Something I'd like to see ... is being able to say "I don't want to vote on this node", which would then let you see the reputation of that node.

Yes. I've wanted a true +=0 vote for a long time. I do personally vote sometimes to see what rep a given node has. It'd be better if I didn't vote ++ or -- if I didn't think the node deserved either.

Another option would be to close voting on a node after a certain period of time (say one month) and show the reputation to everyone after that.

Yes! I was just talking about that yesterday. It'd help elimate the inflation of reps of nodes that have been around a loooong time. I would recommend a period of time longer than a month though; three months maybe.

Which reminds me of something else that would be nice: to be able to see the total vote count on a node, instead of just the reputation.

Yes, that'd be cool, too. (I have a little project related to this coming down the pipe. Stay tuned.)

Of course, keep in mind, I say all this because rep and XP are meaningless things, especially when they don't mean anything. ;-)

Which reminds me of something else that would be nice: to be able to see the total vote count on a node, instead of just the reputation.

Yes, that'd be cool, too. (I have a little project related to this coming down the pipe. Stay tuned.)

Perlmonks already stores this information and if it were meant to be public, it would be. Are you going to attempt to compute this somehow? Perhaps by some periodicp polling of the reputation to notice changes?

He's in pmdev diotalevi therefore he can put together a patch that will directly access the vote table. And I dispute the claim that "if it were meant to be public it would be" it reminds me of that old saying, "if we were meant to fly we would have wings". Neither of course are true. A little ingenuity and planning can go a long way to overcoming such issues. Whether zdogs plans come to fruition is another story of course, but until we see the patch we can't possibly evaluate its merits now can we?



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demerphq


First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
-- Gandhi

Flux8

Something I'd like to see, somewhat similar to what you're suggesting, is being able to say "I don't want to vote on this node", which would then let you see the reputation of that node.

Which reminds me of something else that would be nice: to be able to see the total vote count on a node, instead of just the reputation. This would give an indication of whether opinions on a node are generally shared among voters or whether opinions are fairly polarized.

I agree - it would certainly be nice to know how many votes were cast on a particular node instead of just the net rep value. While I like the idea of adding a "no vote" option (i.e., "I don't want to vote on this node", which is not a downvote (--)), it might inflate the total count of votes cast (depending on how it was implemented). For example, simply knowing a node's rep was +8 and a total of 24 votes were cast is not enough. It could mean that there were 8 ++ and 16 "no" votes, but it could also mean there were 16 ++ and 8 -- (or any combination in between). In the first case one might conclude there was good consensus on the node, while in the second case there is clear polarization. A workaround might be to tally and report the number of ++, --, and "no" votes seperately, but I'm sure this would entail quite a bit of work and it may not be backwards compatible.

Another option would be to close voting on a node after a certain period of time (say one month) and show the reputation to everyone after that.

I admit this thought crossed my mind, too. However, I'm not sure this would give due credit to authors that take a lot of time to compose a good tutorial (for example) - or anything else that will help newbies for many years to come learn a basic concept. Nonetheless, I agree with you, since it is logical that over time nodes with positive rep will continue to accumulate ++ votes and those with negative rep will probably continue to attract --, and eventually the magnitude of the rep loses meaning (is +150 really different from +200?). I tend to pay more attention to the rep of a node that is +25 after 2 days than one that is +200 after 2 years (although that is not to say the +200 node doesn't deserve +200 or that it is any less accurate or helpful than the +25 node). A possible workaround would be to allow different categories to have different voting periods, but this might add more complexity to the system than what it is worth.

I find the discussion in this thread interesting, but I wonder if a more complex voting system would tend to encourage people to focus even more on node rep and XP (complexity might correlate with perceived importance). As demerphq says,

XP and Node Rep are pretty meaningless things

That said, I think everyone likes to see the rep of a node they wrote go up instead of down, and I don't think anyone would turn down the XP that comes with it. :-)

Update: attributed quote to demerphq
Update: attempted to distinguish my use of "no vote" vs "downvote", per diotalevi's post

For example, simply knowing a node's rep was +8 and a total of 24 votes were cast is not enough. It could mean that there were 8 ++ and 16 "no" votes, but it could also mean there were 16 ++ and 8 -- (or any combination in between).

No, 8 + -16 is -8, not 8. You only arrive at 8 from 16 + -8. The order of the votes is invisible but you do get a total for each. This assumes you can see the number of votes on your node. That's not a power most people have.

Actually, when I said "no" votes, I meant "I don't want to vote on this node" votes, not a down vote (--). I intended the example to be: 8 ++ plus 0 -- plus 16 "didn't vote" = +8.

Sorry for the confusion!

Another option would be to close voting on a node after a certain period of time (say one month) and show the reputation to everyone after that.

I actually like that threads in perlmonks are not locked after a certain period of time. I have many times found nodes over a year old (the oldest was 2 years) that have been very helpful to me and have upvoted them because of that, one of my own nodes (OT: The WarriorMonks) still gets the occasional reply and/or ++/--, the replies I care about much more than the votes but it's nice to know someone looked at it and liked it. Also, I don't know if you meant all nodes or just certain nodes, but I'm definitely for allowing people to vote on certain long term nodes, like Tutorials or Reviews, for as long as they wish.