@OCCOM BILL,
Quote:Quote:
I get the point that thumbs down for a Thread simply means "I don't care to see this". (I still question the utility of this, but OK).
I haven't seen any reason that "thumbs down" votes should be anonymous.
Does anyone have a argument for anonymous down-thumbing?
I've thumbed down dozens of topics to get them off my jump station, which is now a clean navigating machine. I meant no offense to the thread authors; I'm just not interested in the subjects. Why should I have to explain that to each and every thread author that wants to take offense to my innocent act of cleaning up my desktop? At the same time; I've thumbed up every thread that I am interested, so when ya'll clean up your desks it will have NO EFFECT on mine.
Doesn't it make more sense for the people who think it's a personal affront to learn the simple truth that it isn't?
Not to pick on gamers; but why should people who have no interest in games have to scroll through dozens of them, just so the authors of same don't take the innocent act of desk cleaning as a personal affront? That's just silly. As Cyclo pointed out earlier, while making the opposite argument; it doesn't matter how Craven wants the tools used; people will use them how they see fit. That being the case; why would anyone NOT want to clear something they know they have no interest in out of their own, personal, cyberspace forever? And what kind of a dolt will continue to take it personal, when they understand that that's all people are doing?
Well, the point is that new users - which over time really are the lifeblood of the site, as us oldsters can't support it forever -
don't know what the thumbs up and thumbs down mean. And the meaning on this site is not the traditional meaning of the term, I don't think anyone is arguing that.
Look, we could all agree that every single time you say 'up' on A2K, what you really mean is 'left.' Thomas and Soz and others could post how they read the manuals for the site, and how hard is it to understand that the terms mean something different here? And a new person who comes along and visits the site f0r the first time, looking for a certain type of chat (just like I did years ago) won't be clued in to the code, and guess what? Thumbs up and thumbs down are popularly and commonly used as value judgments, not ways to hide things you don't want to see.
I'm fine with having special and different definitions for terms here then in common usage. I just don't expect new people to catch on to them and neither should anyone else; why would they? How many new users read the manual before trying their products? On a site which is basically supported by advertising, scaring away possible customers by making your content foreign and different then traditional definitions doesn't seem like a good game plan.
The other question I have is: how are posts sorted by default? Do they sort by 'most votes' by default? This system is destined to confuse the new people who come in, as there is no real way for them to differentiate between a post in which you disagree with topic and one which you just think is unimportant or don't want to see.
There needs to be a better way to 'ignore topic' then actions which affect other people's ability to see those topics when they first arrive.
There have been several posters who have expressed the same feelings about the use of thumbs up/down as I have, and the same group of users has responded with derision to their concerns, and I have to wonder: is blowing us off really the best way to deal with issues such as this?
Cycloptichorn