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Feature requests: upvote campaigning

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    (Seems unsavory to me...) I really like an answer. So I vote it up. But (since I am limited to one vote) I ask others to vote it up, too.

    A variant... Since I am limited to one up vote, I go and vote up all the other answers by the same person.

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    Voting up other answers by the same person just because you liked one of their answers is definitely bad and should not be done! The primary point of voting up and down is *not* reputation, it's communicating to other users which questions and answers are worth reading. So voting for other answers this way is very counterproductive.

    On the other hand it's totally reasonable to see a good post and think "Ah, that poster is smart, maybe they'll have other smart posts! Well what do you know, they do, let me vote up their other awesome posts."

    I think requests for upvotes are reasonable in exactly one case. Suppose a great answer is down at the bottom of a page below worse answers. Then it's a service to get the answers correctly rearranged. But I think this should be rare, after all there's already a mechanism for this: "accept answer."
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    Exactly, it's not so much "unsavory" as deleterious to the future usefulness of the page.

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    I wonder whether this is directed at me, regarding the following question:

    http://mathoverflow.net/questions/16666/does-conzf-imply-conzf-aut-c-z-2z/16683#16683

    In particular, I posted the comment: "More upvotes for Francois' beautiful answer, please!" It was clearly the best answer, and at the time I posted the comment, it appeared at the bottom of the page. (My answer appeared at the top.)

    It was my understanding that letting other people know when you think an answer is especially good was not only permitted but encouraged on MO. This is what all the +1 comments are about, isn't it?

    Please let me know if I am missing something here. I will certainly delete my comment if people feel it is inappropriate. (Although I am of course hoping that my honest enthusiasm for good mathematics is appropriate MO behavior.)
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    Like Noah said, indiscriminately voting up another person's posts should be discouraged, but I think positive comments are great. They are far more rewarding than an upvote. I don't really see how leaving a positive comment gives an answer any kind of unfair advantage. They also encourage people to vote more (internally, I imagine somebody saying "Yeah, I agree with this; I'm going to vote this up. But that other answer is also really good, so I'll vote it up too"), which I think is generally a good thing.

    I can see the argument for restricting to comments of the form "+1 this is an excellent answer" (rather than "hey, everybody! vote this up!"). I think Pete's comment is okay, though it looks out of place now that it's attached to the accepted (and highest-voted) answer, and the use of bold seems over the top (btw, why did you use $\textbf$ instead of **regular bold**? ).

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    Pete, I thought your comment fell into exactly the exception I referred to above (which is why I thought of that exception).
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    When I left the comment, the answer was the bottom voted answer (and not yet accepted). I agree that it has now had its intended purpose, so I have deleted it (although I am increasingly reluctant to delete comments for any reason).

    I didn't know about **regular bold**. As to whether I should have used bold at all............Sorry, I drifted off there and started thinking about math.
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    I think people should be encouraged to leave positive comments for answers they feel are better then "just good". I do think the preferred form of comments is closer to "+1, the reference #3 on your list makes the topic really easy for an undergraduate like me", which is a bit more useful then "Please upvote this!" (unless the circumstances are as above).

    • CommentAuthorAnweshi
    • CommentTimeMar 2nd 2010
     

    Welcome back, Ilya. Been busy a lot?

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    I campaigned for another person's answer to one of my questions here:

    http://mathoverflow.net/questions/11846/has-mathoverflow-yet-led-to-mathematical-breakthroughs/11869#11869

    and I did this principally because I had downvoted it when there was a minor error (later resolved) that I thought at the time was a major error (I had considered something very similar to the answer before and mistakenly ruled it out, and without the efforts of the answerer I wouldn't have come back to it). Then I couldn't change my vote for some reason. I wanted to make amends for this misunderstanding, and asked for someone (not necessarily 15 or so people) to upvote.

    Was this poor form?
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    In general, I will do this for a really great answer. I think that it's a sign of appreciation for the answer as well as a pointer to other people that an answer is really great. Saying "this is a great answer" and "vote this answer up" are pretty much the same, so it's really a matter of what sounds better (the first, obviously).

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    @Anweshi,

    thanks for the hello! The main reason I wasn't on MO and especially meta was about taking a break from something that probably was not so cost-effective (cost being time), especially after I started giving an advice to certain people to take a break and then realized the advice applies to me as well. Great to see you all!

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