BTW, I downvoted every reply in this node (above this point, not including potential future replies) except revdiablo's and Old_Grey_Bear's. ;-)

If XP is a game, it's a stupidly designed game. It could serve a useful purpose on PM: to encourage participation. Maybe that's not something some Monks want? Perhaps the agenda to discourage participation (and so limit the amount of competition for attention) is a real motivating factor?

I can be mean, hard as hell on newbies who show up in the cb and spout annoying drivel. Everybody who has spent any time at all in the cb must know that about me. I am no bleeding -heart- -on- -my- -sleeve softie, I believe in the power of negative reinforcement as a human motivator. I have never been in the military but have a somewhat similar experience in my background and saw firsthand the salutory effects that strict training experiences can have on the human species.

In case readers haven't noticed, I also don't care who I offend -- I will tell vroom to his face that XP as apparently defended by gods right now is stupidly conceived. If he doesn't like it, tough luck. So am I so all-consumed w/ concern about XP? Is that my basic problem (as people have imputed in the past discussions on the cb)? Not bloody likely. Let vroom or tye or chromatic revoke my PM account and block me out. Where's the theory now on "Intrepid's XP-obsessed, that's why this bothers him"? In fact, I'd like to cordially invite all the moronMonks who have said this in the cb to henceforth downvote w/o any explanation, every future node I post. OK? Please?

XP linked to downvoting is wrong, stupid, wasteful, drives people new to the Monastery away or puts them through a juvenile "hazing" experience wherein if they don't "re-educate" themselves to the Monastery's Ways on this point, they'll not be "happy" here. I haven't "re-educated" myself to the cynical viewpoint held by tye and others, and never, ever will.

People do learn by either positive or negative reinforcement, but the latter only if the negative reinforcement is meaningfully linked to a action (verbal or manifest) that the target of reinforcement has done. Without meaningful context, a decipherable causal connection that can be discerned between the thing the poster has written and the downvotes they have received, this system flies in the face of normal human expectations. These social expectations are part of the mechanisms that make society work to the extent that it does. That's why the current system at PM is cynical and foolish.

Let the downvotes begin, please. I'd like to see if I can break my existing all-time record by at least a factor of 10.

-- 
Now, 2004: The 3 least meaningful terms in online jargon are:
  troll   flame   rant
These used to mean something; but then they were highjacked by the kind of
inferior intellects who, when faced with a more erudite opponent employing
superior arguments (or simply hanging in there with a disagreeable
contention), abuse these terms as merely another form of name-calling. ;-)