I donât share your view about what a downvote means.
What does a downvote mean to you? If it means âyou shouldnât have written thisâ, what does a strong downvote mean to you? The same thing, but with more emphasis?
Itâd be interesting to have some stats on how people on the forum interpret it.
Why not create a poll? I would, but Iâm not sure exactly which question youâd want asked.
Most(?) readers wonât know who either of them is, not to mention their relationship.
Which brings up another question â to what extent should a comment be written for an author vs. the audience?
Maxâs comment seemed very directed at Luke â it was mostly about the style of Lukeâs writing and his way of drawing conclusions. Other comments feel more audience-directed.
Personally, I primarily downvote posts/âcomments where I generally think âreading this post/âcomment will on average make forum readers be worse at thinking about this problem than if they didnât read this post/âcomment, assuming that the time spent reading this post/âcomment is free.â
I basically never strong downvote posts unless itâs obvious spam or otherwise an extremely bad offender in the âworsens thinkingâ direction.
Itâs been over a week so I guess I should answer even if I donât have time for a longer reply.
What does a downvote mean to you? If it means âyou shouldnât have written thisâ, what does a strong downvote mean to you? The same thing, but with more emphasis?
I think so, but Iâm not very confident.
to what extent should a comment be written for an author vs. the audience?
I donât think private conversations can exist on a public platform. If itâs not a DM, thereâs always an audience, and in most contexts, Iâd expect much of a commentâs impact to come from its effects on that audience.
Why not create a poll?
The polls in that specific group look like they have a very small and probably unrepresentative sample size. Though I donât weâll be able to get a much larger one on such a question, I guess.
What does a downvote mean to you? If it means âyou shouldnât have written thisâ, what does a strong downvote mean to you? The same thing, but with more emphasis?
Why not create a poll? I would, but Iâm not sure exactly which question youâd want asked.
Which brings up another question â to what extent should a comment be written for an author vs. the audience?
Maxâs comment seemed very directed at Luke â it was mostly about the style of Lukeâs writing and his way of drawing conclusions. Other comments feel more audience-directed.
Personally, I primarily downvote posts/âcomments where I generally think âreading this post/âcomment will on average make forum readers be worse at thinking about this problem than if they didnât read this post/âcomment, assuming that the time spent reading this post/âcomment is free.â
I basically never strong downvote posts unless itâs obvious spam or otherwise an extremely bad offender in the âworsens thinkingâ direction.
Itâs been over a week so I guess I should answer even if I donât have time for a longer reply.
I think so, but Iâm not very confident.
I donât think private conversations can exist on a public platform. If itâs not a DM, thereâs always an audience, and in most contexts, Iâd expect much of a commentâs impact to come from its effects on that audience.
The polls in that specific group look like they have a very small and probably unrepresentative sample size. Though I donât weâll be able to get a much larger one on such a question, I guess.