monkdiscuss
Aristotle
<p>[http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0345391802|42] votes.</p>
<p>(You saw that coming, didn't you?)</p>
<p>Unfortunately, that's two more than even Saints get per day, so we none of us will ever <em>know</em>…</p>
<p>Still, I have been pondering the question of what node reputation really means. (Specifically, since [id://196504|a recent discussion].) So what is it? Within certain bounds, one can associate a couple some vague statements, but it doesn't seem very helpful at all as [id://196868|I once wrote]. The classic question is of course: if noderep is as use(?:ful|less) as random numbers, why do we even care to vote?</p>
<p>Well, I don't know about you, but I do care greatly about my nodes' reps — far more than about my XP. Putting some effort into a node and getting several dozen upvotes to that post is quite satisfying, a lot more than watching an XP counter spin somewhere outside of any direct context. On the other hand I have occasionally refrained from posting a questionable pun/joke/foo/bar because I feared downvotes, esp. those from monks who did understand but deemed it improper. I have however never refrained from posting possibly controversial viewpoints, even when I expected downvotes, so long as I felt the matter required someone to take stance.</p>
<p>Well, that's it.</p>
<p>Yes, you've read the answer. Go read again. That's what node rep is: feedback. To the author, to be precise.</p>
<p>I submit that node reputation is pretty much useless to anyone but the author of a node. The only value it can have to others is to check if they are aligned with the general consensus on a node, and even that is questionable — a dozen people who bothered to vote do not constitute much of a “general consensous”. The value of the node reputation of an individual node, in itself, is worthless.</p>
<p>Right into this fits my observation that when I downvote a node (which is rarely the case, and has to be well deserved at least in my opinion), I hope to see a negative reputation, indicating at least a modicum of consensous that this node should indeed be “condemned” in some form, for some (well justified) reason.</p>
<p>Assuming one follows this argumentation, it makes the answers to various requests relating to node reputation pretty obvious in my opinion. The bottom line is that it is a form of social sanction (small as this society may be), and nothing more.</p>
<p align="right"><em>Makeshifts last the longest.</em></p>