in reply to Re: Re^2: A case for neutral votes (+/-)
in thread A case for neutral votes
Why would Mr. Noo B. Monk waste two votes for no XP
I don't expect them to. Funnilly enough, I found the original node in this thread to be a pretty bad justification for an "abstain" option. In the scenario given, I would suggest the new member vote every reply up in thanks to the people who made the effort to reply and/or sort replies by reputation. I see very little value in an abstain option for that case.
I think you are missing a vital point. Abstaining from voting doesn't do the Monastery any good. So I have no desire to *encourage* it. I see value in allowing it.
In order from most to least preferred, I think it should not cost votes
Ooh, yuck! Then we'll just have lots of people mass-abstaining then wishing they could vote when they see how things stand. We'll have much less useful voting in general and less input into the rating system, which I feel would make it less useful than it is.
it should be the same as a regular vote
No, you don't get XP for it because it doesn't help the Monastery.
or it should be the same as a regular vote without the chance for XP
That might be acceptable. But I don't want to jump right to that just yet. It is just such an easy cop-out for higher monks to spend a vote (most of us don't spend all of ours most days after we get up here) just to see the rep of a node. I worry that even with it costing a vote with no chance of XP gain, that it will still become the easy choice and become way too common and discourage monks from taking time to consider nodes and decide which ones most deserve the up-vote (or however they choose to cast their votes).
Despite the frequent whining threads about what is wrong with the XP system, I find great value in it. It hooks new members in and gets them to contribute, even want to "belong". It discourages certain undesirable behaviors. It gets people thinking about the value of what they contribute. And it is valuable in calculating the value of a node in many contexts. And for it to perform these vital services, we need to keep people contributing to the system. Making it too easy to opt-out of the process is not a good idea.
After writing about it, I'm not sure costing two votes is enough of a discouragement. But it does make for a nice label ("+/-"). (:
- tye