Downvoting in the New section
31 2014-03-27 by Weltall82
anecdotal info: i've been a member of the sub active on the new section for a couple years now, and i have to say, the way it is lately is pretty ridiculous. instant downvoting of all submissions, and controlled downvoting following each upvote on certain submissions. there is little variation either day or night.
i recall the norm being that most of the content in the new section didn't receive much in the way of upvotes or downvotes often for many minutes, and the entire dashboard would be at 1:0. however, since the revelation about "reddit's flawed algorithm" demonstrating that submissions downvoted in the new section will never reach the front page, i have been seeing massive activity in the new section.
i can't really suggest anything that could be done about it, other than to go the extra bit and make sure to upvote quality content, rather than just reading it and moving along. i may be a bit of a pessimist, but unless some positive attention is given to the voting in the new section, this sub is pretty much going to be voted into being quiet 'democratically.'
11 comments
8 [deleted] 2014-03-27
introduce the "no down votes for 60mins" policy on new topics as per comments
and talk to the admins so it cannot be bypassed
4 groupuscule 2014-03-27
agreed and from the votes on this post it would seem that someone is rubbing their power in our faces
2 asharp45 2014-03-27
It's rampant, something could be done about it algorithmically, and it's quasi-allowed.
I strongly suspect there's a connection with this activity and /r/conspiritard, RES, and the administration of this site.
Trying to watch what I say, lest I be shadowbanned again, but astroturfing and vote-manipulation are very... dependent on topic.
1 Ambiguously_Ironic 2014-03-27
It's getting worse (and more obvious) by the day. It's probably either bots focusing in on key words or its just "a group of people with a lot of extra time on their hands"...
1 Sabremesh 2014-03-27
There are other sites where the usernames of up/down voters can be seen by clicking the relevant up/down arrow. A feature like this would deter both shills and morons from trying to kill new posts.
1 anotherdamnsnowflake 2014-03-27
Reddit automatically adds upvotes and downvotes to submitted stories. You could have saved yoursef the grief by looking at any of the hundred threads this has been discussed in.
1 Weltall82 2014-03-27
Thank you. As I said, I've been here for years, and I'm aware of vote fuzing. My comment remains just as worth "my grief."
-3 [deleted] 2014-03-27
Oh hey its this post again!
1 Weltall82 2014-03-27
oh hey it's this comment again!
-1 [deleted] 2014-03-27
If you're not gonna bother making a new post, why should I make a new reply!?
-2 Weltall82 2014-03-27
why repeat observations, anyway?
nah, there's no point. thanks for clearing that up.