re: #289 iceweasel

Precisely. Human nature being what it is, if it were anon we’d see a huge upsurge in downdings— and, sad to say, probably a decline in updings.

As it is, it works as a form of self-policing for the community. Lacking anonymity means that the people who abuse it are always exposed. Ensures accountability.

Just look at the amount of abuse that already happens— people going through a dead thread to downding others they don’t like. If that were anon, you could easily expect that in a multiple of ten. At least.

It would be interesting to see if anyone’s done a study on the comparative effects of anon karma vs. ‘named’ karma on web communities.

Yes. Not to mention people who downing you for saying hello or posting music videos on a music thread. I pulled one poster up - “unrealizedviewpoint” - last week for doing that to me. After I told him he was only exposing his own pettiness he semi-apologised and said he’d go back and fix it, which I now notice he hasn’t actually done. I think it’s bizarre that anyone would want to portray themselves in such a bad light. Definitely not a smart move.

I think I’d expect to see greater polarisation in sites that operate with anonymous karma, but It would definitely be interesting to research.