[Debate] Is Upvote Anonymity a good thing?

Sir ArmaMalum·Feb 21, 2014·5 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!
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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]

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13 Comments

AnonTwoFeb 21, 20145 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.

Sir ArmaMalumFeb 22, 20141 votes

Very well said. I agree that bumping with a username is a redundancy when it comes to anonymity, and pile on smurfs with that and very little times do people worry about who a supporter actually is. The factor of how 'personal' the support gets is lost behind the anonymity an online username provides.

Same goes for what the bump or vote is for, I agree there.

Now for the sake of continuing the debate, what are your thoughts in this area for Red Posts? These are not bumps and not votes, yes, but any comment at all will naturally bring a lot more attention to a thread that doesn't have a Red reply. Thus when a Rioter replies and gives this attention to a thread it's a much more personal thing for them, as they have their names, jobs and representation shown with their red name. With the anonymity of a username removed there, do you think Rioters should have anonymous voting or do you feel their own visibility shouldn't affect whether they comment or not?

ZzZosoZoosFeb 22, 20141 votes

^Bump, well said xD

HalcyonicHSFeb 21, 20143 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.

Sir ArmaMalumFeb 22, 20141 votes

I completely agree there is a whole other level of anonymity with summoner names/smurfs that halfway defeats the purpose of this debate. But that doesn't apply to everyone, new players and main accounts are still tied to who you are forum wise and what kind of reputation you can build with the name.

Myself for example, I have the unpopular opinion of preferring CB over vBulletin, and I'm vocal about it. As such, I have had several times where people who hate that opinion follow my posts and comments to downvote and troll. Negative consequences like this can make people afraid to state their opinion, especially with the CB system of having that opinion directly affect the post's visibility. I had the option to downvote these threads and move on, and others who share my view did just this.

On the other side of the coin, I stated my opinion and the negative results are always worth the ability for me to speak my mind. And I personally think everyone should be of the same mind. However, some less extroverted people can still have the decision of anonymity be an obstacle to stating their opinion, thus this discussion of what outweighs what. The ability to state your opinion without dropping your name or the enforcement of taking a (very small) risk to show support.

HalcyonicHSFeb 22, 20141 votes

It should be noted that there are still downvotes in the current vB system, with similar effects of threads being closed, or posts being hidden. And yet look at GD. I don't think anyone's holding anything back. And sometimes, I even wish they actually did.

But still, it comes back to my original point that, anonymity does not cause negative feedback, and removing it will not remove the latter either. Nor will it remove smurfs and there ability to skew the numbers. In fact, I'm not understanding your last paragraph. How does anonymity obstruct people from stating their opinion? I think that you are confusing anonymity with negative feedback, or at least using them interchangably, something which I don't exactly understand.

Sir ArmaMalumFeb 22, 20141 votes

Sorry I did not mean to imply anonymity does not cause negative feedback, but that lack of anonymity causes one to be open to it. And this in itself is still not bad thing, but can simply scare someone from putting out their opinion.

I think you misread my line of "the decision of anonymity" being an obstacle to stating an opinion. What I meant by that is the option of simply upvoting and moving on or also commenting on top of that to be more detailed in why their opinion is what it is. Sorry, i was very confusing there, lack of sleep will do that :P.

And yeah I know vBull has anonymous up/downvoting as well, but it simply doesn't have as much of an effect as voting in CB, which is why I decided to compare bumping and CB voting, because these are the things that affect post visibility and is where results are felt the most imho.

Bubble Butt LuluFeb 21, 20142 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.

Sir ArmaMalumFeb 22, 20141 votes

On the flipside though, would you as an individual mind someone knowing what threads you yourself support or are against? Do you think no one should mind that if they choose to support something or do you think have the option of anonymity is good to have for some people but not all?

Bubble Butt LuluFeb 22, 20142 votes

I mean there are ups and downs to both, but I don't see why you vote on something unless you can defend why you do or don't support it. So, no I really don't care if my votes are visible to others either.

YesImBuffFeb 21, 20142 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.

SnailedFeb 22, 20141 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.

Sir ArmaMalumFeb 22, 20142 votes

I am myself a fan of CB and I personally do not like vBulletin at all. The purpose of OP was to start general debates about the importance of anonymity on the willingness to vote at all. I was not intending yet another debate on "which is better", merely focusing on one small aspect as an example for a larger topic.