We need to see a greater number of DUers exercise their unrec/rec fingers

[Stinky The Clown]

There are still maybe 1 out of every twenty threads that have a flat zero vote. I am certain some of them simply never got a vote. So please. Come on. Weigh in and exercise your rights and your fingers.

The above ^ was extreme sarcasm.






Back in the day (like when it took just 3 recs to get on the Greatest page) it took a really significant post to get even a rec or two. It actually meant something.

Now, every crap thread (like more than few by yours truly) gets a shitload of votes - both ways. The end result is that more threads wind up with more than five recs and it is off to the Greatest. Anyone notice how much longer that page is these days?

Quality and quantity are two different words with very different meanings.

I see this, in most cases, not as any particular commentary on the actual thread, but rather group dynamics at work. And not a monolithic group. There are the supporters and detractors of whomever the thread is about. There is the posse mentality as in when a poster known to have a point of view that isn't broadly held says something and those who see it differently come in and automatically rec or unrec. There are autoreccers and autounreccers; for any post with a given perspective, there are the usual recs and unrecs. And then there are simply fan/animus recs and unrecs; posters doing one or the other based solely on the author and not the content.

I also notice that many threads get post counts way up there, but many of those replies are just whining (on BOTH sides of the issue) about recs or unrecs. And threads like this will get the usual chorus of that select group of whiners who see themselves as intellectually superior and say they automatically unrec any discussion of rec or unrec, thereby proving the posit of this post.

I call this the rule of unintended consequences.

None of this is what the rec feature was originally intended for. People whined and said too much crap was getting clique-recced and getting on the Greatest page.

Is what we have now somehow better?

And don't get me started on the passive/aggressive and drive-by nature of it all ...... and the schoolyard mentality. There are more than a few posters (that I have personally observed) who make the overwhelming majority of their replies to threads about recs and unrecs, eschewing the need to actually string words together to form sentences that express actual lucidity.

We might all do better with less.

Or not.

[cherokeeprogressive]

1. :eyes:

[MineralMan]

8. Very nice. +1

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

2. It's pretty school-yard to bitch about something as meaningless as rec/unrec. (nt)

[AspenRose]

41. +1

[NYC_SKP]

3. done. n/t

[Vickers]

32. lol!

:spank:

K&U

[varelse]

4. I wish DU'ers would stop complaining endlessly about the rec/unrec option

It's like bitching about people cutting you off in traffic. Completely futile.

[LostInAnomie]

5. I wish people would grow up and quit whining about unrec.

It's pathetic. Adults don't need constant praise and validation.

edit: K&U

[Stinky The Clown]

6. I call it whining about whining about whining

Not to single you out, but why is your reply somehow different from my OP?

Cuz you didn't start it?

Really. What's the difference?

Which is part of my point.

[LostInAnomie]

11. Because I don't give a shit if someone unrecs it.

And I don't give a shit if someone ever unrecs me.

The unrec system does nothing to harm discussion on DU. Nothing. It doesn't limit the ability to comment on a thread. It doesn't remove opinions from the forums. It doesn't limit the number of replies a thread can get. It does nothing to keep a discussion from fully developing. That is what you are here for on an internet discussion board.

The need of some DUers to have their OPs recced is pathetic. It belies insecurity and a childish need for validation that most people have gotten over in becoming an adult. If an anonymous person unreccing your post is too much for you to handle an internet discussion board probably isn't the right place for you.

[Stinky The Clown]

14. But you still felt the need to whine about the whining.

As I see your point, an adult would not have replied here at all.

Am I interpreting you wrong?

[LostInAnomie]

30. I get tired of seeing thread after thread crying about a feature the admins have settled on.

And, I get tired of seeing the first post in thread after thread being "I can't believe someone unrecced this!!!".

This forum is for discussion of politics. Not for constantly beating a dead horse by people that can't get over the fact that someone unrecced something they wrote.

Telling someone to quit whining is not whining.

[Stinky The Clown]

34. Actually .....

.... it is ...... as is saying you're tired of something and therefor feel the need to post about it.

[LostInAnomie]

36. If you say so...

If you're willing to do the mental gymnastics to make that work in your mind, then I'll let you have it.

[Stinky The Clown]

37. Hehehehe

:)

[spiritual_gunfighter]

You both are fucking whining

What a couple of whiners.

[yawnmaster]

28. And you are whining about those two whining...

what a threesome of whiners!


:)

[spiritual_gunfighter]

29. and you are whining about me whining about those two whining!

[yawnmaster]

39. Now there are four of you whining about each other...

where will it end?!!?

[CTyankee]

44. "I hear the whiners whining each to each

I do not think that they will whine to me."

[Stinky The Clown]

48. ROFL

Ya see where this goes when carried to the absurd? This thread has amused me all afternoon.

For the two of you ..... Wine this:

[Caliman73]

7. I don't think I have ever read a post because it was on the Greatest page

I suppose I am still very new here, having joined in 2008, but the Greatest Page has never really been my marker for what the best threads are.

edited for spelling

[MineralMan]

10. I don't use the Greatest Page, either, but...

Some people do. My wife, for example, who doesn't even have a logon name here. She visits DU a couple of times a day, reads whatever she finds interesting on the Greatest Page, then goes back to doing other things.

