Sure. The silly and simplified cliché is something like this: a comment describes someone’s feelings (or internal state) and then gets some agree votes and disagree votes, as if Person A says “this makes me happy” and person be wants to argue that point.
(to be clear, this is a very small flaw/issue with the EA Forum, and I wouldn’t really object if the people running the forum decide that this is too minor of an issue to spend time on)
A few little examples:
Peter Wildeford’s comment on this post “What’s the difference between a Content Specialist and a Content Manager?” currently has two agree votes. There isn’t any argument or stance there; it is merely asking a question. So I assume people are using the agree vote to indicate something like “I also have this question” or “I am glad that you are asking this question.”
I made a comment a few days ago about being glad that I am not the only one who wants to have financial runway before donating. It currently has a few agree votes and disagree votes, and I can’t for the life of me figure out why. There aren’t really any stances or claims being made in that comment.
Ben West made a comment about lab grown meat that currently has 27 agree votes, even through the comment has nothing to agree with: “Congratulations to Upside Foods, Good Meat, and everyone who worked on this technology!” I guess that people are using the agree vote to indicate something like “I like this, and I want to express the same gratitude.”
Is this a problem? Seems fine to me, because the meaning is often clear, as in two of your examples, and I think it adds value in those contexts. And if it’s not clear, doesn’t seem like a big loss compared to a counterfactual of having none of these types of vote available.
Thanks for putting these together. This doesn’t currently seem obviously bad to me for (I think) the same reasons as Isaac Dunn (those examples don’t show valueless reacts, and most cases are much clearer). However, your cases are interesting.
I agree with your read of the reactions to Ben West’s comment.
In the question about my role, perhaps it is slightly less clear, because “I agree that this is a good question” or “I have this question as well” could probably be adequately expressed with Karma. But I also doubt that this has led to significant confusion.
In the reaction to your comment, I’d go with the agrees saying that they echo the statement in your tl;dr. The disagree is weirder- perhaps they are signalling disencouragement of your encouraging Lizka’s sentiment?
(Perhaps how perplexing people find agree/disagree reacts to comments which don’t straightforwardly contain propositions maps to how habitually the reader decouples propositional content from context.)
I’ll keep an eye out for issues with this- my view is loosely held. Thanks again for raising the issue.
Sure. The silly and simplified cliché is something like this: a comment describes someone’s feelings (or internal state) and then gets some agree votes and disagree votes, as if Person A says “this makes me happy” and person be wants to argue that point.
(to be clear, this is a very small flaw/issue with the EA Forum, and I wouldn’t really object if the people running the forum decide that this is too minor of an issue to spend time on)
A few little examples:
Peter Wildeford’s comment on this post “What’s the difference between a Content Specialist and a Content Manager?” currently has two agree votes. There isn’t any argument or stance there; it is merely asking a question. So I assume people are using the agree vote to indicate something like “I also have this question” or “I am glad that you are asking this question.”
I made a comment a few days ago about being glad that I am not the only one who wants to have financial runway before donating. It currently has a few agree votes and disagree votes, and I can’t for the life of me figure out why. There aren’t really any stances or claims being made in that comment.
Ben West made a comment about lab grown meat that currently has 27 agree votes, even through the comment has nothing to agree with: “Congratulations to Upside Foods, Good Meat, and everyone who worked on this technology!” I guess that people are using the agree vote to indicate something like “I like this, and I want to express the same gratitude.”
Is this a problem? Seems fine to me, because the meaning is often clear, as in two of your examples, and I think it adds value in those contexts. And if it’s not clear, doesn’t seem like a big loss compared to a counterfactual of having none of these types of vote available.
Thanks for putting these together. This doesn’t currently seem obviously bad to me for (I think) the same reasons as Isaac Dunn (those examples don’t show valueless reacts, and most cases are much clearer). However, your cases are interesting.
I agree with your read of the reactions to Ben West’s comment.
In the question about my role, perhaps it is slightly less clear, because “I agree that this is a good question” or “I have this question as well” could probably be adequately expressed with Karma. But I also doubt that this has led to significant confusion.
In the reaction to your comment, I’d go with the agrees saying that they echo the statement in your tl;dr. The disagree is weirder- perhaps they are signalling disencouragement of your encouraging Lizka’s sentiment?
(Perhaps how perplexing people find agree/disagree reacts to comments which don’t straightforwardly contain propositions maps to how habitually the reader decouples propositional content from context.)
I’ll keep an eye out for issues with this- my view is loosely held. Thanks again for raising the issue.