in reply to New Voting Option - UnVote

I see big potential problems with this.

For one, when you vote, there is a 25% chance that you will gain XP. That would mean that when you unvote, there should be a 25% chance of losing XP. That could be implemented fairly easily, but there are other problems.

An upvote on a node that already has a reputation higher than the $NORM¹ has a better chance of resulting in an XP gain for the author than a downvote has of resulting in an XP loss. What that means is that you could pick a high rated node of your favorite monk and repeatedly upvote and unvote and his XP would climb. That is, unless that were accounted for.

Another problem is that people could (and therefore probably would) use it to see node rep without casting a vote. Or, more precisely, by casting a vote and then unvoting to get it back.

In short, I imagine this change would not be easy to implement, and I think it would result in more problems than benefits. If you vote by accident, then "oh well." It happens. Life goes on. They're just votes, not hundred dollar bills. And it's just XP, not fame and fortune...

Update: Looks like I misinterpreted your intention too. Yes, it's a great idea! And, as you now know, null votes have already been implemented. I use the feature all the time. In fact, the reason I didn't think that's what you meant is that I forgot it was configurable in your User Settings and that the default was disabled, probably because I have had it on since it was implemented.

1. See Voting/Experience System for details.

-sauoq
"My two cents aren't worth a dime.";

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Re^2: New Voting Option - UnVote
by Aristotle (Chancellor) on Jun 10, 2003 at 19:05 UTC

    Most of these problems could be alleviated by making it impossible to vote on a node even after retracting your vote. The potential for abuse still left should be cured if retracting a vote always costs an XP ("if you don't want to lose XP, pay attention next time you vote, mkay?").

    Not that I'm advocating that this be implemented; just idly pondering how it could be done without creating loop holes in the current system. At least I can't see any way to abuse it if it's restricted in the way I've outlined above.

    Makeshifts last the longest.

[reply]

      I agree... that would probably eliminate the possibility of abuse. Of course, it would probably also ensure that it was almost never used. (I have a feeling most people would prefer to lose a vote than an XP.¹) So, all the work to implement it would be for nought... :-)

      1. Those with higher XP tend to be less concerned about it but they also have more votes and tend to be less concerned about wasting them as well. Whereas, those with less votes also have less XP and are still trying to gain levels. I'm sure there would be exceptions, mostly based on altruism. For instance, if I downvoted someone by accident, I might like that feature just to take back my down vote, but I wouldn't use it just to get back a vote wasted by accident if I didn't feel bad about the result. Besides, I don't think downvoting by accident is a frequent occurence...

      -sauoq
"My two cents aren't worth a dime.";
[reply]
        Making it an oft-used option was not a goal, of course. It would probably only be used (as you said) to rectify accidental downvotes. Not likely to be worth the effort, but I wasn't advocating it anyway - just idly musing. :-)

        Makeshifts last the longest.

[reply]

In Section Perl Monks Discussion