OccultForum.org

What would people think of the ability to up vote or down vote comments and threads in the forum?

Personally i think it would be a good way to differentiate between comments that are useful, and those that are just plain cringeworthy, without having to type up a lengthy response as to why the other person is a ignoramus. It would be especially good for newbies looking for accurate research notes. Might also act as a deterrent for those people who make grossly misinformed "sell your soul to satan" posts.

Just my two cents.

I thout about this before, but I haven't brought it up.

I personally would like to see that as a feature of this forum.

I'm tired of seeing all of those kind of " sell your soul to satan" posts as well...

I've seen it on forums before and it basically turns into a cesspool of personality contests and attacks.
It has the potential to turn ugly really really fast.

Desecrated wrote:I've seen it on forums before and it basically turns into a cesspool of personality contests and attacks.
It has the potential to turn ugly really really fast.

100% Agree.

Kami wrote:

Desecrated wrote:I've seen it on forums before and it basically turns into a cesspool of personality contests and attacks.
It has the potential to turn ugly really really fast.

100% Agree.

Yeah i considered that, but i feel as if people on this forum are reasonably respectable and open to the interpretations of others. Maybe i'm wrong.

Daud wrote:

Kami wrote:

Desecrated wrote:I've seen it on forums before and it basically turns into a cesspool of personality contests and attacks.
It has the potential to turn ugly really really fast.

100% Agree.

Yeah i considered that, but i feel as if people on this forum are reasonably respectable and open to the interpretations of others. Maybe i'm wrong.

No, you're right... It is just that there a lot of trolls out there.

Remember the last one we encountered?

Imagine that person disliking or voting thumbs down on every legitimate/accurate thread in this forum...

It would raise questions that could lead people to argue. ~

Very true, if you analyse the community we are pretty tightly knit. We know who will make a respectable and accurate comment and who will make an idiot out of themselves. Perhaps it's not such a good idea to give mob rule to the comment system.

Daud wrote:Very true, if you analyse the community we are pretty tightly knit. We know who will make a respectable and accurate comment and who will make an idiot out of themselves. Perhaps it's not such a good idea to give mob rule to the comment system.

I will admit that it's a system open to abuse . . .

One forum I go on often descends into anarchy, because it often turns into a popularity contest. If someone expresses an opinion contrary to the crowd, no matter how polite or informed an opinion, they will get one down-vote and suddenly it's "acceptable" to downvote them and they'll have dozens of red thumbs down, all for choosing to go against the crowd.

That being said, another forum I was on had a much better, yet similar, system.

They gave each members ranks based on reputation, as opposed to post count. You essentially could give someone 'good karma' or 'bad karma', with an option to leave a note explaining why . . . only you could see your karma level, so no one could be shamed online for being 'in the red' or having numbers known to everyone, plus there was also a limit to how much karma you could give (I think it basically said "you just gave karma to them, so you need to give karma to x number of members before you can karma them again), which stopped spamming/trolling/bullying.

It was a good way to see which members contributed more, were polite, etc., while which others contributed less or were relatively new to the forum, or were - on rare occasion - trolls . . . strangely, hardly anyone gave bad karma, because it worked so well, and it also always told you who gave you the karma . . . so say that Joe is a troll and gave you bad karma, you'd have proof and could go to a member of staff, who'd fix it and tell them off.

Just an idea, anyway XD

Daud wrote:

Kami wrote:

Desecrated wrote:I've seen it on forums before and it basically turns into a cesspool of personality contests and attacks.
It has the potential to turn ugly really really fast.

100% Agree.

Yeah i considered that, but i feel as if people on this forum are reasonably respectable and open to the interpretations of others. Maybe i'm wrong.

I'll take an example from imgur.
It happens from time to time that somebody posts something that somebody else don't like. Now, a rational human being would downvote what they just posted and move on. Leaving the member with -1.
But ever so often, some crazy person decides to go apeshit, looks into ALL the comments the member has done over the years and downvotes all of them. So if you have made 200 posts, all the suddenly you have -200 points.

But it doesn't stop there. Because sometimes you come across somebody extra crazy who decides to make 5 puppet accounts and downvote the guy again so now they have -1000 points.

So now you have one member who is obviously going to be dissatisfied and runs to the moderators to help.
You have 5 socks running around doing nothing but shit. You have other members who see what is going on and decides to white knight the situation by fighting back. You have dissatisfied members complaining about what is going on, and then some members complaining about the fact that it is going on. A new debate sparks about the system. The original psycho starts attacking random people who joins the discussion, more sock-puppets are created. And now the mods have to spend the entire weekend, clearing out the system.

