I have gone to my nodelist everytime I see the "Ack! You have lost..." message

How is this bad? I do that too, because I want to know what earned me downvotes. Not because I'm concerned of my precious XP, but because I'd like to know how I was out of line, or maybe just technically wrong.

I have also backed out of posting things that might get downvotes - but these were, pretty much without exceptions, just smartwit jokes that might or might not have added to the discussion. Probably the latter. In those cases, I'd like to think the XP/voting mechanism successfully worked as a self control device to keep the site free of clutter.

I certainly have not hesitated to post things that might be controversial, or in some cases just plain would get downvotes, when I felt they really needed to be said. On a related note, that is part of the reason I have a gripe with people who post criticism as anonymonks - if you stand by what you say, then own up to it.

I feel there is no shame in admitting to enjoy seeing one's XP counter spin: it is nice to get recognition in some way, since getting "thank you" or "good point" or such as reply to every good node is an unrealistic scenario. But it depends on one's motives. While I enjoy this part of the site, XP is not what keeps me here and most certainly is not my purpose in posting. Was it yours? Maybe. Only you know. But I salute you for the courage to post this.

Makeshifts last the longest.

In reply to Re: Return of the Confessional by Aristotle
in thread Return of the Confessional by theorbtwo

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