[gwnn]

 Lurpoa, on 2013-November-29, 11:55, said:

May I ask your opinion please ? Do we need guidelines for upvoting ?

Yes, you clearly do.

[Zelandakh]

 mike777, on 2013-December-02, 18:36, said:

I am one of those who at times upvote an OP. I often find the questions more interesting than the answers.

There is nothing wrong with upvoting an interesting OP. That is quite different from upvoting an OP asking a basic question about the interface or some other mundane OP that has been seen 500 times before.

[aguahombre]

Many prominent Forum participants upvote the post, not the poster. It is better than writing a ditto post which adds nothing; it is merely an expression of agreement. I find it valuable to see who upvotes a particular idea.

Sorry, Justin. I upvote posts which I believe have covered a topic in the same way I would have ---but better; if that is considered to be an invasion of your privacy, oh well.

[billw55]

 aguahombre, on 2013-December-03, 12:24, said:

Many prominent Forum participants upvote the post, not the poster.

Of course that is the whole point. And I think that all but a very few posters do, in fact, do it this way.

[Vampyr]

 billw55, on 2013-December-03, 13:19, said:

Of course that is the whole point. And I think that all but a very few posters do, in fact, do it this way.

Do you really? I doubt this. I upvote posts I like even when I strongly disagree with everything else the person has posted.

I also randomly upvote posts when I am trying to reply. I suspect that a lot of us do this.

[mycroft]

 Vampyr, on 2013-December-03, 15:15, said:

I also randomly upvote posts when I am trying to reply. I suspect that a lot of us do this.

I expect that explains most of my reputation, then...

[Bbradley62]

 Vampyr, on 2013-December-03, 15:15, said:

 billw55, on 2013-December-03, 13:19, said:

 aguahombre, on 2013-December-03, 12:24, said:

Many prominent Forum participants upvote the post, not the poster...

Of course that is the whole point. And I think that all but a very few posters do, in fact, do it this way...

Do you really? I doubt this. I upvote posts I like even when I strongly disagree with everything else the person has posted...

It appears to me that you're agreeing with agua and billw on this approach, although you say you doubt it.

[Vampyr]

 Bbradley62, on 2013-December-03, 21:12, said:

It appears to me that you're agreeing with agua and billw on this approach, although you say you doubt it.

Agreeing with aqua, disagreeing with billw.

[billw55]

 Vampyr, on 2013-December-04, 05:55, said:

Agreeing with aqua, disagreeing with billw.

Er, but I was also agreeing with aqua. I guess I wasn't clear about that.

 Vampyr, on 2013-December-03, 15:15, said:

Do you really? I doubt this. I upvote posts I like even when I strongly disagree with everything else the person has posted.

I also randomly upvote posts when I am trying to reply. I suspect that a lot of us do this.

For clarity, I agree, and I also upvote based on the post content, not based on who the poster is.

On my screen, the upvote button is just above the multiquote button, with the reply button to the left. It is distinct enough that I don't think I have ever inadvertently upvoted. Maybe the display on other devices (phones, tablets) is more prone to this.

[Vampyr]

 billw55, on 2013-December-04, 07:05, said:

Er, but I was agreeing with aqua. I guess I wasn't clear about that.

You were, I just read too quickly and saw "very few" rather than "all but a very few".

[mycroft]

Hmm, I don't see the two replies.

[Lurpoa]

Time to close this with some conclusions:

There are a few constructive ideas:


hrothgar: use Daily Kos-system... what is it ?
Antrax: best is NO rules
Vampyr: strange to upvote questions
Zelandakh: to enable people who just want to browse threads quickly to find the most important responses quickly.
Zelandakh: There is nothing wrong with upvoting an interesting OP
bilw: If you genuinely like the post, then voting it up is normal
mike777: questions more interesting than the answers
mike777: My way to say thank you for posting such a thoughtful, interesting question.
aguahombre: upvote the post, not the poster
aguahombre: an expression of agreement
aguahombre: it valuable to see who upvotes a particular idea
Vampyr: I upvote posts I like

Lot of Hijacking attempts:

diana_eve - a Yellow ! : about my birthday
GreenMan: an argument with hrothgar
Zelandakh: reponding to not to the point contri by JLogic
.... and a lot more

And I also want ot mention two unfriendly contributions:

JLOGIC: a Pro
Csaba

Thanks you all,
but sorry, not enough input to start something usefull.
That is why I will continue to make sure that the upvote system reflects my vision.

Be The ♥ with you all,
except JLOGIC and Csaba
one downvote for them.

PS: can I get your upvotes please.

[Bbradley62]

 Lurpoa, on 2013-December-16, 13:35, said:

Lot of Hijacking attempts:

Vampyr: downvotes back
etc.

I don't think this was at all an attempt to hijack the thread. Any reasonable voting system should include both plus and minus votes; otherwise, the "love it or hate it" type of response will always get many upvotes without the downvotes that would correctly identify it as a double-edged sword.

[Lurpoa]

 Bbradley62, on 2013-December-16, 13:42, said:

I don't think this was at all an attempt to hijack the thread. Any reasonable voting system should include both plus and minus votes; otherwise, the "love it or hate it" type of response will always get many upvotes without the downvotes that would correctly identify it as a double-edged sword.

Right,

I will correct.

[billw55]

 Bbradley62, on 2013-December-16, 13:42, said:

I don't think this was at all an attempt to hijack the thread. Any reasonable voting system should include both plus and minus votes; otherwise, the "love it or hate it" type of response will always get many upvotes without the downvotes that would correctly identify it as a double-edged sword.

Ideally, yes. Unfortunately it only takes a few abusers to sabotage the system and this happened with downvotes.

Perhaps if we had tighter limits on votes. Maybe 5 upvotes and 2 downvotes per day.

[Vampyr]

 Bbradley62, on 2013-December-16, 13:42, said:

I don't think this was at all an attempt to hijack the thread. Any reasonable voting system should include both plus and minus votes; otherwise, the "love it or hate it" type of response will always get many upvotes without the downvotes that would correctly identify it as a double-edged sword.

Also certain posters seem to try to "downvote" a post in a thread by upvoting all the others.

[Vampyr]

 billw55, on 2013-December-16, 14:16, said:

Ideally, yes. Unfortunately it only takes a few abusers to sabotage the system and this happened with downvotes.

Perhaps if we had tighter limits on votes. Maybe 5 upvotes per and 2 downvotes per day.

What would be really interesting would be that downvotes required a comment explaining why. (And could then be subject to cancellation by mods.)

[barmar]

 Vampyr, on 2013-December-16, 15:21, said:

What would be really interesting would be that downvotes required a comment explaining why. (And could then be subject to cancellation by mods.)

Anything that requires custom changes to the forum software is unlikely to happen.

[Bbradley62]

 billw55, on 2013-December-16, 14:16, said:

Perhaps if we had tighter limits on votes. Maybe 5 upvotes per and 2 downvotes per day.

This seems perfectly reasonable to me.

[Vampyr]

 Bbradley62, on 2013-December-16, 13:42, said:

I don't think this was at all an attempt to hijack the thread. Any reasonable voting system should include both plus and minus votes; otherwise, the "love it or hate it" type of response will always get many upvotes without the downvotes that would correctly identify it as a double-edged sword.

Of course a neutral rating will not represent this type of post, but I suppose there is no way to change to number of upvotes and number of downvotes instead of a single rating. I quite like the idea of low limits on votes.