Re^2: What exactly counts as "Perl News"? (interesting)

[JavaFan]

If you make a habit of that, you lose XP.

I thought XP wasn't suppose to matter? And that Perlmonks actively promotes to not cast downvotes?

[moritz]

I thought XP wasn't suppose to matter?

And indeed it doesn't matter, if one creates a new account for each post (as happened in the cases discussed here).

[tye]

I think JavaFan's reply deserves a sarcastic award for "A Commanding Grasp of the Subtle". moritz is also guilty of oversimplification but to a much lesser extent.

I thought XP wasn't suppose to matter?

• JavaFan: "I can't believe she broke up with me."
• Friend: "It doesn't matter."
• JavaFan: "Whew. And I almost canceled the hotel reservations."

And that Perlmonks actively promotes to not cast downvotes?

The PerlMonks site actually "actively" awards you XP for casting downvotes. (Of course, there is more to the story than just that.) So it makes no sense to imply a conflict between what the site en/dis-courages and a statement of fact that downvotes sometimes happen. (And note that such a statement of fact is not necessarily an appeal to encourage the casting of downvotes.)

And indeed it doesn't matter, if one creates a new account for each post (as happened in the cases discussed here).

Based on clarifications provided by the person who raised the discussion, "the cases discussed here" constitute 1/3 of the 15 most recent postings to Perl News. But I'm only aware of one person who has created a new account for themselves and then posted to Perl News recently. So I think at least s/(?=the cases)/one of / is in order.

But I also disagree that downvoting (and/or loss of XP) doesn't matter in the case of the person moritz is obviously thinking of (and I disagree that "one create[d] a new account for each post" is completely accurate). I believe downvoting had some impact (probably both positive and negative impacts on the situation).

And I was sloppy and used "lose XP" as shorthand for more than just the literal losing of XP. "Incur disapproval" might be a more accurate expression for it, which can be manifested in the loss of XP, lowered "reputation" score on a node, words of discouragement in replies, /msgs, or in the CB, and more subtle interactions.