Hi folks..

Yes, yes, I know, we've seen many many voting system change ideas. So if you're of the opinion that nothing needs changing, then just stop reading right now..

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Still with me? Ok then. I was pondering whether to explain this one from the beginning (the idea) or the end (the reasoning).. I think I'll go for the former.

Why?

Mentioning no names, I noticed this morning that a post that was, in my not so humble opinion, wrong, still had a rep somewhere around the $NORM mark. Now, it maybe that I misinterpreted it, or something, but it led me to wonder why. If we take as given that it was wrong, and still upvoted, why do people do this? Probably one of several reasons. They thought it sounded right and didn't bother to check, they generally upvote posts from this person, or they just had some votes left over.. .

What?

It's this throwing away of votes that piques me. I'm not sure if people do it because theres a bonus at the end (for those that haven't noticed, theres a bonus of 1/6 of your votes cast for using up all of them in one day, up until level 5 at least), or for some other reason, but surely these are bad reasons to vote on something. Especially if we look at Reputation as an indication of correctness.

Solution?

So, simple solution. Get rid of the bonus.

Huh?

Multiple reasons. It gets rid of the 'I just *have* to vote on something' idea. I think that is also habit-forming, so even after level 5, people attempt to get rid of all their votes. Also I believe this incentive was given when the voting system was created because there were just a bunch less users that could vote, so there was less of a range on the Rep of nodes. That's clearly not the case any more.

This morning I even went as far as to wonder if there shouldn't be a penalty for spending every last vote, but maybe that's overdoing it.. Anyhow, any of my above beliefs, conjectures and opinions may be incorrect. I haven't surveyed any of those who spend all their votes, or at least lots more than I, (I get to about 10 on a good day, from 40), so if some of those would please speak up, I'd be grateful.

We can't force people to vote sensibly, we could at least not reward them for not doing it..

C.