Cookie / voting system

Am I the only one who hates the voting (cookie) system on the MXL forums?

1. It feels wrong that it applies to someone's whole account, forever, instead of just the post that gets the up- or down-vote.

2. What's worse is that people can only vote if they have a lifetime positive score at that moment in time.

It put me off using these forums and I stopped posting here. I sometimes have thoughts/ideas I'd like to discuss but if they're remotely contentious then I don't bother, because when someone disagrees, they just lazily press the down vote button instead of arguing their viewpoint - so I think "Why bother, I'll just end up with a negative rating if a few people disagree".

And yeah I realise that this post will probably get a net minus score.

It's okay I'm the salt miner.

u think any1 care about this, should be happy u have other options active :calm:

Yeah, this voting system is complete dog shit, pretty much like any other "karma-based" system. Figuratively speaking, you better spread your ass cheeks if you want to earn this karma before you try to criticize someone else, otherwise get ready to receive it with no lube. Except for the rare cases, cookie count can't tell you anything relevant about the person behind this particular account, it's quite obvious to me but I'm not a newcomer. These new users might refuse to have any business with someone who has a negative cookie count even though that person might be completely innocent.

i like cookie, gib me cookie

Grasshopper wrote:1. It feels wrong that it applies to someone's whole account, forever, instead of just the post that gets the up- or down-vote.

It doesn't feel that way in my opinion; but the whole matter is subjective, hence the use of "feel" by us both. In any case I can see where you are coming from, and most likely an argument can be better built once a question like "Is there a particular reason behind having users' cookies count public?" find an answer.

Grasshopper wrote:2. What's worse is that people can only vote if they have a lifetime positive score at that moment in time.

I don't see a problem with this. It can also fairly successfully prevent spook accounts and bots to be used for cookies farming or negative cookies raids.

Grasshopper wrote:It put me off using these forums and I stopped posting here. I sometimes have thoughts/ideas I'd like to discuss but if they're remotely contentious then I don't bother, because when someone disagrees, they just lazily press the down vote button instead of arguing their viewpoint - so I think "Why bother, I'll just end up with a negative rating if a few people disagree".

SwineFlu wrote:Yeah, this voting system is complete dog shit, pretty much like any other "karma-based" system. Figuratively speaking, you better spread your ass cheeks if you want to earn this karma before you try to criticize someone else, otherwise get ready to receive it with no lube. Except for the rare cases, cookie count can't tell you anything relevant about the person behind this particular account, it's quite obvious to me but I'm not a newcomer. These new users might refuse to have any business with someone who has a negative cookie count even though that person might be completely innocent.

I'd argue that these are issues related to the types of users involved instead of being defining features of the system. Surely shortcomings of the implementation can fuel these types of behaviours, especially when in echo chambers, but I'm of the opinion that a better management of the system is to be preferred against its removal. As far as I know the system is not meant to promote intimidation tactics nor is intended to brand specific people for others to take great notice (there's not even a badge for negative cookies). Most of the time it comes down to arbitrary decisions on how much importance one's willing to give to his/her judgment parameters.

@ OP I don't think it's wise to not communicate your ideas. In the worst case it gets shut down by other people, but if you can make an effort in explaining the ups and downs (especially the downs) there is no room for people to mention anything against your opinion, since you already explained both sides. It will often lead to people not downvoting your posts, since you're not one-sidedly stating an opinion, but you're rather stating an objective view, without emotions, which allows people to not get emotionally involved as well. --> No votes, regardless of up or down.

As for why this thread was voted down: Your post sounds extremely whiny. That's from an objective viewpoint. Because it seems that the negativity of some random strangers you never even met affects your actions in such a huge way that you'd rather just run away and hide instead of actually discussing opinions/ideas. It may be hard, but try to think of negativity pointed at you as something good. Because that means that you actually stood up for yourself and that can be source of self-esteem. Also, if you already expect to be treated like trash from the get-go, it's easier to not get your emotions in a twist, because your expectations aren't let down. That makes it easier to not feel bad when facing negativity like for example downvotes from this cookie system.

Either way, it's best to simply not care at all about the votes, because in what way does an artificial number next to your account even affect your life? Why even care at all?

SwineFlu wrote:Yeah, this voting system is complete dog shit, pretty much like any other "karma-based" system. Figuratively speaking, you better spread your ass cheeks if you want to earn this karma before you try to criticize someone else, otherwise get ready to receive it with no lube. Except for the rare cases, cookie count can't tell you anything relevant about the person behind this particular account, it's quite obvious to me but I'm not a newcomer. These new users might refuse to have any business with someone who has a negative cookie count even though that person might be completely innocent.

This right here. And coming from another user like myself that has never tried to be anything but helpful to other players in answering questions.

I was able to even see the voting system for 3 days upon getting a -1 and and going back to zero and no ability to do so anymore and what removed that? Thanking someone for answering one of my questions in the short questions thread...

Pretty lame and pretty much discourages even interacting anymore. Trolls with just 1 upvote can go around destroy other users input for no good reason and there's not a damn thing you can do about it. And this is only from the perspective of trying to be helpful.. I assume only silencing would come from any sort of critical analysis of someone else point of view or trying to criticize anything on these forums.

If you have interacted on these forums for over a year and clearly not a troll with overwhelming negative votes you should be able to participate. At the same time sure if a user has received an overwhelming amount of negative over positive then of course that should be handed by case. Theres plenty of better ways to handle this system and still achieve its goals imho. Or at the very least some tweeks to improve like anything else. No system is pefect and there is almost always room for improvement while still achieving its main objectives. Of which RequiemLux pointed out is why things work this way.

Too bad i cant give SwineFlu my upvote for his honesty... +1 regardless.

The community is just a giant circle-jerk nowadays anyway, new players get turned off and get down-voted or turned into a meme for providing their own opinions and experiences. The cookie system just makes it unwelcoming for new players, they state their own opinion and lose their ability to make an opinion hence forth.

Over the past year I've noticed all this:
1.) Ask for help on discord and get told either something memey or ignored completely.
2.) Make a thread on forum stating an opinion about the mod and get completely mutilated by either down-votes or people calling the person retarded.
3.) Call one of the "old boys club" out for being a dick and get down-voted into oblivion.
4.) Disagree with someone about a build or something on the discord? Get kicked from the discord for X hours or end up getting bombarded by the entire discord.

Perfect examples: bapcja, dru, toxen.

As a newcomer, just post your opinion in a polite way and you'll never be downvoted.

Now act like a whiny kid that keep nagging and ofc you'll receive -1's
But to be franc, who the fuck even care about cookies on a cambodian atheist basket weaving forum anyway?