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Refs: "On Worst Nodes", "Worst Nodes and Making Lemonade", and "Do Not Feed the Trolls"

It's come up before, but given the recent apparent rise in trolling/vandalism is it worth considering reducing the appeal of the Worst Nodes page to trolls as a high score table?

The original ideas behind the Worst Nodes page seem two-fold -- spot notes that had been unreasonably downvoted, and provide examples of "what not to do".

There's obvious virtue in being able to spot whether a node has been unreasonably downvoted, but this probably only needs to cover nodes in the last few days, not provide an archive going back months. Further if it falls to -10 or so then it's probably being downvoted out of more than malice/mischief.

The "Worst Nodes of the Month" and "Worst Nodes of the Year" aren't collections of examples of what not to do, but rather of vandalism and abuse (for the most part, some exceptions). Newcomers wishing to improve their posting style are far more likely to benefit from being directed to (for example) "How (Not) To Ask A Question" than through looking through Worst Nodes to learn from other's bad behaviour.

Perhaps simply restricting visibility of the Worst Nodes page to (say) level 3 and above may suffice, possibly further restricting the worst of the worst to gods, janitors, and their ilk.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Trolling for Worst Nodes
by perrin (Chancellor) on Jan 11, 2008 at 14:33 UTC
    I find the current behavior very useful. If I read something and suspect I am being trolled, I just look at Worst Nodes. If the person in question has multiple entries there, he is almost certainly a troll, and not to be taken seriously.
      That works for trolls with accounts but what about posts by Anonymous Monks? Maybe those should just be excluded from the list?
Re: Trolling for Worst Nodes
by KurtSchwind (Chaplain) on Jan 11, 2008 at 12:30 UTC

    I'm not sure I agree with removing duped people, but there are a few easy ways perhaps to cut down on the 'glory' that is the worst node list.

    We've already removed the negative number from people's experience and have replaced it with 'requires penance' or somesuch. I think we could do the same for these nodes. Why not just have it say something non-numeric in the worst nodes table? We also don't need to have it sorted per se. A bad node is a bad node. Does it really matter if it's the WORST of the worst nodes as compared to the SECOND worst?

    Make those two changes and the worst node table is a quick ref of the worst nodes, in no particular order.

    --
    I used to drive a Heisenbergmobile, but every time I looked at the speedometer, I got lost.
Re: Trolling for Worst Nodes
by grinder (Bishop) on Jan 11, 2008 at 12:00 UTC

    I've always thought that the easiest way to combat this particular problem is simply to ensure that a single person may not appear more than once in any given table. Or more than once in all three tables (by adding a 'AND NOT IN (...)' clause to the subsequent week/month/year queries).

    • another intruder with the mooring in the heart of the Perl

Re: Trolling for Worst Nodes
by Argel (Prior) on Jan 18, 2008 at 02:43 UTC
    If nothing else, I think Anonymous Monks should not be allowed to see the Worst Nodes list. I'm not sure what level is a good starting point, but I would agree it needs to be at least level two. Level 5: Beadle comes to mind since that's when a user can have a homenode and can ask categorized questions. On the other hand, level 5 seems a little too high.

    I really don't like the idea of further restricing some nodes to just certain groups or levels. However, if it were going to be done I'd set the bar much lower: either Level 5: Beadle, Friar (level 10), or at worst to Saints in our Book. But as I said, I'd prefer no further restrictions.

    Update: fixed grammar and broken id:// link; slight rewording.