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6:00 PM
does ranting too much count as breaking the rules for the purposes of suspensions?
 
Being rude to users is abuse
 
@JanDvorak all things add up I guess
 
True.
 
@TheWobbuffet: meta is for such discussions. I can even understand that Jeremy may have thought he would be right, but after YCS' pointers, he should have deleted his answer and think for a bit about what to answer to! That is a completely valid discussion material. Many people do not want people replying to everything they can. We want to build a top quality knowledge base here where experts are the key factors for answers. Go get knowledge about something before coming to help others. — Final Contest 2 mins ago
 
The way some users abuse other users with rude comments is really annoying to me sometimes. I think the fact this is unacceptable should be made clearer. Although it's perfectly clear atm imo.
 
6:03 PM
heck, I missed a good ebay deal because of discussing this stuff :p
 
I would have outbid you for those tutus anyway.
 
@BenjaminGruenbaum: of course, I upvoted YCS' answer and downvoted the other. If the other gets another downvote, I will start the delete vote rocket.
it currently has zero score.
 
Is the answer still bad @FinalContest?
 
Ah, I see the edit was even before the comments
 
6:06 PM
well, you could argue that it does not deserve delete votes since the op is trying to answer with good intention, hopefully, but after that, meh, I would just launch the delete vote missile.
 
in Unix and Linux on The Stack Exchange Network Chat, 8 hours ago, by terdon
@strugee thing is that what Mike calls an argument, others call a fight. I can deal with that since I come from a culture that really enjoys confrontation. I can have yelling matches with my friends and we both consider it a constructive and fascinating argument while people from the Anglo-Saxon world assume we'll be knifing each other in a second.
^ relevant cultural difference
 
user163250
This makes a good canonical: stackoverflow.com/questions/7099833/…
 
@Braiam: oh, NOOOOOOES! MY CULTURE is everyone's culture!!
 
ohhhh! I didn't knew @Bart know japanese D:
 
6:09 PM
"That's the spirit.

Greg has taught you well. You have controlled your fear. Now, release
your anger. Only your hatred can destroy me.

Come to the dark side, Sarah. We have cookies.

Linus"
but this is even better: lkml.org/lkml/2013/7/13/132
 
Linus makes for hilarious quotes, but one difference is that he's the de-facto leader of a community. Not merely a member. I wonder how well such an attitude would work if it came from someone at the "lower" ranks.
 
@Bart: I am not sure what the point of that question would be.
 
user163250
What do we do about answers that don't make any attempt to solve the original poster's problem, besides downvoting?
 
@Bart also, he built the thing
 
6:13 PM
I mean, Linus does not really care about tones if others are "friendlier", whatever that means in your culture. He will treat them objectively the same way. That is not true here for YCS. His points are ignored because of some "relative tone". That is discrimination and prejudice at best.
 
He gets to be rude because everyone knows that he "knows his shit"
 
user163250
^^^
 
Yep @BenjaminGruenbaum. Exactly.
 
@FinalContest don't forget that Linus is a very friendly guy, over overseeing several huge projects and building some over more than 20 years he has been rude some times - usually when people offended things he cared deeply about, like making a commit that hurts the kernel or wasted other contributers' time. Most of the times he's actually extremely friendly and useful.
 
@BenjaminGruenbaum: so moderators know my ~1000 qt answers? You gotta joke.
 
6:16 PM
Did you build Qt?
 
@BenjaminGruenbaum: that is wrong, sorry, even if you call for "bad tone".
 
Are you a core contributer?
 
@BenjaminGruenbaum: I used to maintain a "core" module with someone, yes.
 
There is a difference between being very good at a technology and being actively a part of the group developing it.
 
anyway, you are wrong, sorry again.
he has been rude "some times" -> you clearly have not much information about Linux kernel development.
I do not call it rude at all, but let us assume it is rude, he has this style on the list all over the place.
 
6:17 PM
@FinalContest I follow the list
 
@BenjaminGruenbaum Also, he gets to be rude because he's not on SO.
 
the problem with internet is that people takes it personal...
 
