I would like to apologize for the dots in this conversation. People are voting based on their opinion, not on the level of effort and politeness put into each comment. When pressed, though, we're "better than reddit" here at hubski. shrug
It hasn't become a pattern, it is one, so far as I have observed. However, it is a better condition on hubski than reddit, because likes are inhrenetly shares, so if one person gets severely upvoted in a conversation, the person arguing against them also gets seen just as much, and not getting shares doesn't hide a person. The real danger is muting, in that aspect, and you will never know how many people are muted, and prevented from speaking in a conversation, while you can see the vote disparity.
Don't apologize for people agreeing with me. Not every opinion deserves respect for being expressed, least of all due to how long it took to write. The Turner Diaries took a long time to write, that doesn't make it a good book. I have like no idea what this guy is trying to say so I'm not going to be able to refute poorly made arguments
Why don't you both stop for a moment and think about the things that you are saying. Voting doesn't ruin a conversation more than treating the other person poorly. Try to remember that the other person is real. If this is how you both treat real people you don't agree with, try to get rid of that as well. It's not good for your health.
The worst part about this site is the haughty opinion of some users that it's more than a link aggregator. Reddit was supposed to be better than digg and it didn't fall off because people weren't making thoughtful comments, reddit got inundated by idiots. Guess what? Reddit, hubski and digg are all link aggregators. If you want to act like every opinion needs to be respected because there's a person behind it then fine but I will call bullshit on it if I think I need to. I'd do it in person too if it didn't cause social friction with people I see every day. I'm depressed and cranky but I mean everything. If you don't drive certain people away from a community it's going to suffer. There are bad ideas. I don't want to hear them.
Then please mute, filter, ignore instead of polluting the discussion with snarky insults. Right now you are the person who is being insulting and disruptive in this conversation. The nice thing about Hubski is that it allows you to neglect your own sense of self control by removing the people you dislike. Or alternatively you could keep it in your own mind. There isn't a point to add-ons like this. All they do is antagonize other people. "Calling bullshit" isn't an appropriate outlook towards social interaction. I don't care about anything in this argument. I do care about how it is conducted.There are bad ideas. I don't want to hear them.
I'm not going to be able to refute poorly made arguments
self serious joy vacuum
Not to defend Hubski but to get your thinking cap on: It's my considered opinion that there was nothing about Digg or Reddit that gave any advantage to thoughtful discussion over thoughtless discussion. I do think that Hubski has a tiny leg up: the fact that you can't vote past 8 and can't downvote at all eliminates most of the magnifiers that refine Reddit and Digg comments to the point of circlejerking. However, architecture only goes so far. At some level, if we want this place to keep from becoming a smaller Reddit we need to pay attention to what works and what doesn't.
once more with feeling: I've got most of these people ignored so I can just sort of go "libertarian circlejerk" and move on. I'm all about libertarians having their place to circlejerk and if they want to encourage and discourage and debate and disseminate and cheer on and shout down that's entirely their prerogative. What you've got here is a viable mechanism whereby it doesn't impact me. The system works. Don't fuck with it without a damn good reason.
Every time you share a post or comment, you are instead linked to a lengthy remonstration reminding you that even the smallest actions have far-reaching moral consequences. And a warning that upvoting a comment has the same legal repercussions that being accomplice to a crime carries. Or just this.