@IaS (was: Re: Aw, how cute :-) )

Strangely, I actually hope they don't come out of the woodwork & explain themselves ... it would drop the amusement value in my mind!

Think about it ... Outside of ElReg internal folks, only I can easily see how many "up" or "down" votes I have. These people[1], for whatever reason, are burning time down voting me ... and nobody with a life will ever know my up/down vote ratio. So what is the point? Seriously, the mind boggles.

[1] Person, actually. I'm fairly certain I know who it is (he says, just to needle it).

Re: And down another twenty since my last post, 75 minutes ago :-)

This is getting funnier ... it has started downvoting my posts from 2007. Keep in mind that those were posted before ElReg had the "voting" option. I think the fanboi is obsessed, poor thing :-)

@Jeebus ...

Just laugh it off. "thumbs" are meaningless in this context.

One wonders why ElReg implemented the concept in the first place, considering the obvious "gaming"[1] aspect ... not that ElReg's "voting" system makes any sense, given that nobody outside ElRegEmployees can see the "up" vs "down" ratio, without a good deal of work.

[1] For small minded values of "gaming", of course ... Speaking as a long-term Usenet & email-LIST moderator, I'm here to tell you that an anonymous "thumbs down" (or five hundred anonymous thumbs down) is hardly likely to change the way I post. Trying to change my habits[2] with a single bit, up or down/one or zero, isn't going to happen. Discussion has been known to work. I am educable, if the argument is rational.

[2] On the other hand, the down-voters may or may not realize that one definition of insanity is "doing the same thing, over and over, and getting the same result ... whilst expecting a different result each time".

Re: @Jeebus ...

If I piss off ultra conservatives then I'm doing something right. In the context of writing comments on a place I have no stake in it ranks quite high on the needless righteous'o'meter. Generally if you speak out against Page and Orlowski and the Daily Heil you get downvoted by those who are too ashamed to ever speak up, but not from posting anonymously.

03:35 Pacific time.

xx51 up, xx48 down. That's another 31 down. Still without an explanation for the negative flood.

(Before anyone comments ... I click the tab, and then hit F5. It's not exactly a vital part of my life ... but we do have kittens on the ground this morning, which is always a good thing.)

10:30 Pacific tiime (was: Re: 03:35 Pacific time.)

xx51 up, x(x+1)31 down. Still no explanation. One wonders what the point is. Intimidation? Doesn't seem to be working ...

Re: 03:00 Pacific time ...

jake,

I am impressed. All your recent posts on this thread have 2 downvotes, except this one with only 1. So it's either 2 people, or 1 person on 2 computers. I believe El Reg said that the system used cookies, rather than your log-in to remember votes, so if you switch computers you get another go. I wonder if that means you could write a script that flushes cookies, and allows infinite downvotes from one computer?

I really hope this person(s) has(have) written a script. Because going back through all your posts manually would be a long, long job. Just think how many times the El Reg crap log-in system would force you to re-type your email and password otherwise?

I do see a purpose for the votes though. Admittedly it can be gamed, but as long as people don't take things too seriously it can be interesting to see what people think. People willing to post are less frequent than those willing to vote. Particularly on topics where the received wisdom of the techies has supposedly been spoken, i.e. MIcrosoft = evil, Julian Assange = saint (although that's less clear-cut now). When you look at discussions of UK politics, the left often look to be in a majority. I guess it's easier to make the argument for spending more on hospitals than the one for cutting taxes. But the votes often go the other way.

Plus it's nice to give a digital round of applause for a good joke. The alternative is posting mindless +1 comments, or I agree ones, so there's another use for the vote.

07:30 Pacific (was: Re: 03:00 Pacific time ... )

xx59 up, x(x+1)84 down.

Replying to myself, sorry ... (was: Re: 07:30 Pacific (was: 03:00 Pacific time ... ))

07:32 Pacific, xx59 up, x(x+1)85 down.

Apparently, my fanboi is hanging on my every word. Seriously, dude, a downvote within two minutes of my post? Seek help.

Noon Pacific. (was: Re: Replying to myself, sorry ... (was: 07:30 Pacific (was: 03:00 ... )))

xx60 up, x(x+2)05 down.

Re: This is a new one for us.

Don't spend too much time on this, Drew. I don't really mind; if I did, I'd email ElReg out of band ... as I've said^W typed before, I don't really care about thumbs, up or down. I just find the behavior amusing, in a sad kind of way.

On the other hand, Drew ... (was: Re: This is a new one for us.)

http://forums.theregister.co.uk/post/1485672

The mind boggles ... Who on Earth would downvote that? Is it actually contributing, in the great scheme of things? Or just making noise?

Re: On the other hand, Drew ... (was: This is a new one for us.)

I just noticed yet another "thumbs down" on an obituary, along with several dozen random down votes, spread out throughout my posting history (it seems to be working around page 50 at the moment):

http://forums.theregister.co.uk/post/1511804

I didn't want to suggest it before (I honestly don't give a shit ... others might; especially industry insiders, who need coddling in fora like this ...), but removing the "voting" option from the commentards "/user" posting history is probably the easiest way of minimizing this kind of silliness.

Re: On the other hand, Drew ... (was: This is a new one for us.)

Alas this sort of thing is not un-common - I don't mind people seeing if I up-vote or down-vote them, or El Reg looking for strange voting history as we have in these cases. Disabling the voting from the user history would add a little more effort to the practice, so might be helpful, but in reality only adds a single click in most cases. Having the voting history, even the last person, might help us notice down-voting sprees ourselves.

Frankly i'm sick of the amount of ACs on here, and the stupid behaviour such as this - the shear vehemence and quantity of editorial trolling is also un-like i've ever seen on any IT site with any pretense of objectiveness; a real pity as there are a number of excellent writers on El Reg.

Anything that could be done to curb some of the nonsense would be good - quite what would work, i'm really not sure, but i'd welcome any suggestions - there is a real vindictive feel to much of this site IMO.

Re: @TeeCee (was: This is a new one for us.)

jake,

I've noticed a lack of downvotes on some of your recent posts. Has your stalker finally abandoned you? Do you not feel all lonesome and sad, now that some nerd-in-a-basement no longer feels a compulsion to anonymously disapprove your every post?

I really hope they had a script to do that. It would be truly tragic if they were doing it by hand.

Re: @TeeCee (was: This is a new one for us.)

Lasted just under 5 months, probably averaged 25-30 down votes a day during that time-frame, with days off on most weekends and major holidays for a country I'm not mentioning. A certain poster's posting history matched (exactly!) the same "quiet" days as my lack of down-votes over the last couple months. (I'm a systems integrator, I notice patterns by osmosis ... I wasn't actually looking to match a commentard to the down votes, life's too short for that kind of time-sink, but my brain works funny sometimes.)

Taking the lower bound of 25/day, it probably clicked the "down" button 3750 times. Gut feeling is no script, or there would have been more.

Miss it? I'm ambivalent, couldn't say it affects me one way or the other. I don't even consider it a successful troll on my part, because the perp remains "officially" anonymous. Besides, thumbs are meaningless, at least in my mind. That's been my position on thumbs right from their introduction. I'm the only one (outside ElReg, of course) who can easily discover my total, so when you think about it, it really doesn't make much difference one way or the other.

Re: Astonishingly, as I post at random times ... xx60 up, x(x+2)28 already.

Someone has a lot of time on their hands!!!!

Re: Oh. There you are, annonytwat thumbs-downer.

I noticed, 2 down

Don't worry I upvoted it!