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Designated "Expert" Forum Users?

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Nominal Animal:

--- Quote from: thm_w on February 18, 2022, 11:34:02 pm ---
--- Quote from: Nominal Animal on February 18, 2022, 11:22:19 pm ---What is the purported value of such indication of disagreement?

--- End quote ---

Value being, if you see a post that has 10 disagreements and no agreements, then likely the information is not accurate and can be ignored.

Of course, its not a common occurrence, but it could apply to trolls or "unintentional" trolls and mostly in the beginners section.

--- End quote ---
That is incorrect, in my experience on Stack Overflow/Stack Exchange.  You are associating unpopularity with inaccurate, and experience shows the two are not correlated at all in discussion forums.

A much more realistic scenario is that answers that do not immediately tell the asker what to type or put into their design or which button to press, get downvoted.
Members whose approach or tone is perceived as unpleasant, answers that are perceived as too long or too hard, will get downvoted because of nontechnical reasons.

I know this, because it happened to me at StackOverflow and StackExchange.  Whenever I engaged an Expert in comments pointing out an error in their answer, I'd get random downvotes in my other answers for the next week or so.  Not by that Expert themselves, I don't think, but by arselickers who believe that Authority Knows Best, and arguing with or pointing out an error their Favourite Authority made is impolite and deserving of retaliation.  (You know, like when at university, when you asked a tough question from some lecturer, and you'd get some very hostile, deadly stares from other students, because I'm Audaciously Interrupting the Authority.)

I have had about a dozen email contacts about my various answers at StackOverflow (Linux + C questions), each one in a topic where I have at most one or two upvotes, where they found my answer extremely useful.  This indicates to me that the Vote counts are absolutely NOT RELATED to the usefulness of my answers.  They only reflect the popularity of that answer.

Even here on EEVBlog, I've participated in threads (see Programming and Microcontroller sections) where the original asker has been initially quite hostile towards my advice, and given half a chance, would have silenced me.  Only thorough patient perseverence and examples have I gotten them to understand their problem, and the details of my suggested solution.  If downvotes were implemented, and you'd trust them to indicate anything, I'd be silenced in these.

Is the intent to remove members like myself, and push answers towards StackOverflow/StackExchange "tell the OP what they want to hear, or your popularity will take a hit" culture?

cdev:
Very good point. Even when I am asking questions, whatever answer I get even if its off topic, I learn something, and thats the most rewarding thing about being here.

xrunner:
Thanks can be “withdrawn” too ya know, as I’ve indicated below my “counter”. People: don’t ever diss me or I’ll go back and un-thank every thanks I ever gave you!

Come to think of it my count seems lower than it used to be …

 :-DD

thm_w:

--- Quote from: Nominal Animal on February 19, 2022, 12:56:48 am ---That is incorrect, in my experience on Stack Overflow/Stack Exchange.  You are associating unpopularity with inaccurate, and experience shows the two are not correlated at all in discussion forums.

A much more realistic scenario is that answers that do not immediately tell the asker what to type or put into their design or which button to press, get downvoted.

--- End quote ---

Yet that doesn't happen here.
Almost any time someone says "OP, you need to post more information, or explain what you are trying to do before we can answer" they get a positive response.

As I noted, theoretical "downvotes" are only relevant in that thread, to that post. Outside of that they should have no meaning or value.

Gregg:
The thanks that really count are the posts by the OP sincerely thanking a forum member for their input / help. If there were some way to link this style of thanks to a member’s profile, it could be helpful.  Maybe a member could go to their own profile and select a thread that person set up and select an option to add a “special thanks” post to their thread that would also show up as part of the profile for those being thanked.  In addition, this thanks post could be edited by the OP to add others to the thanked list and with each new addition moved to the last entry. 
In other words, positive reinforcement for on topic help as viewed by the person helped. I can see a downside where the overly thankful member might need interference from the mods to permanently disable this feature from his profile.  Also recipients of such thanks should be able to delete them from their profile.


--- Quote ---it is not always the result that matters; it can be how you got there that matters most
--- End quote ---
The path to finding the answer in many cases the real learning experience that can be helpful for a lifetime.  Just getting a quick expert answer is a lot like having an older sibling do your homework for you rather than learning the concept

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