To whoever downvoted this: What do you want me to do, ignore him?
As a meta point, perhaps it would be useful to have a quick acronym for requesting that nobody upvote or downvote your comment because it’s not supposed to function as anything other than a quick acknowledgement or something. Maybe we could do “KF” for “karma freeze”. Like, “Thank you. KF”
I don’t know if this would catch on or anything, but one of the annoying things about the current karma system is that it creates this atmosphere where everything must be “all business” or something. What if I just want to signal a brief acknowledgement or whatever? Am I supposed to just deal with the inevitable downvotes?
A norm for marking your comment as being “not for karma appraisal” may be useful because you could use it to signal that you’re not looking for karma, and just trying to engage in some social nicety or whatever. I suspect that part of the reason why the sort of comment I’m replying to here often gets downvoted is because it may almost seem like the person writing the comment is hoping for some extra karma or something.
I don’t know. Even if this wouldn’t be a good way to solve it, I nevertheless think it’s a problem that I always have to expect to get downvoted when I acknowledge somebody without adding anything substantial, or whatever. Sometimes there’s really nothing else to say besides a quick positive acknowledgement, and sometimes not doing that quick signal would be socially suboptimal.
It’s just that it’s a trend that I’ve noticed, and one that may have a corrosive effect on this community by essentially disincentivizing social niceties and the like. Despite the consistent downvotes, I personally plan on continuing forth in my effort to acknowledge those who address me even if I have nothing else to say, and also never leave anybody hanging, but you can probably see why many would not.
I do agree that yes, I should deal with the inevitable downvotes in these sorts of situations because plenty of people downvote for bad reasons. But I don’t agree that I should just give up trying to change the trend for a reason like, “You can’t control what they do.” Well, why can’t I? Sure, I can’t hope to influence everybody, but this isn’t an isolated event—it’s been a trend for a long time.
I’m going to continue posting quick acknowledgments when they’re appropriate whether or not I get downvoted anonymously each time, but I don’t see why I shouldn’t also respond to them by defending my comments and engaging in meta discussion about what sorts of voting patterns would be optimal in this community.
Thank you.
To whoever downvoted this: What do you want me to do, ignore him?
As a meta point, perhaps it would be useful to have a quick acronym for requesting that nobody upvote or downvote your comment because it’s not supposed to function as anything other than a quick acknowledgement or something. Maybe we could do “KF” for “karma freeze”. Like, “Thank you. KF”
I don’t know if this would catch on or anything, but one of the annoying things about the current karma system is that it creates this atmosphere where everything must be “all business” or something. What if I just want to signal a brief acknowledgement or whatever? Am I supposed to just deal with the inevitable downvotes?
A norm for marking your comment as being “not for karma appraisal” may be useful because you could use it to signal that you’re not looking for karma, and just trying to engage in some social nicety or whatever. I suspect that part of the reason why the sort of comment I’m replying to here often gets downvoted is because it may almost seem like the person writing the comment is hoping for some extra karma or something.
I don’t know. Even if this wouldn’t be a good way to solve it, I nevertheless think it’s a problem that I always have to expect to get downvoted when I acknowledge somebody without adding anything substantial, or whatever. Sometimes there’s really nothing else to say besides a quick positive acknowledgement, and sometimes not doing that quick signal would be socially suboptimal.
Can we have a community norm against obsessing over karma?
Do you mean to say that I shouldn’t have written the comment you’re replying to?
Yes. People downvote for bad reasons, and you can’t control what they do.
It’s just that it’s a trend that I’ve noticed, and one that may have a corrosive effect on this community by essentially disincentivizing social niceties and the like. Despite the consistent downvotes, I personally plan on continuing forth in my effort to acknowledge those who address me even if I have nothing else to say, and also never leave anybody hanging, but you can probably see why many would not.
I do agree that yes, I should deal with the inevitable downvotes in these sorts of situations because plenty of people downvote for bad reasons. But I don’t agree that I should just give up trying to change the trend for a reason like, “You can’t control what they do.” Well, why can’t I? Sure, I can’t hope to influence everybody, but this isn’t an isolated event—it’s been a trend for a long time.
I’m going to continue posting quick acknowledgments when they’re appropriate whether or not I get downvoted anonymously each time, but I don’t see why I shouldn’t also respond to them by defending my comments and engaging in meta discussion about what sorts of voting patterns would be optimal in this community.
Okay.