@FinalContest You can go on all you want about it being "unfair" and "prejudicial" or heck, even " discriminatory", but how stupid do you have to be to time and time again run head-first into the same wall. And we're not talking a couple of posts here. We're talking an entirely different persona ago as well.
8
 
@FinalContest Naa, there is a difference between using curse words and actually being rude.
 
@Braiam: yes, exactly.
 
6:18 PM
@Bart Yup.
 
guys, one person highlighting me at a time, not 5 :p
 
@FinalContest In that case - you get to be rude on the module's support website, yes. It's technology you're offering other people for free.
@hichris123 completely agreed
 
@BenjaminGruenbaum: the whole discussion is pointless. There is no clear definition of rude.
but If I get your "rude" right, no, you do not have to be, obviously.
you can have whatever culture, personality, etc.
 
You don't have to be, but if you build something and then maintain its development and support list - you get to be rude.
 
@FinalContest I think you're forgetting the first rule of SO/SE: Be Nice!
> Civility is required at all times; rudeness will not be tolerated. Treat others with the same respect you’d want them to treat you because we’re all here to learn, together. Be tolerant of others who may not know everything you know, and bring your sense of humor.

Please note that expletives are not allowed. If you use expletives on this site, you may be issued a warning or a suspension.
 
6:20 PM
If you use a third party service like stack overflow to participate in a community, you follow the community's rules and guidelines and be a positive contributing member.
 
being rude is definitively cultural, here you can call people "bastards" plain and simple, yet the recipient doesn't feel offended
 
If you don't, being removed from the community should be no surprise.
 
@hichris123: that is a relative statement: what is rude?
 
@hichris123 Oh he knows :p
 
@hichris123: I expect the same treatment to me, and I am not rude. That is, if someone tells me rightfully I am completely wrong, I will apologize if it is true.
 
6:20 PM
@FinalContest oh come on now, you know YCO's MO
 
@hichris123 btw, my rudeness tolerance level is very high...
 
Calling people 'stupid incompetent hacks' and telling them their solution is factually incorrect are two very different things.
8
 
when people tell me I'm being rude, the same words directed at me won't make me feel offended
 
I cannot follow all the replies here and respond to them, sorry, so I will go for a tea. ;)
 
Enjoy your tea :)
 
6:22 PM
but anyway, I do not know what "YCO's MO" means.
and the guy in question was not an average case when we are all nice.... it was an outstanding case feeling no mistake, need for apology, gratitude, shame, etc.
 
P.s. @FinalContest, if you're at all interested in part of the history here, going back all the way to at least 2010, read some of the material here.
 
"modus operandi". how he typically acts/operates.
 
@FinalContest Modus Operandi - mode of operation. How he goes about participating in SO
 
@Bart: well, no material can make "rude" absolute since it is by definition and inherently cultures. It is an emotional statement, not scientific.
some people greet each others as "hey bastard" because that is the way they like it and they do not like "pussies" saying hello, so what :)
 
That's far too convenient a dismissal
 
6:24 PM
both groups should accept each other.
 
@FinalContest in my opinion - it is defined by the person being offended. There is no strict definition for "sexual harassment" either, I don't get that point.
 
Sure, culture is relative, no one can make judgements about anybody else, yadda yadda. YCS is rude. To say otherwise, after seeing the corpus, is ludicrous.
 
Your Common Overflow.
:D
 
or abusive, I should really say.
 
@MichaelPetrotta: well, I cannot have the opinion you are abusive?
I do not think so, but let us play with the thought.
 
6:26 PM
All that said - I like YCS. I think he calls a lot of people on their BS, I'd definitely go out to a beer with him or consider him for a web development job in PHP. I just don't think that rudeness has a place in SO, and it's not new.
 
then we will spend our time throwing shit at each other rather than being objective?
 
You can have any opinion you like, @FinalContest. If you're the only person that has it, it's not worth a whole bunch.
 
well, it is clear that 1/3 disagree with 2/3 in this case.
is it worth throwing the shit all the way down rather than focusing on the merit of the post, the actual valid concern?
 
