FWIW, when I see someone making really bad comments, I tend to look at their other comments to see if they’re also downvote-worthy, since it’s a source of low-hanging fruit for moderation.
(I also subscribe to RSS feeds of particularly bad cases and downvote all of their bad comments (i.e. most of what they write) if they resurface later.)
I do that too, but have only downvoted maybe 2 or 3 of chaosmosis’s comments (he’s nor particularly trollish or obnoxious, just a bit rude and obstinate; I don’t know (or care) what the original disagreement on HPMoR was).
It’s fairly likely that a particularly stupid or rude comment in the recent comments can trigger many people independently doing “mild karmassissanation” (checking the user’s recent comments, and downvoting a couple stupid posts), giving an overall impression of systematic downvoting.
Trying to articulate what I meant by karma sink and I don’t really have a coherent notion of the statement. I think I meant something like a single comment leading to massive downvotes, but when stated that way it doesn’t seem to be that bad.
FWIW, when I see someone making really bad comments, I tend to look at their other comments to see if they’re also downvote-worthy, since it’s a source of low-hanging fruit for moderation.
(I also subscribe to RSS feeds of particularly bad cases and downvote all of their bad comments (i.e. most of what they write) if they resurface later.)
I hadn’t thought of that. Good idea!
I do that too, but have only downvoted maybe 2 or 3 of chaosmosis’s comments (he’s nor particularly trollish or obnoxious, just a bit rude and obstinate; I don’t know (or care) what the original disagreement on HPMoR was).
It’s fairly likely that a particularly stupid or rude comment in the recent comments can trigger many people independently doing “mild karmassissanation” (checking the user’s recent comments, and downvoting a couple stupid posts), giving an overall impression of systematic downvoting.
Alternately: just very immature and sensitive.
Please don’t do this. This can lead to karma sinks and also potentially reinforce group think.
What is a “karma sink” in this context?
Trying to articulate what I meant by karma sink and I don’t really have a coherent notion of the statement. I think I meant something like a single comment leading to massive downvotes, but when stated that way it doesn’t seem to be that bad.
Is that actually a problem?