Quote:
I'm special enough to have a karma camper?
I rated down basically the entire thread. Someone misspelled a word while trying to point out a flaw in the stats calculation of the site, and people went off on "basqt" for another seven pages or so. It was pointless spam, and I rated it as such.
I was actually coming to this side of the site to post about this same "basqt" topic, but under the heading "Why the Karma Doesn't Work." At the time I went down and rated all of them as "awful" people started complaining. Shortly after that, people banded together to rate the spam back up. The system is broken.
People are in that thread complaining about trolls, while they are filling up the site with stupid, useless spam. Instead of asking themselves "Hey, why am I being rated down? Oh yeah, my last twenty posts have been stupid, useless spam that's making fun of someone's mistake," they just scream "KARMA TROLL!"
Then, since they feel they've been attacked by someone, without fail, the next five posts they make (whether or not the topic even talks about it) is "Oh man, I've got a troll! My karma has fallen from X to Y!" Those I will rate down also, because they're usually not accompanied by any real sort of relevant information. I think that actually, if I see "OMG my karma did so-and-so," I rate it down anyways, even if they try to hide it in tiny font with an edit.
The Inner-Workings of a Troll I assume that yes, I'll be branded as a troll, so I'll do my best to explain why I rate the way I do.
1) Is this post pointless to the topic at hand (in that forum, FFXI)? If yes, I rate it down.
2) Is this post complaining about karma in some fashion? Mostly yes, I'll rate that down also, but sometimes there is insightful information and I'll refrain. If it's "OMG my karma did..." or "Man I have a troll, blah..." I'll rate down immediately.
3) Is this response a smiley face with no other response? If that's true, then I rate it down.
4) Is this against the rules of the board? Once again, if yes, rate down.
Usually I just call them like I see them. I don't think I've ever gone through posts that are actually helpful or insightful and rated them all down, however, if the majority of posts that someone makes are useless, I will rate them down as such. Then, they cry "TROLL" and complain; and the entire process starts all over again. The system is obviously in need of an overhaul when the spam in that thread is ranked higher than actual, helpful posts.