Intimidatory downvoting: Downvoting whose purpose is to discourage people from expressing certain kinds of views on LW by the threat of massive karma loss. (In particular, the threat of much more than they would lose just from having their comments expressing those views downvoted.)
Retributive downvoting: Downvoting whose purpose is to get back at someone who has annoyed or upset you, or whom you don’t like for some other reason.
Block-downvoting: Largely-indiscriminative downvoting of a user’s comments, whatever the reason. (I might also use the term to describe downvoting everything in some conversation, though I might not because it isn’t standard terminology.)
Karmassassination: Large-scale downvoting whose aim is to reduce a particular user’s karma score, for whatever reason (could be retributive, could be because you’ve nothing personal against them but think, after careful reflection, that it would be best for LW if they left, etc.).
I dislike intimidatory downvoting because (1) it’s unreasonably unpleasant for the victim, (2) it seems like an attempt to exercise more power over what views are expressed on LW than the karma system is really meant to enable, (3) it distorts the per-comment information karma scores are meant to provide (expressed not only in the scores themselves but in thread ordering), and (4) because most users will avoid it on account of #1 and #3, it gives extra influence to those who care less about the LW community as a whole and extra importance to opinions on topics that push those people’s buttons.
[EDITED to add: It occurs to me that it’s possible that when not explicitly prompted to distinguish carefully between these terms, I may actually use them less carefully. I don’t think so, though. I don’t think I’ve actually used, as opposed to quoting others’ use of, the term “karmassassination”, which I find ugly. Though I suppose maybe an ugly thing deserves an ugly word. I’ve also used the term “mass-downvoting”, meaning much the same as “block-downvoting”.]
I’ll explain how I use all those terms.
Intimidatory downvoting: Downvoting whose purpose is to discourage people from expressing certain kinds of views on LW by the threat of massive karma loss. (In particular, the threat of much more than they would lose just from having their comments expressing those views downvoted.)
Retributive downvoting: Downvoting whose purpose is to get back at someone who has annoyed or upset you, or whom you don’t like for some other reason.
Block-downvoting: Largely-indiscriminative downvoting of a user’s comments, whatever the reason. (I might also use the term to describe downvoting everything in some conversation, though I might not because it isn’t standard terminology.)
Karmassassination: Large-scale downvoting whose aim is to reduce a particular user’s karma score, for whatever reason (could be retributive, could be because you’ve nothing personal against them but think, after careful reflection, that it would be best for LW if they left, etc.).
I dislike intimidatory downvoting because (1) it’s unreasonably unpleasant for the victim, (2) it seems like an attempt to exercise more power over what views are expressed on LW than the karma system is really meant to enable, (3) it distorts the per-comment information karma scores are meant to provide (expressed not only in the scores themselves but in thread ordering), and (4) because most users will avoid it on account of #1 and #3, it gives extra influence to those who care less about the LW community as a whole and extra importance to opinions on topics that push those people’s buttons.
[EDITED to add: It occurs to me that it’s possible that when not explicitly prompted to distinguish carefully between these terms, I may actually use them less carefully. I don’t think so, though. I don’t think I’ve actually used, as opposed to quoting others’ use of, the term “karmassassination”, which I find ugly. Though I suppose maybe an ugly thing deserves an ugly word. I’ve also used the term “mass-downvoting”, meaning much the same as “block-downvoting”.]
(nods) Makes sense. Thanks for clarifying.