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I'm going to echo the people who say that we should leave voting anonymous. We already have enough people who seem to down-vote simply because they don't like someone. I'd rather avoid some special snowflake deciding that I'm the target of their wrath this week all because I bruised their fragile ego by saying that I don't think their genius idea is actually that good.
Worst case, require a reason why you are down-voting but don't display it. Heck, require a reason for up-voting as well. Make it fair and apply to everyone. I really dislike seeing useless articles (on this site or any other for that matter) which are voted 5 star followed by a bunch of identical "Great Article!" comments. Feels like they got their little sock puppet army to bump it up for a chance at whatever monthly gold star the site offers.
Have a process in place for people who think they were wrongfully down-voted. Have a minimum threshold (10 down-votes? 20? 50%+? Just tossing out ideas), then they can submit their reason why it needs to be examined to make sure the down-votes were legit.
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Could you pin this post as the first Lounge post until the debate is closed (= until you think there is enough matter for you to decide) ? I think it would help for the visibility of the discussion.
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Rage wrote: Could you pin this post as the first Lounge post until the debate is closed
Seconded. 
/ravi
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I've got the feedback I needed - it was perfect.
I'm refining now.
cheers
Chris Maunder
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Chris Maunder wrote: it was perfect.
 I am glad you could derive something out of this overall white noise 
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Against:
Anonymous voting encourages peer review (i.e. rating articles). Peer reviewed articles are one of the most important assets of CP. Although anonymous voting also allows abuse, the majority of votes are honest ones, causing the abuse to drop off as noise. For this reason, I urge you to continue to keep voting anonymous.
/ravi
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So what if we took the coward's approach and made only upvotes non-anonymous?
cheers
Chris Maunder
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That won't hurt, but seems biased.
In any case, the article forums currently allow voters to leave an optional message to accompany their vote if they choose to do. The privacy (or lack thereof) of the vote is at the discretion of the voter, which seems fair. If I choose to advertise my vote, I can. If I choose to not advertise my vote, I can.
This seems to be (much as I hate to use the phrase) a "win-win proposition". Synergistic to the max, with cooperative web-readiness oozing from every pore. You get my drift.
/ravi
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Well, I'd happily vote for a system that publicly attached the name of the voter to the vote. It needn't be shown by default - ajaxing the list for those curious enough works perfectly fine in other places I visit.
While it does open the door to a vendetta, it also enables one to quickly ascertain whether or not to place any importance on it. All this has been said before.
I've found it works quite well in conjunction with a system that allows for users to block one another - a safeguard against troll-voting if you like. Irritate someone too many times by voting in such a fashion and they simply block you. This means you can't see or respond to anything they've written while logged-in as yourself. The block however is a two-way street. If you block someone, not only are your posts hidden to them, but their posts are hidden to you - this naturally enough provides a disincentive to vindictive blocking.
CodeProject's members are far more mature and educated than those of some other places I frequent. They are filled with all kinds of oddballs - as I jokingly say, everything from puppy-dogs to serial killers. Yet even in these places the system appears to function just fine.
The only 1 thing that I feel would be better is if the blocks were automatically cleared at a fixed interval. Perhaps quarterly or biannually would be a good interval, with the option to also clear them at will. If someone still presents a problem, you can simply block them again. On the other hand, if one or both of you were just having a bad day then what may otherwise be forgotten can be cleared and a chance for each to start anew is automatically afforded.
Being blocked by someone whose opinion you value tends to make people pull their head-in in my experience and can allow a forum to operate almost entirely without moderation.
I recall declaring some time back that I'd leave if down-voting in the lounge was removed, that obviously didn't happen - CP is simply too good. I shall continue to enjoy it regardless of the decision made, but will happily declare my preference for non-anonymous votes, which, I feel would be an experiment worth conducting. (Based of course, on the assumption that the coding effort to implement such a pair of features as blocks and named votes would be fairly or entirely trivial to implement)
"When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down 'happy'. They told me I didn't understand the assignment, and I told them they didn't understand life." - John Lennon
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After giving it quite some thought, I have decided that I don't really care that much!
My feeling is that, if you introduce it then it should be across the board, no exceptions - everyone can see a list of who voted what.
New members should not be allowed to vote up or down at all until they have reached a certain level of time/usage of the system.
Abuse of either upvoting or downvoting should be punishable by the removal to do either, and (preferably) the removal of those votes. (this would also help prevent puppet accounts being created to upvote one's own articles).
Keep the stats of each user's voting - number of UPs vs Number of Downs and perhaps publish them, too - that will be an interesting stat! And reduce the effectiveness of a vote compared to the number of items read / the number of up or down votes.
e.g. If I read x articles and down vote them all, the 'points lost multiplier' should be reduced - so the 'grumpy old git' gets less effective over time if they don't find something to be happy about.
Flag a warning if a user consistently differs from the herd in their voting (especially down votes)
Publish the data as raw data (via an API would be lovely) and have a competition to make best use out of it.
I;m thinking of a "who hates me" app and a "Ohhhh! is he your girlfriend" app.
PooperPig - Coming Soon
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Have a slightly unbalanced upvote from me. 
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_Maxxx_ wrote: I have decided that I don't really care that much!
I came to that conclusion too, but I believe that any of us "regulars" could live with whatever solution is implemented...
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great - en-masse debating . just what we need
B
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I think the question is moot. Who cares? It's not a popularity contest!
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Can I vote anonymously on this?
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Anyone can make their votes non anonymous. Just reply to the person with the number you voted. They can click on you and see who you are.
"Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to show their absence."
<< please vote!! >></div>
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Hi!
I haven't read all the replies yet.
However, here is my opinion:
1) Personal (i.e. not anonymous vote) may actually be a good thing.
2) Nobody mentioned this, but a middle ground could be that you need to provide reasons for your downvote. This should be a dialog with a large listbox at the top and an auto-complete combo at the bottom, so that common down vote reasons would come up immediately(sorted by popularity, i.e. if many people put in the same reason...).
3) Anonymous voting makes the creation of claques a lot easier, running the risk of heightening the popularity of someone who does not necessarily deserves it.
The other side has merit, too: anonymizing the vote means that I feel more free to vote as I please instead of having to defend my reasons.
I am hence much more favourable to non-anonymous votes.
A
The old developer from Hell.
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I'm a long-time CP member. Back when we had the 1-5 voting scheme, I voted on posts a lot. I eventually realized I was using net anonymity as an excuse for bad behavior. My New Years resolution that year was to never vote on a post again. If I like what someone says, I comment on it. If I disagree, I comment on it. No anonymity, and much less bad behavior on my part. I feel like my karma has improved somewhat.
Software Zen: delete this;
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You're a good man, Gary.
cheers
Chris Maunder
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Thanks, Chris  .
Software Zen: delete this;
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If you choose to stick with the anonymous path, you could make the person doing a downvote enter in a reason for it and feed it back to the poster.
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No.
People who want non-anonymous voting in any arena are always those who seeks to control the outcome. If you cannot handle the critics and the trolls then do not put yourself out there for them to come at you... this is not complicated stuff.
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Rowdy Raider wrote: People who want non-anonymous voting in any arena are always those who seeks to control the outcome
I disagree with that generalised statement completely.
Some do, some don't. Read the comments of others.
cheers
Chris Maunder
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I defy you to provide one motivation which does not align with my statement.
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I would suggest two separate voting systems: one anonymous, fast, without any comments, and a more complete option, like a review, with the score plus suggestions/criticism.
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