DO YOU VOTE ON POSTS?

Sometimes I will see a post, like it, but have nothing more to add. So I will simply show my appreciation by voting it up.

Often, the posts that I vote down is usually one where I have no desire to interact with the person who wrote the post.

Although I said what I said earlier, I think your position seems reasonable, Phoenix. Thanks for replying.

You'd think so Frank - but I'm on a bunch of listservs for professional reasons and I hate "ME TOO" replies. I think voting up a response is a very efficient way of signifying agreement/appreciation.

Imagine the Caption the Cartoon thread if every thumbs up was replaced with a 'Oh that was a good one George'? If you're really tickled you reply but generally thumbs make it flow better.

Even in debate threads reiteration without additional information wastes everyone's time, in my opinion. Often in drawn out threads my eyes are drawn to the high thumbs up counts (and the high thumbs downs too) - so I find them helpful for catching up on high traffic threads.

What would be really cool was if I could limit the thumbing I see to the people I respect. Peer review, if you will.

I've changed my thinking on this. If someone is on deep ignore, I no longer thumb them. All it does is give them the satisfaction of knowing two people have read their crap - the guy with the thumb, and the thoughtful yuk who quoted that crap.

So you ignore them and read their posts anyway?

That's not the way I use ignore. I don't want to see their posts.

Keep the ability to thumb up.

It's hard to imagine how such a feature can be used malignantly.

Dump the thumbs down feature.

Or don't...

I admit that there was a time when it irked me to find even the most innocuous of my posts thumbed down, but then I realized this is what the miscreant responsible wants. Now I pay the silly rating no mind.

Any feature that can so easily be abused isn't warranted, but in the end it really doesn't matter.

The folks who abuse the feature will be the same jackasses with or without it. Deprived of this ability to manifest their jackassity they will resort to others like the tag feature. Take that away from them and they will probably find another way to do so.

There are a number of members in this forum with whom I have strong disagreements and, admittedly, some personal animosity but I can name them and by so doing can attest that they are not cowardly.

Cowardice in a forum which allows anonymity is particularly pathetic.

You just reminded me of the tactic in the old Abuzz of posting great wads of text to make threads unreadable. - I agree, the best method of dealing with jackasses is to not react.

I just thumbed down your post.

People will quote them; I don't know why. I no longer read the original since I no longer give them the satisfaction of a thumb. I suppose that to be satisfying, anyway.

<not reacting>

I just thumbed up your response.

Actually, I seldom notice the up/down function. That just means I don't vote. I remember the old New York Abuzz and all the crap that came with that, sadly a few folks made that forum unsustainable. Currently another old forum is being systematically shut down by 2 old crackpots who ruin every attempt to start a discussion. A2K seems able to withstand the trolls, IMO.

I'm with you glitterbag.

I don't vote, and I don't notice how many votes up or down any post have.

IN THc BEGINN.ING XXX A"DAM

Uh oh, it'sh one o'dem fargin weirdos agin.

I seldom remember to vote up or down. However, I have seen harmless threads removed for too many thumb downs. You can click on the notice "thread voted down" and then select a few thumbs up to reinstate the thread. What's funny, is the threads are usually harmless, not in the least political so I do believe that some members do search for other members and vote their posts down. Lets just say, some members are just jerks with way too much time on their hands. I think it's kind of sad and they should be pitied.

You wrote what I was thinking. Except for the voting up to reinstate the thread. I hardly vote on a post or thread. What I look for is the subject matter and if I find it interesting, then I read it.