Down votes

What purpose does the voting, up or down, serve-- other than the "negative" purpose of providing an anonymous way to register disagreement, or agreement, and avoid having to develop or defend the agreement or disagreement?

I think it, the voting up and down, is stupid. I do it, but then again I've been known to do stupid things. On occasion. Sometimes. Frequently. Maybe most of the time. OK, always.

a lot of the time writing more words really adds nothing. we shouldn't need to defend well established things like how representative democracy is shit or anarcho capitalism is bollox.

and i don't see any value added by dozens of posts just saying "i agree" either

Posting something and then being challenged on it is how you learn so I don't see any problem with anyone's posting on this site really. Also not everyone posts A+ material all the time, who cares? What's more important is that people express their ideas in their head and then be challenged on them.

i don't think that people are avoiding discussing. i use upvotes to indicate "i agree and couldn't really say it better": i know what i think when i upvote, just like to give a tip to the articulate ones.

My 2 cents, I definitely use it as an agree/disagree function.

yup

It doesn't bother me too much, I've seen it used really badly on other sites, but on Libcom I think it works. Don't understand why you can both up and down the same post though.

The secret ballot is UNIVERSALLY BOURGEOIS!

I think the up/down voting is a great system. It cuts down on contenless agree/disagree comments. I wish fb had a dislike option btw. However, people who are creating bots or other accounts just to give users they dislike extra down votes...well they should be warned and then banned. Other than that, I think people should be able to vote as they please. I don't think it prevents people from posting either. People who vote but don't post wouldn't post anyway even if voting was abolished.

I agree!

Holy shit! A magnificent 30 downvotes! I can't help thinking I cheated though so I'll have to try to bag some more through merit rather than manipulation.
Watch this space.

I up voted you outta spite webbly

seeing as how we just met i voted you up and down because we can do both

Hey thanks, gives me another stupid thing to do.

Oh wow, forgot you can give both at the same time. Haha

did you downvote yourself??

How dare you sir?!!! I most certainly did not, although I have done previously when some has shown that my reasoning is faulty. What I meant was that I appealed to the the generous nature of Libcom posters and also bribed them with the promise of a rude joke. A truly credible down vote is earned by posting a comment that is contrary to the majority view but is clearly correct and only invisible to dogmatic old stick in the muds that collected their views in the aisles of the revolutionary supermarket years ago and have clung like a limpet to those views ever since. These downvotes are fairly hard to come by so the best way to make sure you keep your count up is to be an asshole.

Oh rubbish Webby! You got all those down votes because I promised my horsemeat recipes! PM me, if anyone wants to know how to make a truly delicious horseburger.

How different is horse eat from beef? I've never had it.

It's a lot less fatty than beef, more protein, fewer calories. Tastes sweeter.

How different is horse eat from beef? I've never had it.

Sounds yummy, but for some reason I'm now pondering whether or not I should instigate yet another animal abuse Libcom fracas? Let me think a moment...

You'll get no fight from me. Can't be arsed.

Nope, not going there. There's just no sport in it - it's so easy to show that consumption of animal based foods is unnecessary, cruel and stupid. It's also absolutely clear that anybody that disagrees is stubborn, reactionary and callous.
I think I'll just stick to slagging off Billy Bragg and posting wank jokes!

Thing is I went through and came out of my militant animal rights phase by my early 20s, having realized that much of the "science" it is predicated on is total bunk and borderline conspiracist. I also realized I was annoying as fuck to the 97% of the population who appreciate little niceties like medicine and increases life expectancies in humans

Haha! Gotcha!!

Up voted for that. Gotcha back.

Everyone down-vote this.

The up/down voting is interesting as it says as much about the Lib-com readers as the views being expressed. From this thread it is obvious that everyone uses it as they please and no matter what, they are uncontrollable. As my mum used to say, “This has got to STOP!” and stop my pocket money for the tenth time that week (only until the ice-cream man came in his wee van).