You can knowledgably vote by reading the posts and deciding on their own merit which you choose to ++ or --.
Since I'm asking the question, I presumably don't know which answer is better (I didn't know any answer, after all). I could try both, and then decide on my own, but that takes a lot of work when we have a perfectly good indicator of what everyone else thinks is best.
I'm not suggesting that rep totals should determine my vote on a matter. I'm suggesting that you can't (or shouldn't) always vote on a post, but knowing the rep would be valuable.
Update: Sorting based on reps isn't always the answer, since the posts might be in different threads (questions have been asked more than once, or perhaps the questions differ slightly). This is why
I like the idea of giving up your ability to vote on a post to be able to see it's rep (the only time I won't vote on a post is when I have no -- or ++ opinion of it, or if I don't know if it is accurate)
| [reply] |
I could try both, and then decide on my own, but that takes a lot of work when we have a perfectly good indicator of what everyone else thinks is best.
Hmmmm... I don't know about that. Simply because an answer has a higher rep than another, doesn't make it better and I would fear newbies making the mistake of thinking so.
Whenever I have ever asked questions on mass forums, I would always try ones that looked best, or looked usable. I wouldn't use something just because a group of people (from which you don't know their skill levels) seemed to think it is best. I even try answers I see on this site before ++'ing or --'ing a post simply to make sure I see it work or not work.
Anyways, I agree that knowing node X has more reps than node Y can be valuable, but I think that knowing node X has a rep of 20 and node Y has a rep of 10 can be a disservice to people using the site. Node Y may well be a better answer, a more concise answer, a more idomatic answer, etc... than node X and judging simply by vote count, IMO, would be bad.
Although the Perl Slogan is There's More Than One Way to Do It,
I hesitate to make 10 ways to do something. :-)
--Larry Wall in <9695@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
Cheers,
KM | [reply] |
Whenever I have ever asked questions on mass forums, I would always try ones that looked best, or looked usable. I wouldn't use something just because a
group of people (from which you don't know their skill levels) seemed to think it is best. I even try answers I see on this site before ++'ing or --'ing a post
simply to make sure I see it work or not work
True, and good advice, but I don't like hiding rep just because it MIGHT be misunderstood, while there is a reason why it would be good to know the rep. (Besides, what happens when you have two nodes, -10 and -15? Sorting doesn't tell you the useful parts)
Basically reputation is a means of communicating to the user, and it is hidden. There is an entire structure dedicated towards maintaining that repuation, but it's primary informative usage has been cut off.
| [reply] |
