I see both mean spirited and negative OPs recc'd right after they're posted

[MrScorpio]

Unfortunately, this is nothing except reinforcement of bad behavior. For whatever reasons, I really can't explain.

Clearly, some posters are NOT using their responsibility to provide intelligent feedback responsibly.

To those of you who are so trigger happy with the recc function, (if you are willing to explain your actions) please answer to all of us; aren't you the least bit ashamed by your lack of civility?

For the sake of having an intelligent discussion in this forum, I believe that we are owed an explanation.

Thank you.

[fishnfla]

1. cuz its one quick click eom

[kirby]

2. No one is owed anything...

People do not need to justify their recommendations and neither to the unrecommendations. I would be waste of peoples time to have to post why the rec/unrec something. If the person reccing/unreccing is in the minority, they will soon be cancelled out and exceeded by the recommender/unrecommenders.

BTW, I'm unreccing this post, as I do most that contain people complaining about the rec/unrec feature. The feature was coded by the DU Admins. If people do not like it, they can find another website.

[MrScorpio]

3. Thank you, Sir Edmund Hillary. NT

[Ken Burch]

7. You do realize that that post "outed" you as a serial unrec'er, don't you?

n/t.

[kirby]

25. Not really..

I actually do not use it a great amount. I only use it when I think a post is pretty worthless. If there is something for true debate, even if I vehemently disagree with it, I do not unrec it. Recently the only unrec I have used have been Tiger Woods/Michael Jackson posts or people who bitch/moan about the unrec feature. Considering how many bitch/moan about the unrec feature, perhaps that is turning me into a serial unrec'er. ;)

[tavalon]

13. I despise the feature and made my dislike known from the get go

but I have been here a long time and there is much more that I like about this website than that one odious feature. I figure with their track record, Skinner, EarlG and Elad are entitled to an occasional fail without me picking up my toys and going elsewhere. I suppose I can't complain because MrScorpio did ask for exactly this, but, IMO, your reasoning is shallow and childish and shows well why the feature sucks. The unrec feature allows snarky cowardice, a thing we Dems don't need anymore of. I especially hate the way almost every OP's first two or three posts are devoted to bitching about the anonymous person who unrecced followed by people touting their heroism in getting the post back in the black. It's an unnecessary waste of bandwidth.

I recommend posts that I think my fellow DUer will find interesting. I never use the unrec function because, as I said, I find it childish and cowardly. If I have a problem with something someone wrote, I will engage them on their thread, in the open and not under cover of an anonymous little button.

[kirby]

26. I do not understand...

How is unreccin'g childish and cowardly? How dare you.

If I think the 13th Tiger Woods post of the day does not add to the mission, I do not feel bad unrecommending it at all. And I certainly am not going to take extra time to post why it is a waste of time.

As far as being sick and tired of the first two or three posts devoted to bitching about an unrec, I am sick and tired of it too. The solution is for the OP to stop bitching about why someone unrecced', not remove the feature. Let the process play out and a relevant post will have enough recs that drown out the unrecs.

[PBS Poll-435]

4. The *Rec* functions as an anonymous approval of whatever tripe

Can be found on Important Diverse Independent Opinion Truth-telling

websites.

[Ken Burch]

6. Which is the category in which you place ANY OP you just happen to disagree with

Because you, and only you are the correct judge of what we should and should not be discussing on this site. With all the time you spend posting here, how did you manage to create the world in only seven days?

[PBS Poll-435]

8. Wow

:rofl:


There are just no words to respond to that. Have a great night/early morning.

[Ken Burch]

5. By the same token, good-sprited and positive OP's get immediately "unrec'd"

And sometimes one person can see an OP as mean-spirited and negative while another sees the same OP as positive.

Probably some people are too fast with the button no matter what.

[tavalon]

14. Yep, I never rec until I have read the whole post

and for some of our posters, that is quite the commitment on my part but since I feel a sense of community responsibility, I'm not going to recommend to my fellow DUers that they read a post unless I feel I understand it and feel that it has something important to contribute. Though, I just realized in writing this, I have an exception to that rule. I will rec any post that tells us of a fellow members illness or heaven forbid, their death, as I want the survivors or family members who were kind enough to notify us that the DU community cares, because we actually do.

[Chemisse]

9. What difference does it make if someone recs or unrecs a negative post

It's the mean spiritedness of the OP that you should be bemoaning, not the tiny impulse that makes someone click a button.

[snot]

10. Some e.g.'s would help.

[AllentownJake]

11. Unrec for talking about rec/unrec

Seriously this has been around for over 3 months. Get over it.

[tavalon]

15. So it doesn't bug you that the first three posts of any OP

always seem to be devoted to the drama of the unrec and the rec? It gets damn tiresome and it is one of the things I tried to emphasize to our leaders. I'm not leaving by any stretch of the imagination, but the silliness wears thin. Very thin.

[AllentownJake]

16. I get unrecs on here because I have a personal fan club

Do I give a shit, no and when people talk about it within an OP, they are fishing for recs.

[tavalon]

18. But, you see, that isn't what the system is supposed to be about

I was here before the Greatest Page and in the beginning of the Greatest Page, you really could go there to get the best of DU without the extraneous chatter about dead celebrities and such. People only recced stellar posts. Then that degraded and the owners decided to try adding Unrec. But people continue to use both buttons as popularity games. Something needed to change but this doesn't work. We can, and I do, pretty much ignore the brouhaha around it, but it's really too bad that I can no longer rely on the Greatest Page to give me a view into the best of DU, a community of tens of thousands of people, but I do get to find out who the popular kids are and really, I didn't care about that in High School and I am way past that now.

