On the Boards Hive Mind and Voting (long af w/ no tldr, only literate ppl should click this, poll)

The purpose of this post is twofold: to show that the NA League of Legends forum site is not a hive mind, and then to attempt to explain the cause of the mistaken belief that boards is a hive mind. There is no tldr; this post is not meant for the reading impaired. First, a thorough definition of "hive mind." Here is the Oxford living dictionary definition of "hive mind" followed by the dictionary.com definition.

>1. A notional entity consisting of a large number of people who share their knowledge or opinions with one another, regarded as producing either uncritical conformity or collective intelligence. (Oxford living dictionary) 2. the property of apparent sentience in a colony of social insects acting as a single organism, each insect performing a specific role for the good of the group. (dictionary.com) 3. Psychology, Sociology. a collective consciousness, analogous to the behavior of social insects, in which a group of people become aware of their commonality and think and act as a community, sharing their knowledge, thoughts, and resources or such a group mentality characterized by uncritical conformity and loss of a sense of individuality and personal accountability. (dictionary.com)

With that settled, move on to a reductio ad absurdum proof (or a proof by contradiction). Start with the thesis "Boards is not a hive mind." Then assume the antithesis "Boards is a hive mind," and show that this is absurd or impossible. For concise conclusiveness this post will demonstrate in list form that none of the above definitions apply to boards, with each proof corresponding to the above definitions in succession. What's your favorite color?

• Antithesis: Boards is a notional entity consisting of a large number of people who share their knowledge or opinions with one another, regarded as producing either uncritical conformity or collective intelligence. To make this statement a truth certain criteria must be met. For brevity let us focus on the criterion that is not met; the entity is regarded as producing either uncritical conformity or collective intelligence. If boards is a hive mind, then members would exhibit uncritical conformity or collective intelligence. As follows are some examples that show that boards does not exhibit either:

• https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/JK5526RU-darius-is-a-free-win-against-melee-champions (an example of critical nonconformity as well as a lack of collective intelligence)
• https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/hfr7QBQY-this-board-needs-stricter-ruling-in-terms-of-what-kind-of-contents-allowed (an example of critical nonconformity) > If boards is a hive mind, then it would produce either uncritical conformity or collective intelligence. However, the examples above contradict the antithesis that boards is a hive mind so we must reject it.

• Antithesis: Boards exhibits the property of apparent sentience in a colony of social members acting as a single organism, each member performing a specific role for the good of the group. Here are examples demonstrating each member does not perform a specific role for the good of the group:

• https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/player/NA/Hallbuster?content_type=discussion (topics range a wide spectrum, not specific, and are sometimes not for the good of the group)
• https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/player/na/SnakDatSmilesBak?content_type=discussion (topics range a wide spectrum, not specific, and are sometimes not for the good of the group) > If boards is a hive mind, then each member of the boards would perform a specific role for the good of the group. However, the examples above contradict the antithesis that boards is a hive mind so we must reject it.
• Antithesis: Boards is a collective consciousness, analogous to the behavior of social insects, in which a group of people become aware of their commonality and think and act as a community, sharing their knowledge, thoughts, and resources or such a group mentality characterized by uncritical conformity and loss of a sense of individuality and personal accountability. Following are examples demonstrating that boards is not a collective consciousness, as the second half of this antithesis has already been addressed with the first antithesis:
• https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/BxEKasOU-a-huge-problem-with-this-board (an example that shows a lack of commonality and group-think)
• https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/m4EMbARr-my-turn-a-rengar-rework-proposal (an example that shows a lack of commonality and group-think)
• https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/jTe884Jx-i-dont-want-to-hear-gl-hf-in-my-ranked-games (an example that shows a lack of commonality and group-think) > If boards is a hive mind, then each member would think and act the same way everyone else in the community does. However, the examples above contradict the antithesis that boards is a hive mind so we must reject it.

By providing counterexamples to the antithesis "Boards is a hive mind," this post shows that one must reject that antithesis. This leaves the thesis that "Boards is not a hive mind," and shows it to be true by reductio ad absurdum.

The above is the pith of the post, what follows is a brief discourse on what causes people to mistakenly believe boards is a hive mind (this is my opinion and is what I believe is the more important discussion as we move forward).

Most people think boards is a hive mind because of the volatile voting system. Sometimes a great post will be downvoted by a few trolls or a couple people who do not agree with the author, then the post won't be seen by most people because of a few initial downvotes. Sometimes a fallacious or paltry post gets a few quick upvotes by people who agree and rockets to a large audience because of it. Both of these occurrences are problems for their own reasons, the great post that was downvoted deserves to be read by more people and the paltry post that was upvoted is not representative of the type of content most boards members want to see. The commonality between the problems is the momentum just a few votes can generate for a post.

Therefore, I, like many before me, suggest that votes are hidden and have no effect on posts' visibility before the votes reach a set number of up or downvotes. If boards requires votes to hit a certain threshold before the votes are seen on a given post, then the post will rise or fall on its own merit and the ensuing discussion, and not on the momentum of early votes.

If you made it to then end of this, then congrats! Post your answer to the personal question I asked along with your response. That way I know who read the post and who just skimmed before commenting. Also, feel free to correct my writing in any way you want; calling all grammar nazis!