I'll avoid theories to why/what others do and just state that I tend to ++ responses that are on topic and helpful or that bring to light a new issue that is of obvious importance to the questioner. I tend to ++ root posts only when they spawn a serious discourse or are FAQ worthy in their general application.

If I have a few votes left over or am just in a light mood I'll ++ someone for simply being funny, or for pulling out a cool trick in Obfustications/Meditations/Snippets.

I don't think I've given out more than 8 or 9 -- votes all told. They have to be rude or seriously dain-bramaged to earn one from me. I have occasionally tried to ++ people I felt were unworthy of being on the worst nodes list. Most recently that was Sort this data which was -3 when I decided to ++ it and respond.

Now, breaking my own rule, I think that recently some people have been going a little hog wild with the -- votes. In the case of the one above, I think it may have been in resonance to the title, Sort this data which had to remind people of the notorious debug the error!! and find th bug!! =)

Like any place on the web or in the world there are some caustic personalities here (um merlyn and princepawn come to mind, no offense to either but they both have a talent for setting other people off their kilter) and some seriously wacky people as well (list deleted when it passed 100 items =) but all in all it is still working rather well.

--
$you = new YOU;
honk() if $you->love(perl)

---

---

• Are you posting in the right place? Check out Where do I post X? to know for sure.
• Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags. Currently these include the following:

  <code> <a> <b> <big> <blockquote> <br /> <dd> <dl> <dt> <em> <font> <h1> <h2> <h3> <h4> <h5> <h6> <hr /> <i> <li> <nbsp> <ol> <p> <small> <strike> <strong> <sub> <sup> <table> <td> <th> <tr> <tt> <u> <ul>

• Snippets of code should be wrapped in <code> tags not <pre> tags. In fact, <pre> tags should generally be avoided. If they must be used, extreme care should be taken to ensure that their contents do not have long lines (<70 chars), in order to prevent horizontal scrolling (and possible janitor intervention).
• Want more info? How to link or How to display code and escape characters are good places to start.