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I’ve been thinking of writing this post for a while, and my early morning scroll through recent Forum posts finally pushed me to it. When I author a post, I try to go back to it every so often and reply to comments. That was something Jonathan hoped for from the authors he published. In going through the thread of a post I made a few days ago, I noticed that one or two people had systematically downvoted every comment I made, even things like “Thanks! Great suggestion!”–completely innocuous comments that couldn’t possibly have offended anyone. The clear message of them has to be, then, “I don’t like you. I wish you’d go away.”
That’s happened to me before. I’ve also noticed it happening to a couple of other regulars and writers. I have several thoughts about this, followed by a suggestion.
My suggestion is that the owners/moderators of this site make a change. I’m not sure exactly what is possible on the Disqus platform. My preference would be to disable the upvote/downvote feature entirely. It really doesn’t add much to the conversation. I do know, because I’m a moderator for another site that uses Disqus, that it’s possible to attach board names to upvotes and downvotes–that’s what we do on that site–and that at least requires people to stand behind their “vote” rather than being anonymous. I honestly see no purpose for anonymous downvotes other than to be mean-spirited.
Thanks for considering this.
Looking at a couple of your past posts and comments, I agree that some folks are giving you the down arrow for just about anything you say. The same is true for mytimetotravel, which suggests (but certainly does not prove) a misogynist connection. However, I never paid much attention to the up or down arrows before, and they seem rather pointless. Ignoring them will take away their miniscule power.
Wow… how unobservant have I been? Never noticed the arrows. I comment on things I agree with and also on those I disagree with.
It wouldn’t occur to me to do it anonymously. Where’s the fun in that?
I, for one, enjoy Dr. Lefty’s stuff.
As someone else may have mentioned, as an Academic, I was used to being criticized by students when they were graded on lazy, underwhelming, zero-effort work. I ignored their comments and focused on my student evaluations, which were always in the top 10% of faculty at my institution….with them frequently being in the top 5%.
Wow, I log onto the site after a 3-4 day absence and find that Armageddon has broken out.
1) Dana, as another Dr. Lefty, I agree with you 100%
2) David Lancaster, thanks for referencing what I said about this topic in August
3) finally, anonymous arrows contribute nothing to the discourse, do nothing to help anyone learn about finance/investing, etc, and perpetuates trolling, bringing this site closer to the level of X/Twitter.
Suggestions:
a) if people are so in love with their arrows, then remove anonymity – any arrow should be associated the name of the “voter” and what direction they voted
b) remove the arrows for two weeks and see how much they’re missed.
I disagree with your #3 assertion. Up/down votes provide a general idea of whether the majority feels you are correct in what you’re saying. Perhaps you should reconsider your position if it’s bad enough to garner more than half a dozen down votes.