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[Debate] Is Upvote Anonymity a good thing?

Sir ArmaMalum·2/21/2014, 4:48:31 PM·5 votes·790 views

One thing I see as a big difference between the CB's voting system and the older forum's Bumping system for visibility is the simple fact that bumping puts your name out in the open and explicitly shows your name as someone who supports this topic, or at least wants it to be seen by others.

With the CB sorting method, upvotes here accomplish the same thing. But gives the option to do so without revealing your name at all. Without commenting you can upvote/downvote a thread without anyone calling you out on that, and that's perfectly fine. But with the sole fact that we run with summoner names and a veritable army of smurfs is this anonymity really a good thing? Bumping, imho, seems much more personal and therefore won't happen as often for the same thread because bumpers will truly believe a thread has potential. But this will mean a smaller actual number of supporters and restricting the ability to support a thread to the outgoing and vocal.

There are pros and cons to each, and I am on the fence myself. I really want to see what other people's thoughts are on this topic. Do you prefer the more personal approach of sticking your name out there? Or would you rather your opinion on a thread have the option to be anonymous?

###I hope to start debates here, but I also want everyone to respect each other's opinions. A tall order I know, but it's simple guys!

  • Don't dissmis anyone's opinions, opinions are never wrong, you just disagree with them.
  • You are free to disagree with someone always, but always do your best to explain why.
  • Don't get emotional, hopefully we're all adults here, keep it in 'debate' mode
  • Feel free to disagree with my OP as well! I love feedback, but this is a debate thread, I'll respond!
  • There is a comment reply cap! You only have a few tries to rebuttle an argue, so make them count!

As I said before, I love feedback. If you like the idea here but think it can be implemented better, please say so! Upvote for more visibility and therefore more debates, downvote if you feel this topic shouldn't be discussed, all up to you!

###All [Debates]

###Next: What defines Toxicity?

13 Comments

AnonTwo2/21/2014, 8:42:48 PM5 votes

I have to disagree particularly on the grounds that bumping is giving up your "anonymity".

The fact is that even if i were to bump 20 threads, noone really knows who "AnonTwo" is. Most players have never played with me, and aside from maybe an Lolking theres very little they have to go on as to what kind of player i am.

Furthermore, if all all i say is "bump", what am i really saying? Just that i agree with the original poster enough to bump the thread.

But how often are bumpers actually challenged for what they say? Rarely if ever.

Whether you bump by post or by vote, your anonymity for all sake and purpose is still retained, because it doesn't reallly reveal anything other than you agree enough to warrant a bump.

The only thing i would say, is that bump posting vs vote bumping requires a bit more effort, in that you have to deal with typing (given, very little) text and then going through a load time to post the message. Vote's are much faster and don't seem to be as taxing (and time wasting) in terms of load time.

It does keep the more "vocal" members of the community from having a stronger voice than the "press button and move on" crowd, i suppose. But just because you're "vocal" doesn't necessarily mean what you're saying has any weight to it. For every bumped thread about game balance, there's a bump to a "Spiderman thread", or a bump to 1 of several "nerf this champ" threads, being bumped only because most of the complainers happen to be in another thread about the same topic.

Both vote and post bumping have their pros and cons. In my opinion though so long as there's some way to get access to the unpopular opinion, vote bumping is fine. There's a time and place where both systems are good.

HalcyonicHS2/21/2014, 8:29:43 PM3 votes

I'm personally not seeing the point of this discussion. Even if anonymity is removed, smurfs will still exist. And while it may also be easier to confirm the validity of something, it's still not going to change the numbers, and I doubt that people will put in the effort to check them anyway.

I say keep the anonymity; it's something that a lot of people will probably hold dear so it'll probably cause a lot of negative backlash if it was removed.

Bubble Butt Lulu2/21/2014, 6:25:12 PM2 votes

I'd like to be able to see upvotes and downvotes just because I want to know who agrees/disagrees with me. I'm not really concerned with people with an army of accounts trying to hide thins since I only browse with the 'recent' setting.

YesImBuff2/21/2014, 11:46:20 PM2 votes

In my personal experience perusing various forums and online communities; in those communities where bumping is NOT anonymous it offers very little utility to the observer. If you were to take the time to 'investigate' who liked a certain post and learn their name/champion preference/rank/etc., I would have to ask - to what end?

On the other hand, if voters are aware of their name being on public display - regardless of whether they are actually 'investigated' - they are more likely to take responsibility for their votes and vote according to social cues (i.e., peer pressure) and cultural norms of the league.

I'm going to conclude that anonymous votes should be left as they are. The benefits of knowing what side a particular person takes are seldom, if any - and given the demeanor of an unfortunately large proportion of League of Legends players, I would expect a rise in the number of harassment cases and personal threats made.

Snailed2/22/2014, 7:10:47 AM1 votes

The problem is, is that bumping an old post that has become irrelevant then knocks good posts off the front page in a matters of seconds..

So I think upvoting is a way better system.

This way popular topics of relevance go to the top and irrelevant posts that no-one agrees with except a minorority of loud posters (like yourself) goes down the list where it belongs.