To my anonymous fan.

In favor of keeping the thumbs down of a post anonymous is this: By showing disfavor of the post in question with that anonymous thumbs down, the person is avoiding prolonging the friction that exists between you and yet still having a say. They get to vent without a long drawn out word fight.

And the thumbs aren't tremendously important anyway. When you thumb down, you don't have to read the post anymore. That's it. No need for serious angst.

Of course.

Well, yes, but as Brown says, it's not like collapsing a post. You probably won't reread that page anyway, so you aren't really setting the page up to make it easier to browse through.

The question is, if I thumb a post down for extremely insulting or what I consider unnecessary obscenities, do I owe the poster the courtesy and time of explaining why I did it, and who I am? Make your own assumptions as to what my own answer is.

Don't make me thumb you down, roger.

I'm not trying to, but it's not going to influence what I say.

So no secret balloting when we go into the voting booth should be allow?

Of course, some people never get thumbed down because noone can see what they are posting, anyway.

A thumb is not a vote, nothing is being decided. It is a mini-commentary.

There are examples in real life where the source of mini-comments must be disclosed as in "I am John McCain and I approve this message."

You are correct nothing depend on this "vote" and it is meaningless except you seem to be getting your feelings hurt and wish therefore to make it harder for people to vote your comments down.

The fact that for some reason your feelings are being hurt is hardly enough of a reason to show every one who had voted on a posting in my opinion.

Oh comments under pen names and even personal insults under such cover go back to before the founding of the US and all the Federal Papers for example was written in this manner.

Hamilton and Jefferson and their supporters traded insults and charges under the cover of pen names.

If doing so was good enough for the founding fathers it is more then good enough for this website.

There is also the possibility that a person can decide to be the Thumbs Up Good Fairy, and click a thumbs up on those he/she wants to grace with that positive "commentary," regardless of the content of that respective poster's post. A forum version of Tinker Bell?

Personally, I see nothing wrong with public shaming.

Aim high, brother.

Because a good horsewhipping is not feasible.

Apparently I haven't annoyed you enough yet, huh DrewDad?

((Actually, I enjoy interacting with you even when we bump heads))

It's akin to poisoning a neighbor's dog, trampling their flower bed at night, throwing a rock thru their window and running. It's a portrayal of the bravery shown by groups like the Ku Klux Klan.

I don't put people on ignore for disagreeing with me. I put people on ignore when they are consistently offensive, endlessly inane, or if they start a Colossus thread.