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I don't give in to Bullying

14
Vote

by user Xinoph

Clearly a person, or a variety of persons, registered a number of accounts to give me a huge number of negative ratings over the eight hours when I checked the site this morning to now. My user ranking on comment score dropped by about 620 slots in one-third of a day. While I can't be sure the motives of this child, whether it's just random attacks or based on a recent opinion I held, I can let them know that it won't work on this user. They can't silence me.

I say children because this is clearly bullying. They're trying to shut me down by attacking my comment score. Perhaps some opinion I expressed recently offended them somehow, and they went off on me. That's not a grown-up way to behave. Grown-ups have discussions, have differences, and either settle them or don't, civilly. Grown-ups don't resort to bullying. Little boys resort to bullying.

So, little boys who don't engage in real debate but go after people behind their back are detrimental to this community, and every other. They tear down free speech and help destroy discussion. They prevent real debate, or at least they attempt to do so. They're a derailment on the tracks of democracy.

But fear not! I won't give in to this kind of bullying. In fact, I call out the little boys who attacked me. Call them out of their virtual closet. Argue with me like a real man, with facts and opinions, not a dastardly, cowardly, anonymous attack. Let's all try to act like grown-ups and we can have a real community here, instead of a group of people yelling at each other.

Date

Sat 06/24/06, 12:16 pm EST

Enable Comment Auto-Refresher
DNLLegend
1256 days ago
Score 5+-
Most likely, the reason for the mass -1s is (or, was) your overall user rank. I think it's erroneous to assume it was for any other reason.
Permalink | Reply
XinophDraft Pick
1256 days ago
Score 2+-
Either way, it's bullying and grown-ups don't do it.
Permalink
ASwaffAll-American
1256 days ago
Score 5+-
Who gavea minus for DNL's comment? What the heck was that? It's just an opinion!
Permalink
Anonymous Fanatic #1
1256 days ago
Score -1+-
Perhaps this is a good argument for the pointlessness of user rankings. After all, this article wouldn't exist were it not for the ability to rank comments. This site should promote free and open discussion about sports and not become contaminated by the popularity contest that the user rankings will undoubtedly foster. I've been lurking on here for just a few days and have already seen several articles about this issue. If this is a problem now, imagine how out of control it will become if/when the site has millions of users.
Permalink | Reply
Awrigh01All-Star
1256 days ago
Score 6+-
If there are millions of users, there will be hundreds of comments, how else would you be able to sort the good from the bad?
Permalink
Patrickburke1980All-American
1256 days ago
Score 3+-
I'm sure Pean can easily check the sites database records to find out who that was...if indeed that is what happened.
Permalink | Reply
Anonymous Fanatic #2
1256 days ago
Score 3+-
Are there actually records kept of the + and - users give?
Permalink | Reply
ASwaffAll-American
1256 days ago
Score 4+-
That would sure be a nice thing to keep track of. I think it would also be nice to have a feature like at laser tag places, where they give stats on who you shot, and how many times, and who shot you, and how many times. It would really be nice to see if there seems to be a trend developing with people giving "vendetta" minuses.
Permalink
CoreyisarealboyMajor Leaguer
1256 days ago
Score 1+-
Do we as users really NEED to know that sort of thing though? Sure it would be nice because I've gotten negative votes that made absolutely no sense and wanted to know who did it, but do we really need to know?
Permalink
ASwaffAll-American
1256 days ago
Score 6+-
No, we don't need to know. But then, I suppose we don't NEED the plus or minus system or the voting system, either. These things are luxuries we don't need, but they're nice to have. We don't need to have it, but I for one, would like having it. I'd like to know who keeps giving me minuses without saying why. I had one thread where I repeatedly got three or four minuses for my comments (I also got three or four pluses, so I guess it balanced out). But, when you're getting three minuses and just one comment (or none), it gets pretty tedious.
Permalink
All~In~ChicagoVarsity
1256 days ago
Score 3+-
I just posted this on the other page on revising the point system....Maybe we should have it where if you vote +/- you are required to add a comment. The box will prompt automatically and if you don't write anything you can't +/- the comment. At least everyone can see who is voting +/- this way. Also if the comments written are random scribble, that user can move to have that score removed. I don't know? Maybe too much work?
Permalink | Reply
ASwaffAll-American
1256 days ago
Score 3+-
I don't know if it would be too much work, but it sounds like a pretty good idea to me.
Permalink
All~In~ChicagoVarsity
1256 days ago
Score 1+-
See I don't understand th - for Aswaff here. I wish people would comment why they disagree with an opinion.
Permalink
Anonymous Fanatic #3
1256 days ago
Score 1+-
these are all good ideas, but at the end of the day you can't make everyone happy. i think there will always be people that want to make changes no matter what.