What valid concern?
 
@FinalContest How about this: would a majority of the internet/of people think it's rude? If so, don't post it.
 
6:28 PM
what YCS raised about ignorant people replying to everything they can(not).
 
the internet have to recognize that you can't ever make everyone happy... is just impossible; and the fact that the standards of what is appropriated are set without taking into account cultural differences is counterproductive in a place where too many cultures converge
 
user163250
I spent more time closing crap Git questions than I did actually answering interesting ones today :P
 
@FinalContest ok - this is good, what do you think we can do about it?
 
@hichris123: nice dictatorship; what country do you live in where you have to think the same as the majority? :p
 
6:28 PM
friction will always arise
 
I think that people are too afraid to downvote, and that there is no clear mechanism to bring attention to a post. For example what if I have a gold badge on a tag I should be able to bring attention to an answer I believe is wrong? (If the person who posted it doesn't have a silver badge on the tag themselves)
 
@FinalContest you don't have to think the same. But if you want to change something at all, you first have to make sure you're actually heard.
 
@FinalContest I live in the US, actually. But no, why would you want to offend half the internet? I mean, seriously?
 
it is like saying that the majority loves facebook, so I should not have distressful opinion about it.
 
So there are two issues I see here:
 
6:29 PM
@hichris123: it is their decision to get offended.
 
1) People should be encouraged to down vote bad answers more
2) It should be easier to bring bad answers that have a positive score to attention
 
@hichris123 the problem with that, is that the other half considers that they are not being offended
 
@BenjaminGruenbaum: I would like to see binding delete votes for gold badges in a tag.
 
I think we delete and close too much and don't vote enough.
Deleting is supposed to be for abusive answers and edge cases, not for answers I don't think are great but are attempts to answer the question.
 
btw my ratio of comments:downvotes is almost 1:1 in my most active site... but those are counting votes on deleted posts and without deleted comments
 
6:31 PM
I think deleting honest attempts to answer the question is very dangerous, if you could get people to look at the answer and get more people to downvote it - the problem is solved in a much less abusive way.
 
@BenjaminGruenbaum: well, I have always argued against leaving crap answers around ever since.
 
user163250
@BenjaminGruenbaum sometimes is hard to get people to review and downvote answers though...well, often, actually.
 
Why? Leave a comment explaining why they're bad, downvote it and move on. What if there is a possibility that you misunderstood the question?
@Cupcake I completely agree, how can we fix this?
 
@BenjaminGruenbaum: then other gold badge holder can undelete it.
 
user163250
Make answer downvotes free? Never going to happen though.
 
6:33 PM
What if downvoting was free if I have a gold badge in the tag?
 
btw @Cupcake, correct me if I'm wrong, but a merging branches is the same as a commit, no?
 
or 10/20K users.
 
user163250
@BenjaminGruenbaum I actually like that idea.
 
user163250
But again, unlikely to happen.
 
@BenjaminGruenbaum: NOOOOOO!!! PLEASE.JUST.NO!
 
6:33 PM
@BenjaminGruenbaum No.
 
@FinalContest why?
 
user163250
Even high-rep gold badge users can be abusive.
 
@BenjaminGruenbaum repwhores will benefit the most
 
@JanDvorak how so?
 
@BenjaminGruenbaum: because I get 20-30 unexplained downvotes per month already for mostly upvoted answers.
 
6:34 PM
@JanDvorak How do you figure that?
 
I really do not want to open up the already broken downvoting system more.
 
@FinalContest So you have gold-badge users in the Qt tag downvoting you?
 
@Bart who has the most rep while still caring about a difference of 1?
 
@FinalContest that's weird....
 
It's not going to happen, but what if non-anonymous downvotes from gold badge owners on answers on the tag were free?
 
user163250
6:34 PM
@Braiam merging branches always results in a commit. You'll either get a commit with a single parent, or a merge commit with 2 or more parents.
 
@JanDvorak ... gold-tag-badge members?
 
