The problem with down votes compacting comments!

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Things truly are getting out of hand with the down votes that compact comments almost immediately after they are posted.

I went to a discussion at...

https://able2know.org/topic/555216-29

...and almost everything posted on pages 28 and 29 were marked "Below viewing threshold" and had 6 down votes.

Is there nothing that can be done to stop whoever is doing this crap...from doing it?

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Type: Question • Score: 7 • Views: 2,630 • Replies: 78
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@Frank Apisa,

This has been going on ever since the riots in the Capitol Building.

If something was to be done about it one would imagine it would have happened before now.

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@Frank Apisa,

I can see all those posts. They've been down voted but not compacted.

Have you got your preferences set to compact down voted posts?

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For now, the best thing you can do is to check "No" on the option to "Collapse Unpopular Posts" in the "My Preferences" page. And give the thumbed-down posts a positive vote which may bring them back into general visibility. Someone's gone to a lot of effort to single-handedly attempt to control what people can and can't see on the forum. It may be too much work on software to really address the problem but if everyone chose the "No Collapsed Posts" option it would render the practice pretty ineffective.

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Thanks, everyone.

I updated my preferences to eliminate the compacting.

Whoever is doing the unnecessary down voting is a jackass.

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@Frank Apisa,

When I come across a collapsed post I just expand it. Works great until I come across one of idiot Ollies posts.

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@Frank Apisa,

Ive seen several threads in which Oral is a participating member have an undue amount of down voting just to his opponents. Whether hes the party or its one of his "kin", I dont know, but it is interesting as circumstantial evidence

1 Reply

@farmerman,

I don't think oralloy's responsible. I think it's a case of one of his allies who feels the need to go out and pad the scores of his brain-dead crypto-fascist Trump dead-ender compatriots. It's actually funny because it's so obvious. So impotent. And so juvenile. The guilty half-wit thinks he's fooling everybody but he's really only fooling himself!

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@Frank Apisa,

Frank Apisa wrote:

Things truly are getting out of hand with the down votes that compact comments almost immediately after they are posted.

I went to a discussion at...

https://able2know.org/topic/555216-29

...and almost everything posted on pages 28 and 29 were marked "Below viewing threshold" and had 6 down votes.

Is there nothing that can be done to stop whoever is doing this crap...from doing it?

I have posted about this several times and reached out to the admins as well. To no avail and little support from like-minded people here. It's nice to know that you care about it as well.

I believe part of a2k doing absolutely nothing about it (despite this possibly making the forum more attractive to far-right extremists and conspiracy theorists) has to do with a2k's management fetishizing free speech to the detriment of allowing some of the most dangerous conspiracy theories to remain despite not being tolerated on many other LEGITIMATE platforms.

a2k doesn't make money from ad revenue... so any suggestion that any and all forms of engagement is good engagement for the ad revenue metrics? That's an argument that can't be made here at a2k.

Yeah. We shouldn't be a part of mainstreaming conspiracy theories by allowing them to be accessible to the mainstream public (simply by allowing them air to breathe and search engines to vacuum them up in greater numbers as they are left published online and unchallenged).

New members are going to come here and see these anti-conspiracy theories/antiracists' posts downvoted to the extreme. That a2k is a safe space for racists and conspiracy theory nuts.

'More Dangerous And More Widespread': Conspiracy Theories Spread Faster Than Ever

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@tsarstepan,

I think it is more that the owners really don't want to invest time and money here. IMO, this was a fun little project for them and they don't seem to mind hosting, but paying someone to dig through old code and keep it current is an expense they are not willing to cover.

2 Replies

@tsarstepan,

tsarstepan wrote:

Frank Apisa wrote:

Things truly are getting out of hand with the down votes that compact comments almost immediately after they are posted.

I went to a discussion at...

https://able2know.org/topic/555216-29

...and almost everything posted on pages 28 and 29 were marked "Below viewing threshold" and had 6 down votes.

Is there nothing that can be done to stop whoever is doing this crap...from doing it?

I have posted about this several times and reached out to the admins as well. To no avail and little support from like-minded people here. It's nice to know that you care about it as well.