[AllentownJake]

19. Here is what I find ironic

The OP has a second post complaining about the fact that MSM news articles focusing on good news (Jeez it's December why would the MSM focus on good news?) and independent journalist focusing on the negative are unreced/reced.

Well during the Bush years, I'd hardly expect much MSM nonsense to make it to the greatest page and the same independent journalist to be there. Now that we've past the age of Bush people want the independent journalist to stop being journalist?

Regardless of whether or not there was an unrec function the Greatest Page would look like that. Because the popular kids would still rec their favorite post.

The OP is mad that the DU community is not a majority of her worldview right now, so crying about unrec is the only way for her to vent about that.

[tavalon]

20. Um,

You see that friendly looking black guy in the OP's sig line area. That really is him. Hims not a her, though he is a genuinely wonderful human being with whom I had the blessing of marching in a giant but wholly unreported DC march some years back.

And actually, I think I'm the one who dragged this conversation over to the unrec problem when he was discussing the rec problem, a similar problem.

[AllentownJake]

21. I'm not doubting that the OP isn't a wonderful well intentioned person

I'm sure some of my detractors on here would be surprised at how nice I really am when we aren't talking policy, still the other OP which touts MSM sources as opposed to "independent journalist" needs to have some thought, when you are pissed off at people who got you through the Bush years for their reporting now, you need to question why what they write is pissing you off.

[tavalon]

22. I just went back and reread the OP

I don't see where he wrote what you're saying.

[AllentownJake]

23. Oops it was one of the replies

My apologies to the OP, that being said, stop talking about rec/unrec. Human nature dictates when you put a like/dislike button, a majority of the people are going to use it as a visceral response. Putting just a like button is going to result in the same human nature. The only way around it is either to not allow posters to rec/unrec without a reply or to do away with both altogether.

[tavalon]

24. We agree totally

That was exactly what I talked about when we were discussing the change. I was quite vocal that I thought that adding an unrec button to an already dysfunctional rec system was going to help not one whit. When it was decided that it would be done, I was annoyed and clearly still am, but being that this is the best, bar none, Democratic discussion forum on the net, one boneheaded decision by our esteemed owners isn't a make or break for me. I haven't discussed this since it was made policy. Our OP brought it up and I decided to vent a bit.

I'll drop it now.

[TexasObserver]

28. All that means is some think by whining they can hijack threads.

A whiners forum would be great for all the posters who can't get it through their heads that - unlike mommy - we aren't going to let them have their way just because they have a tantrum at the checkout counter.

[Posteritatis]

33. The drama'd go away if they didn't whine on their own threads within seconds of their OPs. (nt)

[tavalon]

12. I find both sides happening

Very informative articles receive immediate unrecs and some useless posts being recd. I'm not sure our current population has any idea how those buttons are meant to be used. It isn't a popularity contest but is supposed to be a way to filter the best to the top. It doesn't work all that well anymore.

[TexasObserver]

30. Maybe the admins would install a system where everyone checks with you first.

You could tell us whether each thread requires a Recommend or an Unrecommend, and then everyone would know how to vote on each thread. Otherwise, you might think it's not your decision how others should vote.

[davidpdx]

17. This place has gotten pretty mean spirted over all

There is very little intelligent discussion anymore.

[goclark]

35. It is orchestrated and mean spirited IMO nt

[TexasObserver]

27. Clearly, YOU have a personal opinion not shared by others.

The only thing wrong is that you and posters like you think all posters should find YOUR opinion about each thread the one that matters, and all should fall in line with you.

That's an absurd, self centered point of view.

I'll explain it one more time for the obstinate: You have an opinion, and once you vote it, that's all the votes you get per thread. Others will use their judgment regarding whether the thread is worthy of recommending or worthy of unrecommending. This is not complicated UNLESS you are incapable of accepting that your opinion is just one person's opinion, and may not be valid.

I recommend threads I think should be recommended and unrecommend threads I think should be unrecommended. Whether such threads are "mean spirited" or not is a matter of opinion. I think THIS thread is mean spirited and obnoxious, because you insist that others need to explain to you why they recommend threads you don't.

[Hippo_Tron]

29. Rec/Unrec only matters if you read the pages that sort threads that way

Instead, try just browsing the forums like I do.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

31. Um... are you serious?

The spastic unrecc'g of negative threads is a much better established pathology.

Sounds like you are looking for a result and finding it where it doesn't exist.

[Lilith Velkor]

32. One person's "negative" is another's "painful truth" n/t

[totodeinhere]

34. Exactly. "Mean spirited" is in the eyes of the beholder.

Some of the people who rec those threads probably don't see it like the OP does. It's called a diversity of opinion, and as long as it doesn't get too far fetched, I think it's healthy.

[Shanti Mama]

36. I don't know about the recommending, but there are plenty

of mean-spirited posts. Lots of hate, lots of name calling.

I'm fine with debate. I'd like to see us all use debating rules and see what happens. As it is now, I find DU depressing and unpleasant.

sorry you've been so badly unrec'd.