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DOWNVOTE_CLUB

                                                           May 3, 2019

Interpreting a storm of silent reddit
downvotes is always tricky--                         Arguably that's a
                                                     design-flaw.
You could take it as inadvertantly flattering,
a sign that you're on the right track:  you're       What purpose can a
making people uncomfortable for reasons they         meaningless punishment
can't quite articulate, and so they lash out.        serve?

On the other hand, it could also be that you're      Notably, at slashdot,
nowhere near as clever as you think you are,         when you vote up or down
and the audience is reacting with a bored            it requires you to select
eye-roll to some sub-issue or side-issue that        a one-word explanation.
they've long since gotten tired of thinking
about.                                               It is a weird thing, but
                                                     slashdot-- a hack from
It might be a matter of poor communication:          the 90s run by a guy
you know you're not an insincere troll or a          who've never seemed all
hired shill, but they don't, and you've run          that bright-- often seems
into the only tool they have to filter out           to be the peak
such things.                                         achievement in design of
                                                     internet forums.  It's
Then, you always have to wonder if there's a         all been down-hill from
brigade of hired shills leaning on the               there.
downvote-- though brigades of fanatics invited
to support a friend are hardly much better.

A complication is that while the lazy
reading habits of much of the net are
legendary, it remains quite possible to
underestimate them.  It's way past not
following links and only skimming the early
paragraphs.  Getting them to read to the end
of a sentence may be a forlorn hope.

   I've got proof of this:

      On a group dedicated to the deflation of
      Elon Musk worship, right around the time he
      was doing the launch-a-car-into-space
      stunt, I posted a one-liner something like:

        "I'm suprised that you would
        bring up something so irrelevant
        during this, the most historic
        moment of our entire news cycle."
                                                       Obviously not of
     That started attracting downvotes, then           major import, but
     someone commented on it, quoting the entire       an unusually
     sentence but highlighting the last phrase in      unambiguous case.
     bold.  Then it started getting upvotes.


  They try to sniff out your tribal membership
  and vote based on your tone-of-voice.

  It's like having dogs for moderators.


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