zone]

Pretty cool of you to reverse the ratings, a "knock it off kids!" would've been more than enough I think. I mean, ultimately, unless you have like triple digits in the red column with a real low post count, does it really matter? Do I win a prize if I maintain a good positive-to-negative ratings ratio? (Seriously, do I?)

But really, going above and beyond as always. Awesome work.

On the old board, I had one Like for every Post. That meant enough to me that I would refrain from posting unless I thought it was Like-worthy. Probably to the betterment of the board.

With the new system, while I don't take them that seriously, they do mean something to me. They represent the fact that I am a productive, positive member of this community.

Throwing some ideas at the wall.

- Disliking comes at the cost of one of your Positive ratings.

- Only 1 Dislike per particular user per X hour window counts against your permanent rating.

- A post with 5 Dislikes earns double Negative scoring.

- A post with 10 Dislikes earns triple Negative scoring.

 

[Ivan]

I have passed out many likes for posts that I thought were insightful or a good contribution to the board and plenty of dislikes to trolls or people with an extremely ignorant agenda they can't shut up about, but haven't had to do so in a long time because the trolls tend to disappear with a lot of winning and the agenda's I just pay less attention to. I also had the problem where three posters accounted for 90%+ of the dislikes I have but I really don't care because two were trolls who were banned and the other an agenda driven idiot who gave up his self proclaimed jihad against a really good player.

I agree with those who say a disagree should be followed by a post starting why they disagree.

 

[n6249c]

As long as I don't get banned for hitting useful on 75% of post

you find 75% of posts useful?
I find that funny!

 

[reflexblue]

I Very rarely have used dislikes, or disagree, i just ignore most things that i dis-like or disagree with. If you don't have anything positive to say, don't say anything and move on.

 

[Joey007]

Off the subject here, but remember when this forum just got these ratings and there was a bunch of different ones initially? Anyone remember some of the ratings that were briefly available?

I think there was one called stupid if I remember right.. Good thing Ian got rid of that one. Could only imagine the abuse of that button on here..

 

[RobertWeathers]

If you don't have anything positive to say, don't say anything and move on.

Thats 90% of the gameday thread.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

I have passed out many likes for posts that I thought were insightful or a good contribution to the board and plenty of dislikes to trolls or people with an extremely ignorant agenda they can't shut up about, but haven't had to do so in a long time because the trolls tend to disappear with a lot of winning and the agenda's I just pay less attention to. I also had the problem where three posters accounted for 90%+ of the dislikes I have but I really don't care because two were trolls who were banned and the other an agenda driven idiot who gave up his self proclaimed jihad against a really good player.

I agree with those who say a disagree should be followed by a post starting why they disagree.

I disagree.
I rarely use the negatives, however, the most occasions I've used disagrees & such is when I had already made a post with my position and someone made a contrary post following on that vehemently disagreed and usually without addressing the points I made. I use Disagree rather than re-stating my original points and getting in a posting war that is all too common here. Best to be brief, succinct and to the point. No need to restate your position more than a few times in a given thread. I hate the plethora of posts where 2 or so folks spend forever proving themselves right and the other wrong.

 

[n6249c]

Yeah great idea. While we're at it why don't we hand over the TSA to Iran or get China to help us out with our Government's internet security.

hey China is doing a great job of pen testing our Internet for us. Now if they'd only share the remediation recommendations...

 

[n6249c]

Well, it's a visual thing, isn't it?

Big Red X's don't really translate to a mild "Disagree" in our Souls, because of Early ChildHood Memories...

From School.

Big Red X's translate to...WRONG!!

And that comes across as an Hostile Act.

Great point.

Ian, it might help clarify the relevance if the "Dislike" thumbs-down icon was color-mapped red and the "Disagree" X was a simple heavy black glyph (sans serif would be my preferred typeface, but I'm a typography nerd).

Not trying to make work for you, but figured crowd-sourcing design suggestions from your captive focus group might be helpful.