THE MAD THUMBER

Words of wisdom.

Another commonality on forums of course is for members to argue that one topic or another is pointless, and make a show about how above that topic they are. We could of course go round and round on which threads, entire forums or corners of the web, or even what notions we entertain in our minds are pointless, but some might argue that that would be, what's the word?

Personally I think when you look at a forum with membership spanning nearly two decades, it's perfectly understandable that some would want to discuss what appears to be virtual vandalism on that site. But I'll grant you that scoffing dismissal certainly is a useful tool, especially on the internet

The thumb downers are the right-winger’s getting revenge for getting thumbed down in the Trump thread.

Oralloy
Gungasnake
ColdJoint
Layman
Finn dAbuzz
Lash
Brandon9000
McGentrix

Spot on. Whenever there's a spate of downthumbing said names all get thumbed up by the same amount..

doesn't really make sense as so much of it is happening in the innocuous word games where very few of the players appear in political threads

I'd thought the same thing at first, but something else is going on.

I wish we could just make posts disappear (for ourselves) without the number count appearing.

true - the site is what it is - bugs, thumbs and all

There's one name missing from that list, an old "friend" of yours.

Engineer was voted almost off the screen in the tennis thread. Check out a few of engineer's other posts at around the same time, particularly about abortion.

Effectively it functions as an ad hoc censorship. Five or six down votes, and the post disappears from the thread. I think that Engineer's bot theory is sound, but in the last few days, individuals have gone crazy with this.

Yup. I agree with all that.

Who has time for all this downthumbing?

Idk, maybe the same person who had time to tag every thread at the site "misogyny"? He started a thread defending that nonsense, too, after engineer exposed him.

The point is not "winning" anything. The point is that a post that gets five or six down votes disappears.

I wonder if this thumb thing has anything to do with the list of highest thumbs up that appears between the original statement and remarks portion. I went back to the beginning of this thread to see if I missed something, and that’s when I saw the list. Normally, I wouldn’t notice because I usually click on the most recent post to pick up the gist. If you scroll back to the beginning you can see which members got the highest thumbs up for this topic. You never see members listed by number of down thumbs, just the top thumbs up. Maybe this whole operation is simply to show up as the person who got the highest number of up-thumbs.

Maybe it’s as simple as that. I don’t know for sure but in real life it’s somettimes surprises me what other people begrudge. Maybe someone wanted to see their name on top for a change. Or maybe they just really seethe if an imaginary foe’s post gets more thumbs up than others.

Honestly, I don’t know what the motivation is, but sometimes perceived slights or resentment of another poster might inspire some to invalidate others.

Someone with some serious untreated mental health disorder(s). That's some dedication to keep signing in and out of at least 4 separate a2k accounts (on perhaps 3 or more different IP addresses) in order to thumb down a given post several times.


That's a while ago since it's been over a year? Longer? Since other members can tag threads they didn't create in the first place. I don't think it's that particular person if you're thinking of the same M user that may or may not fit your above description.

It's making a2k look as bad or worse than 4chan or reddit. Drives more mentally unstable individuals to sign up as new members... making the site even more toxic. Robert's militant libertarian "do nothing streak" and let the chaos that follows, come hell or high water ain't helping. a2k isn't a free speech at any cost site now. It's turning into a toxic superfund site.

Well, I thumbed THAT down... I thumb up and down like most everyone else, but if the group you named could have this type of effect, it would’ve been happening for over a year now.

Something quite recently changed. You’re a new name. I saw Santanna posting this morning, the Flower person is new...

It’s either a new group or oldsters with alters or a bot program.

Also looking at you.

I know of one person who tagged all the threads other user name has herpes. I'm not mentioning either name here but I did start a thread on it at the time.

No he's not. Check out his profile. He's been here longer than me, although not quite a long as you.

Longevity isn’t proof of anything, though, is it?
Flowerbee’s profile and posts are interesting.

It's proof they're not new.

Yes, and I would not feel safe posting on those sites.