I believe part of a2k doing absolutely nothing about it (despite this possibly making the forum more attractive to far-right extremists and conspiracy theorists) has to do with a2k's management fetishizing free speech to the detriment of allowing some of the most dangerous conspiracy theories to remain despite not being tolerated on many other LEGITIMATE platforms.

a2k doesn't make money from ad revenue... so any suggestion that any and all forms of engagement is good engagement for the ad revenue metrics? That's an argument that can't be made here at a2k.

Yeah. We shouldn't be a part of mainstreaming conspiracy theories by allowing them to be accessible to the mainstream public (simply by allowing them air to breathe and search engines to vacuum them up in greater numbers as they are left published online and unchallenged).

New members are going to come here and see these anti-conspiracy theories/antiracists' posts downvoted to the extreme. That a2k is a safe space for racists and conspiracy theory nuts.

'More Dangerous And More Widespread': Conspiracy Theories Spread Faster Than Ever

I suspect Craven is not going to put a lot more money into the place...and I further suspect that the monitoring crew may be down to just Jespah...who has always worked her ass off for the site.

It just pisses me off that a few clowns have decided to mess with the site.

I've done the preference changes (I had forgotten about that)...so all the comments and threads do show up for me.

Hope this pandemic calms down enough for you and Jonathan and I to have a drink together sometime this summer, Steve. I have cabin fever to a massive degree. I have gotten my first shot...and will get my second one shortly. Gotta get into the City as some point soon, or I will go bananas.

f.

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@engineer,

That seems to be the issue, Engineer.

I do not see Robert (Craven) posting any more. Do you know what's up with him? I'm sure he is still the owner.

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In the Monitoring Biden thread, one person has the most up votes in an exacerbation of comments about the subject. The work of trolls on both sides can up or down vote posts.

Whatevs, if extremism and dishonor are the prize then they win hands down.

1 Reply

@neptuneblue,

I think it's very clear that both builder and oralloy are the winners of that thread, and the others are simply whinging.

1 Reply

@longjon,

You don't think, therefore anything you post is moot.

1 Reply

@neptuneblue,

I liked this one:

Quote:

I think it's very clear that both builder and oralloy are the winners of that thread...

This person thinks that there are "winners" of a rambling 34 page thread. What, exactly, did anybody "win"? Rolling Eyes

Everyone knows the voting totals are fraudulent anyway. I read on Parler that Sidney Powell is demanding a recount and is preparing to sue A2K. Mr. Green

0 Replies

@engineer,

engineer wrote:

I think it is more that the owners really don't want to invest time and money here. IMO, this was a fun little project for them and they don't seem to mind hosting, but paying someone to dig through old code and keep it current is an expense they are not willing to cover.

What's the point in letting a2k devolve into another shitstorm like the darkest dregs of reedit or 8chan or Parler?

1 Reply

@tsarstepan,

But that isn't what is happening. Content is moderated and the worst actors seem to disappear when conduct gets outrageous. I think A2K has FB and Twitter beat hands down for content control. Of course A2K is a lot smaller so the task is easier but if the thumb feature is the worst we have to complain about then we're doing ok.

1 Reply

@engineer,

engineer wrote:

Content is moderated and the worst actors seem to disappear when conduct gets outrageous.

Yet, we have oralloy and his klan still dropping posts about how the election was rigged and still posting QAnon conspiracy theory posts that should be taken down immediately (which they are on Facebook and Twitter).

How are we doing better than those much larger social media platforms? How are the thumbs down/up abuse via the very likely abuse of VPN disguising their IP addresses allowing multiple thumbs downs in any metric a measured success? The fact the high levels of thumbs down in this post alone destroys your argument that a2k is succeeding in fixing any problem of the sort.

This is only going to scare away any possibly sane new members. Anecdotally speaking, we've been having an uptick in what marginally be considered possibly schizophrenic or schizophrenic-adjacent new members becoming active in this community. Glad you see it as a healthy community that couldn't collapse by its own hideous conspiracy-theory weight.

4 Replies

@tsarstepan,

I don't see it as worse than other communities. Thumb abuse is something that was well documented years ago across many sites. There are plenty of fake accounts on FB pushing conspiracies and the schemes are a lot more advanced. At least here you can't go off into your own little echo chamber. You can post your theories to everyone and then everyone can comment. Sure the nut cases post, then others post rebuttals. If you are new here, you see both sides. If you believe the answer to "bad" free speech is "good" free speech, then A2K is doing pretty well, much better than FB where counter speech is missing depending on the forum you are in.

1 Reply

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