Has anyone else noticed considerably more downvotes than usual in the past week- in particular for comments which are well above what we expect here in terms of writing, manner, education and rationality? (I may have just spent too much time in threads that got political.)
If I voted this comment down, would you take that as supporting evidence that there are recently more downvotes than usual, or as evidence opposing that theory?
I would take it as evidence supporting my sense that there have been more downvotes than usual recently (or that you were just screwing with me). I asked a reasonable question regarding whether or not others had noticed more downvotes lately. Downvoting the comment signals that someone doesn’t want to see comments like it—not that they disagree with my impression.
(I personally think that downvoting to merely express disagreement is unwarranted except with comments that already have, say 6+ karma in which case a downvote is helpful to demonstrate that there is no consensus on the matter. To no one does −2 indicate that two people merely disagreed with the opinion in the comment. Downvoting someone who is stupidly, irrationally or wrong beyond the standards of LW is a different story.)
I just meant someone might find it funny to downvote a comment talking about how many downvotes they’ve seen- I wasn’t talking about you in particular.
Has anyone else noticed considerably more downvotes than usual in the past week- in particular for comments which are well above what we expect here in terms of writing, manner, education and rationality? (I may have just spent too much time in threads that got political.)
No, I haven’t noticed it. But I confess my standards are rather brutal and I haven’t been paying close attention.
Can you point to a few examples that you would not expect to be voted down as much at other times?
The parent and lessdazed’s reply (before my upvote) for instance. This thread was full of examples until most of the negative karma comments eventually got voted back up. It’s hard to find examples since negative karma comments so often get brought back up to zero.
Could also be that I was away from Less Wrong for a while and I’m not used to the current level of traffic- I suppose I’ve also been surprised by how upvoted some comments have been.
People should be somewhat aware of the averse and irrational reactions negative karma tends to evoke in people—it can lead to the downvotee downvoting more aggressively in turn and become more defensive and arrogant in his comments. Which isn’t to say people should lower their standards about what is acceptable here, exactly.
Has anyone else noticed considerably more downvotes than usual in the past week- in particular for comments which are well above what we expect here in terms of writing, manner, education and rationality? (I may have just spent too much time in threads that got political.)
If I voted this comment down, would you take that as supporting evidence that there are recently more downvotes than usual, or as evidence opposing that theory?
I would take it as evidence supporting my sense that there have been more downvotes than usual recently (or that you were just screwing with me). I asked a reasonable question regarding whether or not others had noticed more downvotes lately. Downvoting the comment signals that someone doesn’t want to see comments like it—not that they disagree with my impression.
(I personally think that downvoting to merely express disagreement is unwarranted except with comments that already have, say 6+ karma in which case a downvote is helpful to demonstrate that there is no consensus on the matter. To no one does −2 indicate that two people merely disagreed with the opinion in the comment. Downvoting someone who is stupidly, irrationally or wrong beyond the standards of LW is a different story.)
Of the 26 comments on your first page, I had upvoted five and downvoted none, including the parent and great grandparent of this comment.
If I disagreed enough with the great grandparent I might simply downvote it, which is why the situation is peculiar.
I just meant someone might find it funny to downvote a comment talking about how many downvotes they’ve seen- I wasn’t talking about you in particular.
I do think it’s funny so I wrote the comment instead of downvoting.
No, I haven’t noticed it. But I confess my standards are rather brutal and I haven’t been paying close attention.
Can you point to a few examples that you would not expect to be voted down as much at other times?
The parent and lessdazed’s reply (before my upvote) for instance. This thread was full of examples until most of the negative karma comments eventually got voted back up. It’s hard to find examples since negative karma comments so often get brought back up to zero.
Could also be that I was away from Less Wrong for a while and I’m not used to the current level of traffic- I suppose I’ve also been surprised by how upvoted some comments have been.
People should be somewhat aware of the averse and irrational reactions negative karma tends to evoke in people—it can lead to the downvotee downvoting more aggressively in turn and become more defensive and arrogant in his comments. Which isn’t to say people should lower their standards about what is acceptable here, exactly.