Just testing the new voting system (1 Viewer)

[isladogs]

Test thread only. I selected Question in the header. Feel free to vote if you can do so and so wish

 

[Jon]

Just replying

 

[Isaac]

I was able to upvote Jon's reply

 

[Isaac]

So far the votes don't seem to be clickable in any way that reveals who voted what. Is that correct, are they anonymous?
(Don't care one way or another just wondering).

 

[Jon]

I was able to upvote Jon's reply

Thanks. I need the confidence boost.

 

[isladogs]

Purely as a test I tried downvoting it. No meaning should be applied to that....
However the figure stayed at 2. Presumably someone else has upvoted it

 

[Jon]

I think perhaps they are intentionally anonymous.

 

[Jon]

You can downvote. It might come in handy when a Troll answers in a technical area.

 

[isladogs]

I also clicked the tick button on post #2 to mark it as the solution....but nothing seems to have happened there either.
Perhaps I can't vote as I created the thread,..or maybe I'm just incompetent!

 

[Jon]

I saw it marked as the solution. I might have unticked it. But I thought I put the tick back in there. Try ticking post #8 as the solution. That way, when you click the View solution button, it will scroll to the answer.

 

[isladogs]

Done and I've also downvoted it. This time both worked. Will change the downvote in a minute if it lets me.
Jon is now the proud recipient of most solutions (1)

My downvote has disappeared. Presumably someone upvoted it afterwards.

Does the system allow for more than one solution to be identified? Can anyone mark the best solution or just the OP?

 

[Jon]

Yes, I am. I give you an upvote for that! I think the Most solutions feature is probably a good motivator for some, since it might encourage competition!

 

[Gasman]

TBH I can see this being well abused.?
Nothing to stop someone just going through and clicking.?
I just upvoted one of your threads #5 taking it back to 0 and downvoted Colin's in #6 to -1 ?

 

[Jon]

That is one hypothesis. You might be right. But I am not sure what someone gains by doing that. I think in the whole, it will be fab.

I gave you a downvote just for kicks!

Edit: Oops, I just proved your point!

 

[Isaac]

@Gasman that's a valid point. I would say that's the one disadvantage - the possibility (or certainty, at least in some small # of cases) - that it will be used carelessly or maliciously. However, I see it as mostly a benefit - it finally acts as a counterbalance to the previous method of allowing the OP to decide what the best solution was - and that being the only measure there was.
As most other advanced development sites/forums do in fact use a voting system, populated with data from what the larger development community thinks, which to me, makes a LOT more sense than a system where the sole measure of solution-quality is left up to the OP--the very person who didn't know what they were doing (I'm generalizing there) in the first place

To me one of the marks of developer maturity is, if I am the one with the question, having the humility to learn from what larger number of experienced developers think of a particular solution, as being more important than what I think--especially if I am the one who didn't know what to do in the first place & posted the question. The voting system is a tribute to that truth, and encourages newer developers to start thinking in that way, rather than "Hey, it compiles! Ship it" mentality. It is a mark of less maturity when OP's have the mentality "I choose the first thing that someone suggests that seems to work without my computer exploding", (which is usually what less experienced OP's do), and always a good thing when one learns the discipline of researching to reveal several options, then academically choosing the best one.

Let's be honest, if a person is mostly Excel workbooks and one day starts a job on hardcore SQL server environment, they often have a harsh reality met when they get on SQLServerCentral (or whatever), and the previous mentality of "Great, that appears to work, it must be ok" - that standard suddenly is judged to be extremely low & bad, it takes some time to get used to having higher standards...but the voting system helps get them used to it and I think it's a good thing for everyone.

If the voting system were not anonymous, it might improve the quality and care of the action of voting. But if that's not part of the upgrade capabilities, it might not be an option. I mean, to really FULLY develop the concept, you need a more nuanced Reputation system and ties in with Voting privileges, but now I'm just talking too fancy, perhaps. : )

 

[isladogs]

Voting can indeed be a motivator but it can also lead to annoyances when posts are marked down for reasons unclear to the person posting.
Both SO and MSDN use voting but for the above reasons its a mixed blessing. It will be interesting to see how it works out here.
Anyway, I’m about to sign off as my phone is almost flat and its my only internet connection at present

 

[Jon]

There is the option to removing the voting down. But I think it is handy to keep, so that if the troll is let loose, then if the answers are bad, the votes can follow.

 

[Isaac]

Good points all. Hopefully, the overall net effect will be generally more helpful than bad. It will be interesting!

 

[Jon]

Just gave you an upvote.

 

[Isaac]

Just gave you an upvote.

And it feels GREAT.