@Braiam: that is not weird, the system is fundamentally flawed.
@Braiam: it is the same for YCS, H2CO3, etc.
 
@Bart repwhores
 
we have all gone through this who leave critics with downvotes.
 
@JanDvorak @BenjaminGruenbaum can correct me if I'm wrong, but he only seems to be suggesting this applies to those members who have a golden tag-badge ...
Unless I utterly missed the point
 
6:35 PM
Oh, @Final did you ever delete-vote that question of mine?
 
meh, 80% of my downvotes in one site are from only 3 users, I just don't give crap because I get 8 users upvotes on the same posts
 
@hichris123: I do not care now about your question; we are discussing more important topics; come back later (short answer, no, I ran out in the morning).
 
@Bart That seems to make abuse a lot easier. High-rep users are as open to abuse voting as lower-rep users.
 
@Bart yes, I understood it that way too.
You can only downvote a small amount of posts by a user anyway before it gets reversed, or so I heard
 
the trick @FinalContest, is getting enough people that really know and can offer you constructive critic to help you
 
6:37 PM
@BenjaminGruenbaum: ~60 downvotes per month per user .... that is not small amount.
 
But @FinalContest, you are the one who argued that gold-tag-badge users should get even more power than the duplicate-vote. And now you don't trust them with regular votes?
 
@Bart: correct
 
I still think that the problem is down voting is not encouraged enough
 
anyway, the whole discussion is on the wrong track, really.
 
9 mins ago, by Benjamin Gruenbaum
1) People should be encouraged to down vote bad answers more
2) It should be easier to bring bad answers that have a positive score to attention
3
 
6:39 PM
if you want to start the overhaul, start it with the downvote system and mandatory explanation with optional anonymity.
 
What if it was possible for gold badge owners to flag answers for review?
 
minutes of the argument:
- people should be encouraged to vote more
- we still don't agree in anything else
- Bart disagrees
 
@BenjaminGruenbaum Sounds sensible. Though number 2 quickly has the problem that we don't really want to encourage a mob-mentality ...
@Braiam I disagree with those minutes
 
Valid point.
 
I disagree with Bart's disagreement about those minutes.
:D
 
6:41 PM
@Bart there
 
What if reviewing it was anonymous, and by 5 other silver badge owners?
 
@BenjaminGruenbaum: why I am going mad on SO has one simple reason. That is pretty much the only and very reason for when I am going mad.
 
user163250
Bart, you're going to make me run out of stars again.
 
@FinalContest what reason?
 
I do not think I have been really mad ever if that major flow does not exist.
@BenjaminGruenbaum: unexplained downvotes.
 
6:42 PM
Really? That's what's bothering you here?
 
it is like a rotten apple in the core.
 
Sorry @Cupcake. I'll try to reign in my brilliance.
 
Yes, that is the most important crazy driving factor.
 
I don't think so, I think there are far worse things that need to be fixed, but that overall the system is working really well.
 
user163250
@BenjaminGruenbaum anonymous downvote reviews by silver badge holders sound significantly worse than your first proposal.
 
6:43 PM
@FinalContest I love issuing unexplained downvotes, in fact, I already explained them, but the 20th time you have to tell the same user the same thing is tiresome
 
@BenjaminGruenbaum: what's that
 
I get downvotes sometimes, sometimes it's revenge downvotes for commenting on other posts, sometimes it's just random... so what?
 
[ SmokeDetector ] All-caps title: STARTUP SCREEN COLOURS on blender.stackexchange.com
 
Yep @Braiam.
 
@BenjaminGruenbaum: BECAUSE IT IS NOT CONSTRUCTIVE.
 
6:44 PM
@FinalContest the things that bother me the most is that quality control is not strict enough (i.e. not enough votes either down/up), bad new questions and the the fact people sacrifice quality for rep.
 
oh wait, that may be considered inappropriate language, lemme edit it...
 
@FinalContest seriously, why?
 
