Although the end result of positrolling is positive and doesn't really hurt anyone, could it be considered to be as unethical as trolling?
by 
destructomoose
ANSWERS: 5
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It may not hurt people but unless you're careful it can invalidate the useful purpose of the ratings anyway, meaning answers that are the best may not rise to the top where they can be seen easily by people really needing answers. If the positroling is just done in personal things or fun questions, I don't see any harm at all.
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It's fine as long as you uprate only the questions and answers that you genuinely like. Insincerity is what makes positrolling unethical.
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It can make the more helpful answers sink without a trace if it is done indiscriminately. It can also be used to cover and negate negative ratings.
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When I make some positrolling on one user, I usually look at the answers of this user *and* at the other answers to the same question. And I positroll only the answers that I like, also from the other users. Alternatively, I positroll by some particular questions, but here again, only the answers that I like. It would be unfair to favor the answers of a particular user only because one like this user, independently of other interesting answers. I also positroll on a particular user's Q&A if I get the impression that they have been unrighteously downrated, or trolled. But only if I don't find them useless myself. And yes, you are right, it is better to ask oneself by doing this if this could not sometimes be unethical: it could sometimes be that.
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Only if you downrated instead of uprating.
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