It's not about down votes

[stevieb]

imho it's about feeling proud about the statements one makes that your peers will approve of.

As we all do, I work diligently at my job all day. Perl programming isn't even close to being on my radar anymore. With that said, PerlMonks is very important to me for various reasons... the newbs keep me guessing and the expert answers keep me on my toes testing. (I have numerous VMs and v4/v6 accessible FBSD boxen I play on when time permits ;)

Currently, I get 18 votes per day. Sometimes I blast right through them, and sometimes not. Most often I spend (what I feel are important) votes on quality replies to posts in chronological order.

However... recently, I've been taking a different approach. Instead of just bouncing on 'Newest Nodes' or (my personal fav) 'Recent Threads', I've been waiting 12 hrs on the 'Recent Threads' to see who is doing what.

In essence, instead of spending my votes on 'ok' responses immediately just because I want to spend them, I've started to take a sit-back approach to see who does what.

With this diligent-type overwatch, it is allowing me to better clarify (in my own mind) what deserves to be 'A' or ++, but more importantly, in (my style) EXTREMELY RARELY -- when necessary.

Through this, I'm learning a lot about my fellow Monks, and also what they have a tendency to tolerate. It has also led me to many home-nodes as well. I'm glad the recent discussion of canning the -- came up, because in reality, it made me a more diligent and determined Monk in the process as it forced me to better intertwine with both the post and the poster of every OP.

It's the weekend. Go to bed now.

[stevieb]

ok, I'll put it this way instead... I've adopted to BrowserUK's general policy of notifying someone if I feel the need to downvote someone as to why I downvote them.

I don't care for pissing matches, nor do I care at all about XP now that I've built up enough cred to reach Friar level.

Downvoting is lulz to me, unless one can give me constructive criticism like the professionals do. I learn from being beat up when I need it. I firmly believe that a kick to our egotistical ways is good from time-to-time. Personally, if what I say isn't helpful to Monks in the future, I would like to be told about it.

Furthermore, I'm not even in software engineering, but I do believe that in many places, code speaks louder than words.

[bulk88]

Its not just about the latest posts. PerlMonks has a decade or more of archived posts. If I have Perl problems, I'll search PerlMonks for a solution. I often just search for parts of Perl world that I like to read about for fun, then vote on those ancient nodes. I like to use my votes on a balance of newest posts, and ancient history. Worst Nodes is also entertaining to read and vote on. I guess some people swarm the Worst Nodes and downvote bomb everything in the list. I disagree with that practice and sometimes upvote the nodes.

I've noticed there is a pattern on how to make sure you dont get more than 3 on your node. More than 36 hours since the OP node, or more than 36 hours since the last response. A response to a response. A response to the OP node that doesn't appear on the first or 2nd screenful of replys to the OP node. The node rep distribution generally seems to be a hockey stick, where X is time. If my post is the first response to a OP node, or is the OP node, I seem to get 3-10x multiplier point bonus applied to my average node rep. With this information, I just published a guide to XP whoring. Again these observations are on my own nodes with my writing style. YMMV. Does anyone have completing models or different observations of node reps distribution?

For example, like seeing all their old nodes growing every day or going days without posting or voting on anything and getting more XP that can be attributed to the login bonus or you loose a half a dozen XP a day every day and there seems to a bot going through your node history systematically?

[stevieb]

I like the way you think. Personally, I often don't get to nodes until way after it has been posted, so I'm used to seeing 3-4 ++ votes where if I posted it immediately I might get 10 fold.

I'm not out for XP though, I just like to give my 2c if I feel I have something to offer that hasn't been offered yet... right or wrong. I'm a firm believer in timtowtdi, so I follow that principle.

I too search for and peruse old posts, and just this week alone, I'm sure I've given 50+ ++ votes to posts that were circa pre-2k5.

About the hockey sticks... I just finished laundry, so I'm running to the pub (as I don't have cable) to see if the Kings can win their first Stanley Cup... at home ;)