I am angry

[timwi]

I am angry so I decided to vent a bit. (Please consider to refrain from commenting until you have read the last sentence, as otherwise you run the risk of making me angrier.)

The trouble is, I don’t really know why I’m angry. All I know is that it has something to do with StackOverflow and the fact that everyone there is stupid beyond description

Comments

[pne]

I've never used StackOverflow much, but I can imagine how the reputation system would result in the situation you describe

[timwi]

Have you considered a more drastic policy in which wrong answers from “repeat offenders” simply get deleted instead of wasting time trying to set them straight? I imagine they would probably stop if they found that posting answers has become pointless because they keep disappearing.

[pne]

That’s something I’ve dreamed of, but I don’t have the power to implement such a policy.

I can imagine it would help, yes.

[archai]

You're WRONG! I found this entry interesting! HA! :P

[timwi]

Funny you should mention this downvote thing. In this question I was criticised for having cast too many downvotes and too few upvotes in proportion; but when I asked on meta whether I should be worried about this, I was told to “downvote away”...

[archai]

Interesting that a couple of the replies in the second thread mentioned that the poster didn't downvote because it had repercussions from people who got butthurt over having been downvoted. I cannot imagine why they would care; are they there to ask questions and help others, or are they there to get a higher reputation score? If severely technical questions that have nice clear-cut divisions between helpful and unhelpful are the order of the day there, they should up- or downvote as needed and let the chips fall where they may. If they're honestly voting on merit, and people can't take it, then it's time to find a new forum for their hard questions - possibly one where people know how to stand behind their actions, like adults.

[timwi]

Well yeah, but 99.99% of the people are in it for the reputation score, so they will naturally converge to a behaviour that fosters it. This means, for example, that if I downvote all the answers on a question except for my own, my answer will get retaliation downvotes, irrespective of the content of my answer. Thus I am discouraged from downvoting others on a question that I’ve answered. It’s despicable behaviour, but what can you do about it?

[karulin]

You're right on all counts anyway... :)

[timwi]

I was waiting for someone to say that. :)

[tetubass]

Your blog looks nice, even so it would be far better if you’ll be able to use lighter colors too as a professional design. This will make sure that a lot more readers come to check it out.Informative post by the way!