Re: /msg me the reason of -- (frank)

If I have some criticism to offer on a node, then I offer it and I (usually) don't downvote it. That would be "adding injury to insult". I also don't downvote nodes just because they contain a mistake unless the mistake has already been pointed out and/or the node is listed higher (by rep) than a "better" node.

Previous "/msg me when you downvote my node" suggestions usually made me wonder how many people would continue to want that if the /msg was frank. Are you really better off with a downvote and a "/msg Jenda Your node sucks" (or similar) than just a downvote? (:

But I recall someone reporting that they tried the idea of "send a /msg with every downvote" and mostly got angry responses or retaliation downvoting. That really doesn't surprise me. If you tell me that I made a mistake, then I might thank you. If you tell me that I made a mistake and then "punch" me, then I'm going to have a much harder time taking the criticism well.

But I think a "send /msg to author" link on nodes would be a nice convenience. I'm not sure I like a text field per node -- associating it with vote button makes it too easy (I don't really want to deal with a flood of "++ on '...': great node", though the occasional one when someone feels strongly enough to go to the extra effort is great) and takes up enough space that it prevents some hoped-for improvements in vote button placement. Putting it anywhere else doesn't work well since you can't really have nested forms (and all nodes are contained in a "vote" form).

Brainstorming, I don't think a text field in the nodelets is a good idea because it would lead to a lot of response messages being mistakenly sent to the author of a parent node.

The "/msg author" link could take you to message inbox with the author filled in (message inbox still needs a spot to fill in an arbitrary monk's name so you can send /msgs w/o fear of mistyping "/msg" etc.) and a link to the node pre-loaded into the message text box (and probably not listing any messages). We'd need to be smart about not sending a message when someone mistakenly submits that page w/o adding anything to the message text. Maybe don't reuse message inbox...

I'd be less opposed to a text box per node if it only showed if the node author requested "receive easy feedback" in user settings. I'd probably require the reader to reqest "send easy feedback" too (in part to allow caveats to be displayed that the feature might go away)...

- tye

Comment on Re: /msg me the reason of -- (frank)

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Re: Re: /msg me the reason of -- (frank) by sauoq (Abbot) on Dec 02, 2003 at 00:01 UTC
But I think a "send /msg to author" link on nodes would be a nice convenience. I strongly agree. Especially with the "link to the node pre-loaded" feature. I've found that I reply directly to the author less these days because doing so is a pain. I'd usually prefer to point out a small bug or typo via a /msg rather than by replying, but it is much quicker and less error prone to just reply. -sauoq "My two cents aren't worth a dime.";	[reply]
Re^2: /msg me the reason of -- (post not poster) by Aristotle (Chancellor) on Dec 01, 2003 at 18:46 UTC
If you tell me that I made a mistake and then "punch" me, then I'm going to have a much harder time taking the criticism well. When I vote, I try to make the decision based on the node content and without regard to its author. But apparently, most people perceive a downvote as something done to them, not to their node, even if they themselves go by this voting principle - I know I am among them far too often, even though I frequently remind myself about this. Makeshifts last the longest.	[reply]
Re^4: /msg me the reason of -- (both) by tye (Sage) on Dec 01, 2003 at 18:57 UTC
Your node sucks. Nothing personal. Really. How could my node suck other than by the fact that I made it suck? Perhaps the node_id sucks or you think the stupidity of the node was introduced due to solar flares interfering with the transmission of the bytes over the internet? I'm not talking about the mistake of thinking you suck as a person because you made something that sucks. That is an easy trap to fall into, at least a little bit. But downvoting my node likely takes XP away from me. And it almost certainly is a criticism of me. Unless we are going for something like "his node really sucks, but it isn't his fault -- he had a tough childhood...."? - tye	[reply]
Re^5: /msg me the reason of -- (source of suckage) by Aristotle (Chancellor) on Dec 01, 2003 at 19:21 UTC
LOL. Well, it should be noted that this argument is about downvotes in the technical realm, ie "doing it that way is wrong", rather than the social realm, ie "you're being offensive and rude". What I was getting at is that I find it much easier to stomach "your way of doing things described in 123456 sucks" than "you suck" or even "your node sucks". Of course it's a whole different game with downvotes for social reasons. Makeshifts last the longest.	[reply]
Re^6: /msg me the reason of -- (sucks eq sucks) by tye (Sage) on Dec 01, 2003 at 19:53 UTC
Re^7: /msg me the reason of -- (you ne your actions) by Aristotle (Chancellor) on Dec 02, 2003 at 00:48 UTC
Re: Re: /msg me the reason of -- (frank) by tilly (Archbishop) on Dec 01, 2003 at 19:47 UTC
If it was me that you were talking about, then I may have given the wrong impression or you took it. Most of the time with most of my comments, people either don't respond or else they respond politely. Several times it has started very positive private discussion. Occasionally, however, people do react really badly. Two factors that people should bear in mind though. I only downvote when I have see a specific good reason, and generally I think that the author can see the merit of the complaint as well. Secondly a small number of upset people can make themselves more heard than a large number of not upset people.	[reply]


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