I asked her why she didn't use the Latest list page. She said she doesn't have the time to spend, and is mainly interested in threads that others have found worthwhile. She is busy, so, I understand her point. Since I'm semi-retired, I have more time, and use the Latest page.

Apparently, then, some people do make use of the Greatest Page, so I guess it has some validity.

[Stinky The Clown]

13. I think your wife is more typical than atypical.

Again, back in the day, many people used to freely admit that the DU Greatest page was their internet home page. The best collection of news and opinion on the 'net. It was a way to see, in one place ..... well ..... the greatest posts as deemed by the posters themselves.

Now, no one admits it. I suspect they don't because a few Kewl Kids have, for whatever reason, derided it.

[MineralMan]

16. That could be. I know that it doesn't work for me. It does for my

wife. I guess we both do what works best for us, and I expect most DU visitors do the same. It still reflects the threads that have the most positive feedback, though. When I look at the Greatest page, I see mainly worthwhile threads there. Prior to unrec, though, I used to see an awful lot of "K&R This Crap" threads. I suppose that's an improvement. For me, though, it's pretty irrelevant.

[Stinky The Clown]

20. The "K&R This Crap" probably was the start of the descent to where we are ......

I don't know the answer, but back then I always thought that if we require people to actually post in order to rec (and now, to unrec) then there'd be less bullshit. People would have to wear that scarlet letter .... yanno?

[MineralMan]

22. Maybe. I just read the posts. They're either worthwhile or not.

Recs and unrecs do nothing for me. It's really a rare event when I bother with either.

[MineralMan]

17. Let's have a poll, eh? We could ask where people land when they

come to DU? It probably would get skewed, though, like most of the polls here do...one way or the other.

[MineralMan]

18. I take it all back. I just looked. There's a Boojatta

thread on the Greatest Page. All is chaos. We are truly doomed.

[Stinky The Clown]

21. Uh ......

...... help an old coot out ...... what's a Bajoota?

[MineralMan]

23. Seriously? That'll have to go in a PM...but you can see the thread.

[madinmaryland]

27. I've never really looked at the greatest page. Occasionally the Lobby,

but never the greatest page. I'll check several of my favorite forums, GD, GD:PP, Lounge, Sports, Maryland, and Genealogy, thoughout the day.

:shrug:

[MineralMan]

38. Well, I think most frequent posters follow your general path. I know

I do. I go to the Latest list, because it lets me see posts from most of the forums, and ignores the ones I never visit. I go to the Lounge when I really need a break, but not that often. GD is my main page.

The Greatest Page and the Lobby seem to be used more by those who don't really post all that much but who read threads more often than they post. In that sense, it's important, if DU is not to be just another chat forum. So, what shows up there may represent our public face to the large number of people who visit but never post. It seems a little more representative now of the general run of posts than it did before unrec was added.

There were truly a lot of those "K&R This Crap" posts on the Greatest Page, and that didn't do DU any good with those who just read here. In fact, it probably damaged DU's reputation, overall.

I don't know. I'm not really writing OPs here for internal consumption, but for folks who aren't here to post, but to read. Replies to other's OPs are generally done for the same reason. My whimsical or silly posts, though, are for internal consumption, primarily, and I do post seriously on internal DU subjects, as well.

Some people like what I write. Some people hate what I write. That seems about right, to me. If it were otherwise, I'd go somewhere else. Preaching to the choir isn't my deal.

[madinmaryland]

49. Now that you mention it, I have seen a lot less "K&R ..." type threads

over the last few months. I generally ignored those threads, because there was nothing to read, or even comment about. I guess that is a good thing about the unrec feature!

Yeah, I start with the Latest Page also.

[Fumesucker]

9. Group dynamics at work..

Absolutely, as a life long outsider I'm very much an observer of group dynamics and it's clear that there's a great deal of that going on here.

The first rule of reccing is that you don't talk about reccing.. :evilgrin:

[MineralMan]

12. I'm breaking my pattern here and clicking neither on this thread,

mostly because it isn't just whining about the feature. Unrec whine threads, I always unrec, because they're simply stupid. This is DU. It has a rec/unrec feature. That's what the owners and admins of the site decided to do. There it is. There's no point in arguing about it in public threads.

Comments about the feature sent to the admins make sense. Public threads make none.

[Stinky The Clown]

15. .....

:rofl:

[CTyankee]

19. Nobody has demonstrated to me a need for Rec or Unrec. For the life of me,

I just don't get it. So I don't do either. Neither do I use Ignore. I just, well, ignore, on my own. But at least I can understand, if dimly, that some people cannot bear to see some other DUers opinions on their screen. If they are that offensive, I can understand wanting them to go away (altho nobody on DU affects me that much because they are soon TS'd).

