I would say I rarely downvote, partly because I’m not quite sure how one should view karma; one alternative is that it should reflect some form of very crude statistics of peoples opinions of a post/comment, no matter if the post has −4 or 100 you vote it up if you think it’s a good post or vote it down if you think it’s bad one. Another alternative is that karma reflects how many points a post/comment should have, that is if a comment has −2 and your preference value is 0 you vote it up.
Could someone help me clarify how one should view karma?
People express both opinions, or more often a mix of the two. In practice if a substantial number are acting according to the later one, that is enough to make it dominant.
If people act according to the simple strategy, and assume others act according to it, one can have disproportionate apparent influence by strategically voting towards a target. The more people that act strategically, the more likely it is votes according to the simple strategy will get cancelled out, even by people who substantially agree.
Because of these incentives, I think it best to mostly vote towards a target.
Thanks, good to know there isn’t any outspoken rule of how one ought to view karma in that aspect.
But then when are you allowed to downvote? Obviously when someones argument is unsound or when a comment do not actually add something to discussion, but is it “OK” downvote if you just strongly disagree, for example if someone makes a good case for eating babies, that is to say based upon that persons assumptions about the world eating babies is (EDIT: not) a bad thing, lets say “since babies are not conscious it’s okay to eat them” (I’m not implying that the statement harbors any truth).
Then I decided to downvote the first comment you wrote on or after October 15th, because fuck your first comment on or after October 15th! unless in it you advocated eating babies.
Then I read it and decided that advocating pesticide was close enough, because weeds are people too, and undid my downvote.
I would say I rarely downvote, partly because I’m not quite sure how one should view karma; one alternative is that it should reflect some form of very crude statistics of peoples opinions of a post/comment, no matter if the post has −4 or 100 you vote it up if you think it’s a good post or vote it down if you think it’s bad one. Another alternative is that karma reflects how many points a post/comment should have, that is if a comment has −2 and your preference value is 0 you vote it up.
Could someone help me clarify how one should view karma?
People express both opinions, or more often a mix of the two. In practice if a substantial number are acting according to the later one, that is enough to make it dominant.
If people act according to the simple strategy, and assume others act according to it, one can have disproportionate apparent influence by strategically voting towards a target. The more people that act strategically, the more likely it is votes according to the simple strategy will get cancelled out, even by people who substantially agree.
Because of these incentives, I think it best to mostly vote towards a target.
Thanks, good to know there isn’t any outspoken rule of how one ought to view karma in that aspect. But then when are you allowed to downvote? Obviously when someones argument is unsound or when a comment do not actually add something to discussion, but is it “OK” downvote if you just strongly disagree, for example if someone makes a good case for eating babies, that is to say based upon that persons assumptions about the world eating babies is (EDIT: not) a bad thing, lets say “since babies are not conscious it’s okay to eat them” (I’m not implying that the statement harbors any truth).
That’s a good question, so I upvoted this post.
Then I decided to downvote the first comment you wrote on or after October 15th, because fuck your first comment on or after October 15th! unless in it you advocated eating babies.
Then I read it and decided that advocating pesticide was close enough, because weeds are people too, and undid my downvote.
See also here and especially the comments.