Removal of the down-vote, yes or no?

[Silvestru]

2 minutes ago, Strange said:

I just noticed that I got a downvote for a joke in the Physics section. Worst of all possible worlds!

That wasn't me but it reminds me of an ironic quote I read recently:

"If you keep making jokes like that, somebody is going to shoot you, father." - Mary Todd Lincoln

5 minutes ago, Strange said:

it is odd when you get a notification that "someone has reacted to a post" and you go there to find it is zero. Did someone just upvote something that was previously downvoted? Or vice versa? And why? And should I care? (I don't, I'm just puzzled by it all.)

You had a down vote for no reason on a thread I was reading. I up-voted it a few minutes ago. Probably it went to 0 because there were no other votes. but still weird.

This is pretty weird actually. Especially how it is displayed to me in the bottom right corner. You just see 0 votes on this post?

[Strange]

17 minutes ago, Silvestru said:

Especially how it is displayed to me in the bottom right corner. You just see 0 votes on this post?

That's right. (But there is another thread about how they are displayed so we had better drop this before teacher the moderator catches us!)

[interested]

9 hours ago, Strange said:

'm not convinced that it would have the negative effects SJ and koti suggest. I know I have been tempted to over- (and mis-) use it on occasion. I don't pay much attention to it myself, but it seriously annoys some people (and some take it as a badge of honour). I'm not sure it adds much value. 

I view it is a sign of affection having received almost 30 suspected down votes from your self for asking questions since I joined the forum.

If it was used to mark the usefulness or accuracy of a statement it might carry some worth, but since it is misused, it is worthless, but mildly amusing. It is like gaining or losing stars from a teacher in infant school and rather childish.

[Silvestru]

3 minutes ago, interested said:

I view it is a sign of affection having received almost 30 suspected down votes from your self for asking questions since I joined the forum.

If it was used to mark the usefulness or accuracy of a statement it might carry some worth, but since it is misused, it is worthless, but mildly amusing. It is like gaining or losing stars from a teacher in infant school and rather childish.

Apologies for going off topic but: I down-voted you because I am trying to go through big posts and understand the subject and you keep going off topic and just plain saying nothing.

You consider this post to carry worth? After someone politely explained that light doesn't need a medium to travel? (please don't start a debate in this thread about this)

10 hours ago, interested said:

F F sake what does light travel through, how is it polarized, how does a particle produce a wave,what restricts its speed. Get with the program add dimensions!

Focus on the wilderness of your unsupportable flat land beliefs. 

This is supposed to be a science forum not a religious forum.

Boa Noite

[interested]

15 minutes ago, Silvestru said:

Apologies for going off topic but: I down-voted you because I am trying to go through big posts and understand the subject and you keep going off topic and just plain saying nothing.

I am not a teacher. I tend to ask questions about things I am not clear on, which i guess does not add to threads. I do try to stay on topic. I suggest you block my posts, I understand there is an option on the forum to do that.

I do read before I ask stupid questions and therefore have partly formed opinions before I seek clarification. 

Perhaps the number of people who block a person might be a useful marker, rather than the down vote.

I guess I am one of the younger members on the forum and am open to new ideas and concepts. Apologies for annoying you, you old white sexist male living in your den in the forest somewhere. I wonder if being old restricts you and some other older people to 4 dimensions or might extra dimensions exist. I guess being old you forgot the down vote you mentioned also. 

 

Edited February 20, 2018 by interested

[Strange]

23 minutes ago, interested said:

I view it is a sign of affection having received almost 30 suspected down votes from your self for asking questions since I joined the forum.

Only the mods can say for sure, but I would be surprised if I have given you that number. I normally only give downvotes for completely irrational, irrelevant posts. You have had a few meltdowns but you normally try and keep a dialog going. (Even when your are wrong )

BTW I do quite often remove negative votes I have given in the heat of the moment. (I wonder if that shows up as a "someone has reacted" notification...)

[Silvestru]

6 minutes ago, interested said:

 Apologies for annoying you, you old white sexist male living in your den in the forest somewhere. I wonder if being old restricts you and some other older people to 4 dimensions or might extra dimensions exist.

You sure proved me wrong there interested... I am just mentioning this so you don't correlate any scientific views with age, I am 26 which I guess would be pretty old for a Polar bear. 

[swansont]

10 hours ago, iNow said:

No, keep it.