And the few members who didn't get involved in it all, wakes up on Monday only to see that last weeks posts are all gone because the moderators had to reset the entire system to get it back to normal.

Robin_Alexander wrote:

Daud wrote:Very true, if you analyse the community we are pretty tightly knit. We know who will make a respectable and accurate comment and who will make an idiot out of themselves. Perhaps it's not such a good idea to give mob rule to the comment system.

I will admit that it's a system open to abuse . . .

One forum I go on often descends into anarchy, because it often turns into a popularity contest. If someone expresses an opinion contrary to the crowd, no matter how polite or informed an opinion, they will get one down-vote and suddenly it's "acceptable" to downvote them and they'll have dozens of red thumbs down, all for choosing to go against the crowd.

That being said, another forum I was on had a much better, yet similar, system.

They gave each members ranks based on reputation, as opposed to post count. You essentially could give someone 'good karma' or 'bad karma', with an option to leave a note explaining why . . . only you could see your karma level, so no one could be shamed online for being 'in the red' or having numbers known to everyone, plus there was also a limit to how much karma you could give (I think it basically said "you just gave karma to them, so you need to give karma to x number of members before you can karma them again), which stopped spamming/trolling/bullying.

It was a good way to see which members contributed more, were polite, etc., while which others contributed less or were relatively new to the forum, or were - on rare occasion - trolls . . . strangely, hardly anyone gave bad karma, because it worked so well, and it also always told you who gave you the karma . . . so say that Joe is a troll and gave you bad karma, you'd have proof and could go to a member of staff, who'd fix it and tell them off.

Just an idea, anyway XD

Yeah, i think this or something like it, is probably a better idea.

And Des, that's a good point, it would be a hassle, and trolls are on this forum. I'm sure some annoying materialists would make accounts just to down vote everyone and call them an idiot.

I would comment, but everything that's been said already covers what I would have said here.

I sometimes post to praise another comment, when someone has nailed a situation or posted an excellent topic or response. It's ok to do that, if you want to.

But, generally, Staff think a system like this would be too open to abuses to make it workable.

Daud wrote:
And Des, that's a good point, it would be a hassle, and trolls are on this forum. I'm sure some annoying materialists would make accounts just to down vote everyone and call them an idiot.

As an annoying materialist, I am far more concerned about crazy people.

Desecrated wrote:

Daud wrote:
And Des, that's a good point, it would be a hassle, and trolls are on this forum. I'm sure some annoying materialists would make accounts just to down vote everyone and call them an idiot.

As an annoying materialist, I am far more concerned about crazy people.

LOL! [rofl] Fair enough, there are ample numbers of crazies out there.

I'd label you more of a realist and a pragmatist than a materialist, but you obviously know yourself better than i know you.

Daud wrote: realist and a pragmatist than a materialist.

I fail to see the difference

Desecrated wrote:
I fail to see the difference

The difference being, realists are people who deal with reality, materialists are people who insist that reality is purely material. I would have thought that someone as well educated as you, (i'd say you stem from a background in either medicine or psychology) would understand that the material is not reality.

Daud wrote:

Desecrated wrote:
I fail to see the difference

The difference being, realists are people who deal with reality, materialists are people who insist that reality is purely material. I would have thought that someone as well educated as you, (i'd say you stem from a background in either medicine or psychology) would understand that the material is not reality.

I'm pretty happy with a material reality. It makes things easier.

I think a "Thank you" button would be very beneficial.

If something helped, you click on it and the other person notices it without the need to type thank you's and such.

If something you don't feel useful you just ignore and move on.

It could be also used as a way to give props to somebody for a good explanation or one that made somebody resonate with. It fits a forum like this one, since all we may share are experiences and beliefs and there can be nothing worth downvoting for. Just give props or ignore it.

LoneWolf wrote:I think a "Thank you" button would be very beneficial.

If something helped, you click on it and the other person notices it without the need to type thank you's and such.

If something you don't feel useful you just ignore and move on.

It could be also used as a way to give props to somebody for a good explanation or one that made somebody resonate with. It fits a forum like this one, since all we may share are experiences and beliefs and there can be nothing worth downvoting for. Just give props or ignore it.

Was a moderator, and we had love it, like it, useful or a smiley face used for jokes or comments that are funny. It indicates the preference of the posters on the forum and also gives the poster the knowing that their posts are being read or ignored. Just another view. [smile]