(1) About what percentage of comments do you vote on at all? What percentage of top-level posts?
I often (>30%) vote on posts and comments I read—but I usually don’t read unless I think there is a good probability of seeing something interesting. This I infer partly from style.
(2) Do you use the boo vote or the anti-kibitzer extensions? Why or why not?
I installed both a second ago, mostly out of curiosity. The latter sounds like a good idea, though, although I wish it didn’t hide my comments.
(3) What karma threshold do you use to filter what you see, if any?
I left it at the default, −4.
(4) When you vote on a post, or read it and decide not to vote on it, what features of the post are you occurrently conscious of that influence your decision either way? (Submitter, current post score, length, style, topic, spelling, whatever.) What about comments?
(5) When you vote on a post, or read it and decide not to vote on it, are there any features of the post that you suspect you may react to subconsciously? What about comments?
(6) When you vote on a post, or read it and decide not to vote on it, how do the features to which you react influence you? What about comments?
Current post score, if zero—I hesitate to demote a comment to negative points; length, if tedious; style, if impenetrable; topic, if off; spelling, always; submitter, rarely. The main influence is whether it seems helpful or anti-helpful.
I can’t say I’ve diagnosed any patterns, else.
(7) Do you make comments saying how you voted and why, on posts or on other comments? Why or why not?
I usually comment if I downvote; otherwise, I mostly restrict myself to when I have something to say.
(8) What do you think a vote should be for? (Moving comments around in attentionspace, signifying agreement or disagreement, nudging the score in the direction of the score you think it deserves, influencing user karma to reflect general trends of post/comment quality, pointing out comments that are entertaining or useful or have cogent reasoning, compensating for other people upvoting or downvoting something you don’t think warrants it, rewarding people for completing surveys, something I didn’t think of, some combination of purposes). Do you usually vote in a way consistent with your opinion about its purpose?
Karma should:
Reward quality in posts and comments,
Punish damage to the quality of the community (e.g. flamebait, boringness).
I’m new here, so I can’t really be confident of either these criteria or my adherence to them.
(9) What software features would you like to see that are relevant to voting?
Tracking of recent upvotes and downvotes to own comments and posts.
(10) Does your replying behavior interact in any interesting way with your voting behavior? (For instance, do you usually reply to comments you find confusing with questions, and then downvote them only after getting an inadequate explanation? Do you vote only on discussions you have, or haven’t, participated in? Do you upvote for agreement and reply for disagreement?)
I feel obligated to defend my downvotes with a reply, and I am more willing to reply than to downvote. And I’ll vote in discussions I’m not in, all the time.
(11) How do you tend to react when one of your posts or comments gets a good karma score? What if no one votes on it, or it gets a negative score?
I’m still in the “yay, someone likes me!” stage of reacting to upvotes. Being entirely new, I haven’t been downvoted yet that I’ve seen (see 9, above), but my chief reaction would be to see if I’ve been violating my own norms (see 8, above) in a way which would justify. If so, I’ll own up in a later reply.
(12) Is there anything else about your voting behavior or opinions on voting that might be interesting?
I often (>30%) vote on posts and comments I read—but I usually don’t read unless I think there is a good probability of seeing something interesting. This I infer partly from style.
I installed both a second ago, mostly out of curiosity. The latter sounds like a good idea, though, although I wish it didn’t hide my comments.
I left it at the default, −4.
Current post score, if zero—I hesitate to demote a comment to negative points; length, if tedious; style, if impenetrable; topic, if off; spelling, always; submitter, rarely. The main influence is whether it seems helpful or anti-helpful.
I can’t say I’ve diagnosed any patterns, else.
I usually comment if I downvote; otherwise, I mostly restrict myself to when I have something to say.
Karma should:
Reward quality in posts and comments,
Punish damage to the quality of the community (e.g. flamebait, boringness).
I’m new here, so I can’t really be confident of either these criteria or my adherence to them.
Tracking of recent upvotes and downvotes to own comments and posts.
I feel obligated to defend my downvotes with a reply, and I am more willing to reply than to downvote. And I’ll vote in discussions I’m not in, all the time.
I’m still in the “yay, someone likes me!” stage of reacting to upvotes. Being entirely new, I haven’t been downvoted yet that I’ve seen (see 9, above), but my chief reaction would be to see if I’ve been violating my own norms (see 8, above) in a way which would justify. If so, I’ll own up in a later reply.
Not yet!
hear, hear