Also, how do we restore the ability of my neg reps to be weighted in accordance with my positive rep? Back in the day, swansont and I could demolish 2+ years of solid posting with a single click. [/jk]

I miss being corrupted absolutely.

[koti]

Are you both done @Silvestru & @interested ?

5 minutes ago, swansont said:

I miss being corrupted absolutely.

Once you taste it you’re hooked for the rest of your life  

[interested]

9 minutes ago, koti said:

Are you both done @Silvestru & @interested ?

Once you taste it you’re hooked for the rest of your life  

Yup

 

20 minutes ago, Strange said:

BTW I do quite often remove negative votes I have given in the heat of the moment. (I wonder if that shows up as a "someone has reacted" notification...)

I have found that with positive votes I have given, I can knock them off and there does not appear to be a restriction to the amount of points I can knock off in this way provided Ihave up voted said person in the first place.

[swansont]

11 minutes ago, interested said:

I have found that with positive votes I have given, I can knock them off and there does not appear to be a restriction to the amount of points I can knock off in this way provided Ihave up voted said person in the first place.

You can remove/correct your upvote or downvote, which is an improvement over the previous software.

[hypervalent_iodine]

3 hours ago, Silvestru said:

I like how the current system works, the only problem that I have noticed is that some people with negative rep, stop giving a french man's f*** and go in full hate mode. 

I really don't care that much but It's really hard to get a plus in the physics section (you have to write a whole essay and put work into it) while you can get 5 at once in the joke section let's say. Me for example I have a good reputation yet I have very little science knowledge. Some people might take my word for some posts over someone else with a negative rep that they acquired in religion section let's say even though that person has more knowledge on the subject. (I am not saying rep should be assigned by categories, maybe just eliminating this up vote option from Joke sections or religion or speculation and leave this for actual science threads.).

I am really interested in the opinion of someone with negative rep on this thread.

 

This is why we have resident expert badges. 

[Endy0816]

I don't know. Sometimes see it as divisive. Would rather it just can't go below zero.

Edited February 20, 2018 by Endy0816

[Lord Antares]

I agree that negative rep shouldn't be removed. It's a good indicator of who posts good stuff and who posts trash.

I've always thought that the rep system is very newbie-friendly in that it is a good indication of legitimate science vs pseudo-science. If you are a newbie, you will generally not have enough knowledge to tell what is right, so the upvote and downvote system is often a very accurate way to tell. So I think it's almost necessary for this forum.

You might argue that:

4 hours ago, hypervalent_iodine said:

 

This is why we have resident expert badges. 

but for example, we have Janus who doesn't have the badge, yet I consider him (subjectively) to be the best poster here. One look at his rep to post ratio and it all makes sense when you read his posts. On the other hand, I think that neg rep is handy to recognize the crackpots. Yes, it taints their reputation but it is hardly unwarranted when you see they are sitting at -50 with 200 posts by only posting unsupported trash. So I disagree with Raider as well.

[NimrodTheGoat]

Keep it. It helps to see whether a post or a reply to a post is worth taking the time to read. 

[Ten oz]

I use both Negative and Positive. Other members are able correct it when undeserved either way. I don't think it would be good to have a consequence free system where it was Positive reps only. I have had people down vote my posts, I have had moderators advise me not to proceed into off topic tangents, and etc I consider it productive feedback. Just the other day iNow commented that many of my recent posts were difficult to read due to errors and recommend I do more proof reading before posting. I view that as productive feedback. 

I have seen features on other sites that list who up or down voted a post. Perhaps that feature here would be a good idea? 

[Roamer]

I voted no, i do not see any reason why a negative vote should count less then a positive vote; i believe moderation hinted at "abusers" ,but personally i mostly/only give upvotes and likes and no downvotes, and that's just the way i like to give votes, but if someone else only gives downvotes this only means that person probably wastes more time reading through bad posts instead of skipping them(and not clicking politics in the first place) like i do, and thus communicates his subjective (and unargumented) opinion in a different way.

I know we all love positivity more then negativity, but positivity becomes meaningless without negativity to counter it.

13 hours ago, Silvestru said:

(I am not saying rep should be assigned by categories, maybe just eliminating this up vote option from Joke sections or religion or speculation and leave this for actual science threads.).

