Why would I cycle through multiple accounts, just to issue thumbs down?

Question

Say this accusation aloud, and see how petty you sound.

What reason would anyone have to do this? What would the end possibly be? It's not as if there is a prize at the end of the year...

Maybe people just do not care for your rotten little attitudes? I've got friends in other sections. They rarely answer in this section, but they do read over my shoulder.

And can you offer a shred of proof that this multiple account, thumbs down conspiracy, is actually happening? Prove to me that you are not a foil hat nutter. Prove to me you are not some whiny little girl.

Answer 1

I do hate the thumbs up and down. It is so meaningless and petty. I have suspected some of multiple accounts because of the sudden appearance of 5 thumbs down.



I couldn't guess who your alter egos are. Hmmm. I can't even think of a remotely likely one. With alarmists, for me, they all think alike so I wouldn't be surprised if Dana was all them. Just kidding but when I see links to skepticalscience, I have to wonder.

Answer 2

This was before my time here, but here is some direct evidence of someone running multiple accounts (expand the list of stars and see all the ones which include Jello in the name).

https://answersrip.com/question/index?qid=20070927073318AAt4uWq



For the record, I share your opinion that it's a meaningless habit. But when you spend 20 minutes researching and writing an accurate answer to what you believe to be a serious question, only to see your answer 'hidden' after 5 minutes, it can be annoying.



There is no doubt that some people do it. I've sat there, refreshing the page every 20 seconds or so, and see a thumbs down appear after each refresh, while other 'neutral' or pointless answers hold steady at 0 thumbs.



Most people probably don't do it. It may have only ever been one person doing it, but if he has 10 accounts, that's all it takes.



I also wonder if there isn't some kind of 'positive feedback' effect. If the answers to a question have very few thumbs I probably won't thumb any of them. If I see that the answers are all getting 20+ thumbs apiece I might be more inclined to participate. That's just me, anyway.

Answer 3

Harvey,



If you go into any almost other section of Answers you’re find a strong proportionality between the number of fans a person has, the number of stars their questions receive and the number of thumbs up / down that they receive.



In this section there is a gaping disparity and I’m sorry to say but it’s almost exclusively with the skeptics and deniers.



Based on averages of the data for all ten people on the leaderboard: the average believer gets 2.292 stars per question, the average for the skeptics is 1.005. The average believer has 243 fans, the average skeptic has 27. None of the believers have private profiles, all but two of the skeptics have private profiles.



Note: the figure of 27 is something of an anomaly due to the fact that only two skeptics have public profiles, the real figure is likely to be in the order of 50.



It’s very easy to work out who is abusing the system with their multiple accounts – I won’t say what techniques can be employed as this would alert the abusers to this, and no doubt they would take steps to mask the electronic fingerprints the leave everywhere.



There is one prolific abuser of the system and I think we all know who that person is due to the fact that s/he is so blatant, but also seems totally oblivious to the fact that their activity is so transparent.



It’s a very sad reflection on the people who feel compelled to give out lots of thumbs down / up, they’re effectively being forced into a position where they have to distort reality in order to comply with their own mindset. What’s more, these people gain satisfaction through their actions, and in some cases they actually believe the situation they’ve created is a reflection on reality; when that happens there’s something quite worrying going on.



This childish behaviour has become more prevalent of late and there are participants on both sides of the debate who are guilty or abusing the system. They need to grow up and face reality for what it is and not feel compelled to create their own fantasy land.

Answer 4

Harvey: And in 3 hours you've received 9 more thumbs up and I've received approximately 9 more thumbs down. You'd think that Yahoo would at least try and get a handle on this as someone is obviously abusing the system.

Answer 5

It is beyond me to understand why someone would got to the trouble to do this. Do thumbs up or down actually matter?, does best answer actually matter?



Having said that, in response to this question...

https://answersrip.com/question/index?qid=20110712124018AAmJytm



... someone, or more probably more than one person, went to quite a lot of trouble. In comparison to other questions, this question suddenly had an enormous number of both up and down thumbs.



I can't account for why this particular question would get such attention, or why anyone would bother gaming such an immaterial score.

Answer 6

>>>Why would I cycle through multiple accounts, just to issue thumbs down?



Not sure, when it comes to such a petty (to use your word) action, the reason behind it is somewhat obscure. You bring up something about a prize at the end of the year, but perhaps someone would do it just to win short term battles and hide all of the answers they simply don't like? It's PR, falsely advertising your own team's answers by making them all positively approved and your opponents disapproved by making it appear as though some sort of general public is voting on them.



>>>Maybe people just do not care for your rotten little attitudes?

>>>Prove to me that you are not a foil hat nutter.

>>>Prove to me you are not some whiny little girl.

>>>Say this accusation aloud, and see how petty you sound.



...........



Quite obviously most of the "evidence" we can provide is anecdotal. I can at least personally say that it has been mildly humorous at times to watch a question and simply refresh the page constantly to see just enough thumbs down appear in 4-5 minutes to hide all of the realists' answers, and then for some reason stop.



As to you personally doing it, I don't remember accusing you before, have others? I think either Richie or George Orwell have been the prime suspects. However, I don't think statements like this:



"I've got friends in other sections."



really help your cause, or are supposed to somehow acquit you. I have several friends in other sections too, but contrary to what you strongly imply from your statement about your own friends, they're not trigger happy.

Answer 7

They are so full of themselves that they're sure that any negative reaction to them has to be a conspiracy.

Answer 8

I don't know why you would, or if you would, but I am fully convinced that SOMEONE does. Frankly, I know there are global warming deniers on here with multiple accounts because at least one of them has admitted it to me (his old primary account is still on the top ten list for GW). There was a question from Mr. Blob where the scientifically literate answerers went from positive thumbs up to not even being shown. That was not due to random arrivals of "skeptics" looking at the question, it was due to a person or person with multiple accounts trying to censor the answers. If you wanted proof you could get I expel... to do his whiz-bang statistical analysis on the inter-arrival times of thumbs up and thumbs down, and I guarantee you he'd find artificial clustering that cannot be explained except by people with multiple accounts.

Answer 9

logic and reason escapes the liberal mind, unless they're told what to think they're likely to get it wrong than not.

Answer 10

Ensure our future.