@FinalContest should have used bold there. I don't think you're serious about it now
 
I've considered spinning up a sock puppet secondary account, just to explain the downvotes I issue from my primary. To avoid the fun revenge downvotes immediately after.
 
What @FinalContest is trying to say it that it sucks balls. At least, that's what I think he's trying to say.
 
6:45 PM
So you got downvoted, so what? My oldest question has accumulated some downvotes, and my popular questions/answers too. It's annoying, but it's not a lot of rep and it doesn't hurt the questions/answers that much.
It's all about building a high quality resource.
 
@BenjaminGruenbaum: well, quality control is a serious issue, but that is not messing with your contribution directly, hence that is the second most important on my list. That is just omission anyway, not non-constructive by itself for your contribution.
 
@MichaelPetrotta you'd need 50 rep. If you don't want downvotes just take the "chicken road" and say "I didn't downvote but..." although I hate doing that.
 
@BenjaminGruenbaum the problem with those votes is that makes you wonder what kind of quality are voters searching for...
 
Would it be very ironic if I brought this discussion full circle by suggesting that some of the unexplained downvotes @FinalContest gets are because of tone?
 
@BenjaminGruenbaum, one good answer, or five mediocre ones.
 
6:46 PM
@Braiam downvotes are by members with at least 125 rep, they didn't like something you did most of the time or your answer is actually wrong.
 
I absolutely hate "I didn't downvote but..."
 
user163250
@MichaelPetrotta that's actually a brilliant idea.
 
user163250
That should be allowed, shouldn't it?
 
user163250
As long as you don't use it for voting fraud.
 
for all I care, you can downvote all my java answers... heck, I hate myself for posting them D:
 
6:47 PM
@Cupcake, I'm pretty sure, yep.
 
The voting system is broken in so many non-constructive ways. I cannot believe people are happy with it, but they apparently are (well not all of them, of course).
 
@FinalContest Not necessarily happy, but accepting.
 
@BenjaminGruenbaum: please do not lie.
 
@Braiam hey!
 
if you downvoted, do not say you do not, you are making it even worse...
 
6:48 PM
@FinalContest God Stack Exchange gave me lemons votes, I make lemonade what I feel like
 
@Bart: show me "bad tone" in my critics.
 
@FinalContest It depends on what your goal is
 
but on the other hand, do not show because it is pointless, downvotes are not for comment "tone differences".
 
user163250
By the way, with regards to explaining downvotes...
 
user163250
33
Q: Enable Optional Anonymous Reasons for Downvotes on Questions

CupcakeYes, I'm revisiting this, again, despite the many times this issue has already been discussed (see Related for links). People keep asking for it. Note that I'm restricting this discussion to explainations for downvotes on questions only, not answers. The Last Serious Solution to This Problem is...

 
user163250
6:49 PM
That's sort of still on the table.
 
user163250
Oh wait.
 
user163250
I specifically made that just for questions, not answers.
 
@BenjaminGruenbaum: my goal is not to lie, but be honest.
that post from Cupcake makes me really sad again.
 
@FinalContest my goal is a high quality resource where programmers can easily get solutions to their problems and get back to making cool stuff. I honestly don't care that much about rep or about downvotes except when those interfere or help that goal.
 
6:51 PM
@Cupcake: thanks for breaking my day :D
 
The fact some people will be assholes not constructive is a given, you can't please everyone. Not everyone is here to be a contributing member, some people are just here to get help to their problem or to accumulate rep for their CV or whatever.
People being not constructive is annoying - but it's a fact of life. I think that if we get other people to peer review them more it's a win win.
 
Another excellent answer was torpedoed that would fix the fundamentally flawed downvoting system. Can I just say SIGH? — Final Contest 1 min ago
oh, that is "rude" because it is different.
 
@BenjaminGruenbaum Heck, 99% is simply here because they googled a problem and they couldn't care less about the site.
 
you're the only person who's called that rude, @FinalContest.
 
6:54 PM
@MichaelPetrotta: wrong
 
... because
 
I will not explain, sorry.
You do not deserve explanation. :D
 
I will not buy this tobacconist, it is scratched
 
This hovercraft is full of eels.
 