I did notice there is a upvote, downvote, and a like-vote, and i think the difference is getting blurry(aka, did someone say something smart or did he save me the trouble of replying, did he say something funny, or maybe even ask a question that i would like to see answered(i think this last one would deserve it's own curiosity-vote) ,anyway, removing downvote from the non-science and the likevote from the science-section might be a good idea.(ps are likevotes counted ??)

[hypervalent_iodine]

Like votes are counted the same as upvotes and for whatever reason, they are a compulsory feature of having the reputation system enabled. I tried, because I felt they were confusing as well, but we can’t get rid of them. I think I can change their value, but it makes sense that they are worth +1 to my mind. 

[Strange]

13 minutes ago, Roamer said:

positivity becomes meaningless without negativity to counter it.

Deep. 

[beecee]

12 hours ago, interested said:

I am not a teacher. I tend to ask questions about things I am not clear on, which i guess does not add to threads. I do try to stay on topic. I suggest you block my posts, I understand there is an option on the forum to do that.

There is nothing wrong in asking questions, in fact it is why science is what it is, and why all scientists themselves ask questions. That's how theories develop. Some though come to science forums with an agenda, and ask questions that they have no intention of accepting a valid answer for. Science develops theories that match observation. Sometimes the why and/or the how are unanswerable or are more philosophical then scientific. see the following to explain what I mean. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO0r930Sn_8

Quote

I do read before I ask stupid questions and therefore have partly formed opinions before I seek clarification. 

Like me you are an amateur: Nothing wrong with that, we are all an amateur in some regard to some particular subject area. But speaking for myself, answers I have received on forums like this, I mostly review myself via some known reputable website or person, or book. I voted no, because I have come to recognise that many folk come to science forums with an agenda as I already mentioned, and some come with other afflictions such as "delusions of grandeur"and/or "tall poppy syndrome"  or religious fanaticism. These are mostly easily recognisable after they post a few times, and their  "not going to accept an answer that conflicts with my personal view" mentality comes to the fore.

The like, up, and down votes give an indication of the intention and persona of the person asking or answering a question, remembering that mainstream science forums such as this are just that...mainstream science forums. Hypotheticals and non mainstream quirky ideas are just that, and like the established incumbent theories before they became established incumbent theories, need to "run the gauntlet" of critical questioning by others, before being accepted. Mostly and rightly so,  they are banished to the trash for failing what we know as the simple scientific methodology.

 

 

[MigL]

Check out the little spat between Itoero and Dimreepr in the Status Update section for an example of the use of neg repping to win an argument, or punish your opponent for having a differing viewpoint.

Not taking sides, but that is one good reason for getting rid of down-voting.

[Raider5678]

19 minutes ago, MigL said:

Check out the little spat between Itoero and Dimreepr in the Status Update section for an example of the use of neg repping to win an argument, or punish your opponent for having a differing viewpoint.

Not taking sides, but that is one good reason for getting rid of down-voting.

I was thinking the same thing.

At the moment however, I was observing the fact I can keep voting in this poll.

[hypervalent_iodine]

4 hours ago, MigL said:

Check out the little spat between Itoero and Dimreepr in the Status Update section for an example of the use of neg repping to win an argument, or punish your opponent for having a differing viewpoint.

Not taking sides, but that is one good reason for getting rid of down-voting.

 

I suppose this is as good a place as any to mention that admin can alter individual member restrictions by assigning them to different groups. We have used this in the past, but perhaps we will employ it a bit more.

[swansont]

5 hours ago, hypervalent_iodine said:

 

I suppose this is as good a place as any to mention that admin can alter individual member restrictions by assigning them to different groups. We have used this in the past, but perhaps we will employ it a bit more.

Also that we've had a few people abuse the system. A few were receptive to feedback and modified their behavior, and other situations have been handled administratively. 

[Lord Antares]

On 2/22/2018 at 7:37 AM, hypervalent_iodine said:

 

I suppose this is as good a place as any to mention that admin can alter individual member restrictions by assigning them to different groups. We have used this in the past, but perhaps we will employ it a bit more.

I think it would be optimal if you could only give upvotes and downvotes in science sections. Many people have built up a rep (be it positive or negative) in the politics or religion sections. This completely defeats the purpose of the rep system. I don't know if that's possible to make, though. This would also help get rid of the ''win by rep'' debates and would decrease the effects of ''ganging up on someone'' which is also most prominent in politics sections.