Hey all... I was just looking at the Approval Nodelet && saw that it has a "Reason for consideration" input box so that a reasonable comment can accompany basically a moderation decision. This probably facilitates meta-moderation but it might also be good to have these (voluntary) consideration comments be publicly visible too so that the community can more wholly participate in moderation && hopefully Monasterial community betterment.

I realize that it might be arduous to implement but a mechanism for anyone to affix a comment or "reason" with each of their votes might be really nice. Sort of like a persistent chatterbox that is attached to each node && is a place to nicely say stuff like "ROFL", "please don't post messages like this in the future", "I couldn't agree more!", etc. Maybe "vote comments" could be a user setting or a linq to occupy some of the (typically blank) space on either side of the vote options/reputation for each node. The author might be able to reply to a comment with a /msh or even another sub-comment to point out that she was kidding or that she didn't emphacize how personal the watch was && that she'll have to go back && get it off the kangaroo (&& some poptarts && Modesty Blaise etc.). I thinq this might be a good idea.

It seems to me that /. is plagued by unaccountability. Yes, I believe that AnonymousMonks/AnonymousCowards are a necessary evil but once users are empowered with moderation, the ability to basically popularly determine what content is most worthwhile,... well that process should be in the open. Let users establish reputations for their comments as well as their voting/comments. This way, when people post homeworks or trolls try to petrify steaming grits sculptures of Portman, we know why the comments are receiving certain votes. Certain voters might be notoriously harsh etc. If moderation were visible, it would have to be accountable. There couldn't be minions of organized trolls artificially inflating karma && corrupting the utility of the system. I'm not ready to advocate forced visibility of everyone's vote history but I thinq an opt-in might prove very useful. Monks would likely give a lot less border-line "--" votes if they were visible or required an accompanying explanation etc. It might also encourage even better posts if that's possible. Well that's what I thinq anyway. I'm often wrong though so let me know if you disagree. TTFN.

-PipTigger
p.s. Initiate Nail Removal Immediately!

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