- NEW!
by Twhupfold on May 18th, 2008
Don't you LOVE one worded answers? (Sarcasm) XD
by ~*Araya*~ on April 24th, 2012
| 3 people like this
When do you only want a simple answer? When don't you? To either or both, why?
by A on April 23rd, 2012
| 1 person likes this
Do you ask the same question here and on another site like Yahoo Answers if you don't get enough responses?
by raina19 on April 10th, 2012
| 1 person likes this
How often do you give people Asker's Picks for having a sense of humour?
by A on April 25th, 2012
| 1 person likes this
If someone answers your question and they have a completely different view from yours, do you still click 'like'?
by BaileysMom12 COAT of Motherly Love on April 11th, 2012
| 9 people like this
You're reading Who will join me in an "AB Restorative Society"? Your only duty: when you see someone downrated merely for their opinion, toss em some points. You become an officer if you uprate even if you don't agree with the opion but respect their right to state it
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Comments
I have no problem with your opinion. Thanks! Here's a few points. I am not trying to be arbitrary (but...even if it were, arbitrarily nice in a useless system is better than arbitrarily mean. This has become a on-line reality game. So, mostly EVERYTHING is arbitrary.) I'll continue below.
by zazzy_one on May 18th, 2008
However, I am not suggesting that we arbitrarily uprate people. Apparently you didn't read what I said. I am proposing that we rate up people who have been arbitrarily downrated for stating an opinion.
by zazzy_one on May 18th, 2008
That is, of course, not the same thing. I have seen questions like: what did you do on your summer vacation. Someone responds: went water skiing, horse back riding, and hiked in the mountains, and they got downrated. THAT is what we are talking about. Not what you are talking about.
by zazzy_one on May 18th, 2008
Actually, in such an arbitrary system there -isn't- a nice or mean, there is equal meaningless randomness; if positive and negative points have no meaning, then neither positive nor negative points are good or bad, they are just numbers.
In a different subject, speaking as purely abstract numbers, is -5 a 'bad' number, a 'good' number, or simply a number? It's just a number, and in the situation I am describing this is exactly how the point system on this website would work too ; )
*****
I realise the sorts of questions you are speaking about, but if the downrating was arbitrary, it is therefore utterly meaningless in this context; uprating the arbitrarily downrated questions is simply appeasing the few members who feed off having a high positive number next to their name. I'm not at all 'opposed' to the practice, it just seems entirely without purpose to me *shrugs*
Like, posting "Good answer!" as a comment to -everything- regardless of what it is is the same thing. If there is no criteria for the comment being posted other than "someone pushed the 'Submit' button", the comment is not an indication of the answer being good, but instead merely that it's 'an answer'.
In this situation the points are not a measure of anything other than 'the question was rated down', or 'some random user on this website likes to push the - button', or 'I acknowledge this users Right to free expression of opinion', etc. It is not a measure of something useful, and thus the practice of rating all these things up for purely those reasons is without usefulness.
*****
Again though, I don't really mind either way... If the thought behind the practice is positive, that's good enough for me ; )
by Twhupfold on May 18th, 2008
So then...if a Questioner asks you a question that can't generally have a bad answer, like "what did you do for your summer vacation," and some off-their-meds ABer rates you down for water skiing, that is not arbitrary?
by zazzy_one on May 18th, 2008
That is a meaningless negative rating, as there is no useful criteria by which to rate an answer other than 'it's an answer'.
Such questions are almost certainly made for more conversational reasons than informational; if the question was about the solution to a problem, the ratings have a purpose; identifying correct and incorrect answers. If the question is about where you went on holiday, the ratings have no purpose; if someone puts a -6 on 'Fiji' for a holiday location, that -6 cannot possible mean anything at all... There is no possible field involved in such a question that can be 'graded' by any means... You could put 1'000'000 points on it either way and it wouldn't change anything or indicate anything to the other users -about that answer-.
Points in such cases only indicate things about the users doing the rating, not the answer being rated.
by Twhupfold on May 18th, 2008
Truly...the ratings are entirely useless since there are no standards, so any objection to a suggestion as to how to rate is meaningless. The whole damned thing is meaningless.
by zazzy_one on May 18th, 2008
And no, a contextless negative five is not "bad," it is a pure number. But we are not contextless, we are here on Answerbag.
by zazzy_one on May 18th, 2008
Simply being 'in a context' does not give a number meaning per se, it just means that it 'could' have meaning, depending on what the context actually is. Here on Answerbag I would have said the points were an expression of how good / bad, true / untrue, useful / useless an answer is. When someone uses the points to express distaste instead of a comment, their points lack these meanings. To rate people up -for being rated down- is likewise not a useful measure of anything : /
If the points were truly without -any- meaning, as you seem to have said, then rating -any- answer for -any- reason is an exercise in futility, yet this is clearly not the case. Points DO have meaning, and I would argue that that meaning is as a measure of goodness / badness.
Frankly, trying to speak to you is also seeming more and more like an exercise in futility, and the whole situation has a slight tinge of irony too...
You ask a question that implies that you support 'giving points for opinions', regardless of -any- factors, then I post an answer saying this is pointless, then you argue extensively with me about my opinions...
If you want me to understand your reasoning, you have to first provide it... I clearly cannot grasp the reasons for your idea, as my understanding of the systems involved leads me to the conclusion that it doesn't solve the problem (actually I don't even see the problem to begin with, let alone the 'solution').
by Twhupfold on May 18th, 2008
You are...proving my point. "When someone uses his points to express distates...their points are meaningless." S'all I'm saying. We agree.
by zazzy_one on May 18th, 2008
And, by the way, despite having argued with you, I have not rated you down. Again supporting my point. I don't know what you are misreading that would make you think I support not discussing opinion, even until one is blue in the face. It...is beyond me. I'm speaking English and haven't said any of the things you say I am. I understand that you disagree. If you had said only that and not pretended like you were making some iron clad argument, then we could have avoided this. But it isn't.
by zazzy_one on May 18th, 2008
Anyway. I wish you well. I am signing off here. It makes sense to me that you disagree. I wish you would disagree understanding the simple idea behind it. But it seems very much that you just don't want to. (Unsubscribing.)
by zazzy_one on May 19th, 2008
If you think I am for banning all negative ratings, you have me pegged wrong, and as far as I can tell, you aren't listening very well. I have always supported negative, anonymous ratings, and still do. http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/248824
by zazzy_one on May 22nd, 2008