I haven’t been downvoting Eugine lately, nor am I downvoting anyone for your sake, but I will restate my position here that wanting less of a particular user’s contributions is a legitimate reason to downvote that user’s contributions, regardless of the particular content of a specific comment.
I’m curious about this. Why would you want less of a particular user’s contributions, if not for the content of those contributions?
I might downvote comment C1 by user U1 because of my understanding of C1 informed by the context established by U1′s contributions taken as a whole, even if an identical comment C2 by user U2 would instead cause me to reply to C2, or just ignore it.
More generally, individual comments aren’t events in isolation, and I don’t necessarily respond to them as if they were.
Hypothetical cause: someone could think that some comments are so damaging that the community (or some other larger group) will be better served if the person is discouraged in general, even if that means downvoting their actually good comments.
In such cases, do you believe that people can change? Or is it more likely that once someone has made such a damaging comment, that they need to be written off forever?
I’m not sure I believe that such a category reasonably exists, but it is the closest justification I can imagine that would plausibly make sense in this context.
I’m curious about this. Why would you want less of a particular user’s contributions, if not for the content of those contributions?
I might downvote comment C1 by user U1 because of my understanding of C1 informed by the context established by U1′s contributions taken as a whole, even if an identical comment C2 by user U2 would instead cause me to reply to C2, or just ignore it.
More generally, individual comments aren’t events in isolation, and I don’t necessarily respond to them as if they were.
Hypothetical cause: someone could think that some comments are so damaging that the community (or some other larger group) will be better served if the person is discouraged in general, even if that means downvoting their actually good comments.
Damage is another Trojan horse for hiding confirmation bias.
In such cases, do you believe that people can change? Or is it more likely that once someone has made such a damaging comment, that they need to be written off forever?
I’m not sure I believe that such a category reasonably exists, but it is the closest justification I can imagine that would plausibly make sense in this context.