I frequently catch myself, and I’m embarrassed to admit that, being more likely to upvote posts of users that I know. I also find myself anchoring my vote to the existing vote count (if a post has a lot of upvotes then I am less likely to downvote it). Pretty sure I’m not the only one.
Furthermore, I observe how vote count influences my reading of each post more than it should. Groupthink at its best.
I suspect if the forum hid the vote count for a month, there would be significant changes in voting patterns. That being said, I’m not sure these changes would actually influence the votesorted order of the postings—but they might. I suspect it would also change the nature of certain discussions.
Because the voting system is in place to encourage high school students to participate in EA discussion. If you were to say something like “I still think Britney Spears is cool” then you’re gonna get down voted, so I’d try to avoid that topic if you can.
This time it’s me who downvoted. The first part (high school students) doesn’t seem close to being true, and the second (Britney Spears) is not related at all to the discussion?
Thank you for not being anonymous, and for explaining your down vote. That’s all I’ve been requesting from the beginning. I agree my colorful language was an imprecise description of the situation.
PS: Holy cow, I got −24 from just 6 votes. That’s awesome. I predict I will soon be the king of down votes! High school systems require high school participation.
I frequently catch myself, and I’m embarrassed to admit that, being more likely to upvote posts of users that I know. I also find myself anchoring my vote to the existing vote count (if a post has a lot of upvotes then I am less likely to downvote it). Pretty sure I’m not the only one.
Furthermore, I observe how vote count influences my reading of each post more than it should. Groupthink at its best.
I suspect if the forum hid the vote count for a month, there would be significant changes in voting patterns. That being said, I’m not sure these changes would actually influence the votesorted order of the postings—but they might. I suspect it would also change the nature of certain discussions.
Admirable honesty, well done.
Why was this downvoted?
Because the voting system is in place to encourage high school students to participate in EA discussion. If you were to say something like “I still think Britney Spears is cool” then you’re gonna get down voted, so I’d try to avoid that topic if you can.
This time it’s me who downvoted. The first part (high school students) doesn’t seem close to being true, and the second (Britney Spears) is not related at all to the discussion?
Thank you for not being anonymous, and for explaining your down vote. That’s all I’ve been requesting from the beginning. I agree my colorful language was an imprecise description of the situation.
PS: Holy cow, I got −24 from just 6 votes. That’s awesome. I predict I will soon be the king of down votes! High school systems require high school participation.