Of course, I don't read the Greatest page regularly and frankly, I don't care what goes/doesn't go on it.

however, I do understand that for some people these functions are important for their own personal reasons. I am now persuaded that there is a real need for DUers to have the Rec/Unrec, even if I don't understand it. It's my way of trying to be more inclusive of humanity...

[MineralMan]

24. It's only there to automate the population of the Greatest Page.

That's the only function. When it was just recs, there was a lot of crap on that page, since anyone could call in their posse to rec whatever post they made. The unrec let people object to stupid threads ending up on the Greatest page.

Beyond that, the feature has no function. Seems more, shall I say, "democratic" the way it is now. But it's a very minor issue that some have tried to blow up into something significant.

[CTyankee]

25. I guess I don't see the Greatest page as a holy shrine of anything.

But again, I see that some people here do have a need to vote on a thread's popularity and I get the posse thing (which is why I never deemed the page as very important to me). I suspect the Unrec function is different. It is not(again, my opinion) the mirror image of the Rec function exactly altho the posse psychology could also be at work. My sense is that Unrec feeds some folks real need to control the ideas they don't like. They can't ban the ideas entirely, altho they can Alert or ask the mods to lock, so they have their "vote" on the Greatest Page.

I actually kind of like these threads because I am fascinated by their sociological implications. I would be interested in hearing a sociologist chime in on one of them...:eyes:

[MineralMan]

26. Interesting. I think there are some people who use

the unrec feature to punish people they don't particularly like. There are others, though, who recommend threads just because some buddy posted them. I'm betting it balances out pretty evenly.

What I find amusing is the OP who immediately posts a whine about someone unreccing his thread, and then never bothers to notice that it later has many recommendations and is on the Greatest Page. It's all just so silly and has so little to do with the value of an individual thread. It only affects what hits the Greatest Page. That's all it does. How silly a thing to get all bent out of shape about.

[CTyankee]

33. "It's all just so silly and has so little to do with the value of an individual thread."

You just expressed it yourself! We seem to be endlessly chasing our tails with these functions. What did we all do with our time on DU before we had the Unrec function? We've sunk to a new low in irrelevancy...:shrug:

[MineralMan]

35. I disagree. Now, I've not been on DU as long as many people,

but since I've been coming here, I've seen a wide range of post types. Some are thoughtful and serious, some are dumb as a bag of steer manure, some are malicious, and some are just whimsical. All have a place, I think. Whether or not there is some function that allows people to express their approval or disapproval seems not to have affected what is posted here at all, as far as I can see.

I can't see any difference between then and now, except that there's now a new topic for people to waste their time with: unrec threads. But, there have always been time-wasting threads on DU.

Frankly, I'd like to see more threads about how we can get some folks elected to move progressive ideas through the Senate. That seems like a good subject for discussion to me. I'm not seeing much of it here, though.

[CTyankee]

40. I remember the time waster fads: LOL cats, Olive Garden, cornflake fried chicken.

And the perennial breastfeeding and circumcision threads where only the most intrepid go!

I tell ya, it's a sociological gold mine!

[MineralMan]

43. That stuff is still going strong, but it doesn't make it to the

Greatest Page too often. Since they killed all rec/unrec in the Lounge (thank goodness), we don't see that fun stuff in other places too often. There's a place for all that nonsense. When someone does post silliness in GD, though, any recs quickly get balanced by unrecs. It's one of the only ways I use unrec, to help keep crap like that inside the site, rather than on the more public pages where visitors are likely to land.

I like silly. I do silly. I think it's silly, though, and should stay more or less internal.

[CTyankee]

46. Silly is good! Altho I wouldn't characterize the breastfeeding or circumcision

threads as silly...you could get hurt in some of those threads! I came out limping badly in many of those wars...

[SidDithers]

31. I agree that it should take a really significant post go get on the Greatest ...

which is why most of the dreck posted these days is worthy of unrec.

Sid

[tjwash]

42. Whippersnappers. I remember when we had to crawl through the snow on our knees to post a thread.

Uphill...both ways. A fierce wind would be hitting us in the face, and skinner and earlg would be take turns beating us with leather straps from behind.

Today's posters have it too easy.

[Stinky The Clown]

45. And we **liked** it that way.

Dammit!

[MineralMan]

47. Damned Straight!

You kids don't know how good you've got it. Why, back in the day, I logged on to Compuserve with a 300 baud modem. Damned whippersnappers with your broadband and netbooks. I oughta...


AND GET OFFA MY DAMNED LAWN!

[A HERETIC I AM]

50. In my day we didn't even have a modem. We had to suck on a piece of damp cloth.

"We lived in a shoe box in the middle of the road. Every morning we had to lick the road clean with our tongues."

"Well, WE had it tough. We used to live in a paper bag in a septic tank. Every morning we got woken up by having a load of rotting fish dumped all over us. We had a handful of cold gravel for breakfast, went to work 'down mill for 24 pence every seventy four years and when we got home, our dad would slice us in two with bread knife."



"Luxury"

[omega minimo]

51. There are some of us who don't pay much attention, unless something is Great or Repulsive

since this was turned into a game of Gotcha rather than a simple form of recognition.