Do I understand it correctly that the behavior you describe is “downvote every new comment from user X when it appears” (as opposed to “go to user X’s history and downvote a lot of their old comments at the same time”)?
Because when hearing about karma assassinations, I always automatically assumed the latter form; only the words “early downvote” in Nancy’s comment made me realize the former form is also possible.
A possible technical fix could be to not display the user comment’s karma until at least three votes were made or at least one day has passed.
Also, off-topic: Crocker’s Rules seem to be popular in out culture; maybe it would be nice to integrate them into LW user interface. For example user could add their “anonymous feedback URL” in preferences, and a new icon “Reply Anonymously” would then be displayed below all user’s comments and articles.
Theoretically it might be useful for people to be able to set a visible flag “Talk to me under Crocker’s Rules”—but I suspect that it will immediately degenerate into a status sign.
If I declare Crocker’s Rules and you write something rude in a reply to me, other LW readers still see it. So even if I am perfectly okay with it (and I shouldn’t have declared CR otherwise), you might lose some status in the eyes of the observers who don’t properly evaluate the context of your reply.
If you send me a private message, we get rid of the observers. Unless I play dirty and later show the private message to someone else. Anonymous feedback would prevent me from doing so.
But yes, for 99% of cases, sending private message would be enough, anonymization is not needed. And we already have that option here.
Crocker’s Rules, as I understand them, are about efficient conveyance of meaning without the extra baggage of social niceties. The are not about the ability to express unpopular views without social consequences which is where private messages or anonymity shine.
If you are concerned about observers misinterpreting the context you can always add a little [This post is under Crocker’s Rules] tag somewhere.
Crocker’s rules are not directly about anonymity no, but if you want to maximise your chances of receiving honest feedback an anonymous contact method is valuable.
Do I understand it correctly that the behavior you describe is “downvote every new comment from user X when it appears” (as opposed to “go to user X’s history and downvote a lot of their old comments at the same time”)?
Because when hearing about karma assassinations, I always automatically assumed the latter form; only the words “early downvote” in Nancy’s comment made me realize the former form is also possible.
A possible technical fix could be to not display the user comment’s karma until at least three votes were made or at least one day has passed.
Also, off-topic: Crocker’s Rules seem to be popular in out culture; maybe it would be nice to integrate them into LW user interface. For example user could add their “anonymous feedback URL” in preferences, and a new icon “Reply Anonymously” would then be displayed below all user’s comments and articles.
Not only that, but I’ve been getting the downvotes on my posts, not my comments. I wouldn’t call this karma assassination—maybe karma harassment.
Crocker’s Rules aren’t about anonymity.
Theoretically it might be useful for people to be able to set a visible flag “Talk to me under Crocker’s Rules”—but I suspect that it will immediately degenerate into a status sign.
If I declare Crocker’s Rules and you write something rude in a reply to me, other LW readers still see it. So even if I am perfectly okay with it (and I shouldn’t have declared CR otherwise), you might lose some status in the eyes of the observers who don’t properly evaluate the context of your reply.
If you send me a private message, we get rid of the observers. Unless I play dirty and later show the private message to someone else. Anonymous feedback would prevent me from doing so.
But yes, for 99% of cases, sending private message would be enough, anonymization is not needed. And we already have that option here.
Crocker’s Rules, as I understand them, are about efficient conveyance of meaning without the extra baggage of social niceties. The are not about the ability to express unpopular views without social consequences which is where private messages or anonymity shine.
If you are concerned about observers misinterpreting the context you can always add a little [This post is under Crocker’s Rules] tag somewhere.
Crocker’s rules are not directly about anonymity no, but if you want to maximise your chances of receiving honest feedback an anonymous contact method is valuable.