my idea would be to leave feature changes up to a vote by all the top 100 users. Granted, the folks who developed this site probably would want to retain control.
Permalink | Reply
All~In~ChicagoVarsity
1256 days ago
Score 3+-
At least we can see who voted and then there would be means of appealing to remove a score. THere will always be people out there trying to further their own rankings unfortunatly. I like the ranking program and don't want to see it go but at the same time it's wrong what has happened.
Permalink | Reply
Awrigh01All-Star
1256 days ago
Score 3+-
We will figure this out. I think there are some positives to comment voting and some negatives we will work hard to alleviate this problem.
Permalink | Reply
Anonymous Fanatic #1
1256 days ago
Score 4+-
If we want to sort good comments from bad, that's one thing, but using that to determine a user rank is where we allow it to become a popularity content that can be easily manipulated. One idea is to perhaps completely do away with the negative score. That will prevent the actions that Xinoph is describing while still allowing for good comments and their authors to be singled out. People are probably less inclined to pad a score with positive rankings than they are with negative ones. And, after all, we are not allowed to give negative votes to articles, so why to comments?
Permalink | Reply
Anonymous Fanatic #3
1256 days ago
Score 2+-
and there's your solution...well done AF.
Permalink | Reply
FornelliTee-Baller
1256 days ago
Score 4+-
I just gave you all pluses cuz I think you're all super cool.
Permalink | Reply
XinophDraft Pick
1256 days ago
Score 0+-
awwww :)
Permalink
Anonymous Fanatic #2
1256 days ago
Score 0+-
I think we have to be criticized for what we say, so I really think the -'s should stay.
Permalink | Reply
Anonymous Fanatic #1
1256 days ago
Score 0+-
Allowing for negative ratings gives people a far too easy way to abuse the system. We can criticize people by simply not responding to them in any way. The only thing worse than dislike is apathy.
Permalink
CoreyisarealboyMajor Leaguer
1256 days ago
Score 1+-
Wow that's cool someone apparently thought it was appropriate to criticize everyone. Real mature.
Permalink | Reply
ChristofMVP
1256 days ago
Score 0+-
Yo Dawg: I was again hit with a massive amount of negative votes in the last few minutes. This has nothing to do with you say. People are simply abusing the system.
Permalink | Reply
CoreyisarealboyMajor Leaguer
1256 days ago
Score 0+-
I'm pretty sure someone is just going through all of the largest threads and docking every comment one negative vote. This one, the Ozzie Guillen post, the list goes on.
Permalink
ChristofMVP
1256 days ago
Score 1+-
Yep, I don't disagree with you. It needs to stop. It has gotten out of hand. The Founding Fathers of the site need to step in now before the integrity of this whole web site is lost.
Permalink
XinophDraft Pick
1256 days ago
Score -2+-
Just because you, too, were attacked doesn't mean the attack on me doesn't have to do with what I said - that's faulty logic.
Permalink
Anonymous Fanatic #2
1256 days ago
Score 2+-
Maybe we should get rid of the minus signs and replace it with number of votes you get from your articles.
Permalink | Reply
MetsJetsDevilsDraft Pick
1256 days ago
Score 3+-
Maybe its Ozzie Guillen himself?
Permalink | Reply
Bobbyjim45Draft Pick
1256 days ago
Score 1+-
It's too bad it had to get to the point where the administrators had to get rid of "-" votes all together, simply because of some immature people.
Permalink | Reply
XinophDraft Pick
1256 days ago
Score -2+-
Now if only they could remove the minus scores from the Top Users calculation
Permalink
ASwaffAll-American
1256 days ago
Score 3+-
I agree, Bobby. I think the minuses provided a good way to check against saying offensive things. Perhaps some people checked their initial reactions because they thought it might get them minuses. It's too bad we had to get rid of something useful because people couldn't police themselves.
Permalink
Ron Sen, MDRed-Shirting
1256 days ago
Score 2+-
Yeah, the Next New Thing will be alliances, where you get your friends to vote for you in exchange for your votes. Or maybe crack cocaine, Kruggerands, loose women (or men), Godiva chocolates, and stock tips.
Permalink | Reply
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This page was last modified 17:38, 24 June 2006. Content is available under the GFDL.

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