Well, the thing is that my two comments were removed yesterday, which I imagine would have been "friendlier" in your values based on my perception.
heck, both answers were even locked because the OP and me did not agree with the over-zealous moderators. :D
 
6:56 PM
@FinalContest They were OT to the post. We went over this again, and again, and again.
 
See? This is exactly what I am saying.
 
So you're referring to another issue entirely than the comment you just quoted @FinalContest? I'm confused.
 
@Bart: well, I criticized two answers, and as usual, I gave downvote reasons for the downvotes right under the answers.
both were removed without hesitation.
 
Okay. Not what I thought you were referring to. Back on track. :)
 
user image
5
 
7:00 PM
This answer completely misses the point. Encouraging is not a replacement for being mandatory. They are different levels, one is fundamentally b0rked, and the other is actually preventing the mess. Furthermore, votes have no value without reasons. Now, real reasons in comments do have values that tell the reader why that answer is wrong. Anonymous downvoting is a genius idea if it is only mandatory when you do not upvote a comment that already explains the flaw with the answer. — Final Contest 2 mins ago
 
and with that, another chapter about how much the system sucks is closed, thanks for your participation, we hope to see you all for the next presentation
 
"Man of the match is @rene, for staying the hell out of this mess. Fan favorite is @Cupcake for being very much like a cupcake"
 
goes to eat a cupcake
 
@TheWobbuffet: come on, I thought you would be more objective after nominating yourself for a moderator role earlier this year. "Attacking" is "relative" and it usuallly is the side-effect of someone deciding to get offended rather than feeling sorry and apologize for the mistakes and then clean up. — Final Contest 39 secs ago
 
avenges @Cupcake eating @hichris123
 
7:06 PM
/me looks away from the blatant cannibalism
 
@Bart you notice?
 
@rene the silence was deafening
 
@rene is preparing for the Holland match.
 
@Braiam Actually, I don't have any cupcakes at home. :(
 
user163250
@hichris123 consume at your own risk. I might be a little stale and moldy.
 
7:09 PM
@FinalContest I'm all set: the door and windows are open, I hope the neighbours will cheer enough so I can make up the number of goals scored while I'm trying to understand/catch up on what is happening in this room...
 
@BenjaminGruenbaum: well, there is another fundamental flaw with crap... err, stack overflow.
 
@rene watching on the intarwebs here. Which is pretty annoying when the bar across the street starts screaming a minute before I see what happened.
 
Wait. Laszlo?
 
it seems that Laszlo guy is famous :D
 
Infamous @FinalContest. Glad he's gone.
:)
 
7:13 PM
@Bart It gives you plenty of time to switch windows...
 
windows is bad, use Linux ...
 
@FinalContest I'm talking the UI concept here...
 
understood :D
 
@FinalContest You can stick with your commandline / bash shell thingy...
:-)
 
7:14 PM
VT, you mean :D
anyhow, I have one hour to play some music before the match ...
 
@JanDvorak Promotion to watch The Netherlands vs Costa Rica?
 
yep
 
@FinalContest ?
@Bart what happened?
 
@BenjaminGruenbaum Laszlo == Final Contest
 
Ah, I suspected that, but you kind of threw me off with the comment there.
 
7:18 PM
He changed his name in light of all the unexplained downvotes I think. But I kept downvoting him anyway ... they .. they kept ... ah dammit
 
I'm never going to explain my downvotes to Laszlo or to Final
 
7:53 PM
This whole downvote comment thing is reminding me of back in the day when I played games built with java :/ on yahoo games.. If one of the jerk players got the queen of spades they would stall up to 3 minutes before laying their card every time, making a game take over an hour instead of 10 minutes..
Which is similar to reputation, since their is no real value to the score you could gain on there. SO is no where close to as bad as that was. Yes, sometimes people revenge downvote and crap, but it's likely only a one time thing, and not on going, and it's just so useless to get all angry about losing a few reputation points one day because of some jerk.
 

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