You're looking at Less Wrong's discussion board. This includes all posts, including those that haven't been promoted to the front page yet. For more information, see About Less Wrong.

falenas108 comments on Open thread, January 25- February 1 - Less Wrong Discussion

8 Post author: NancyLebovitz 25 January 2014 02:52PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (316)

You are viewing a single comment's thread.

Comment author: falenas108 26 January 2014 07:56:14AM 14 points [-]

I've been systematically downvoted for the past 16 days. Every day or two, I'd lose about 10 karma. So far, I've lost a total of about 160 karma.

It's not just somebody just going through my comments and downvoting the ones they disagree with. Even a comment where I said "thanks" when somebody pointed out a formatting error in my comments is now at -1.

I'm not sure what can/should be done about this, but I thought I should post it here. And if the person who did this is here and there is a reason, I would appreciate it if you would say it here.

Comment author: Vulture 27 January 2014 06:48:26PM *  4 points [-]

I got a seemingly one-time hit of this about a week ago. For what it's worth I had just been posting comments on the subject of rape, but a whole bunch of my unrelated comments got it too.

(Since then it's been having an obnoxious deterrent effect on my commenting, because I feel so precariously close to just accumulating negative karma every time I post, leaving readers with the impression that my ideas have all been identified as worthless by someone probably cleverer than themselves. I'm now consciously trying to avoid thinking like this)

Comment author: CAE_Jones 26 January 2014 08:49:10AM 12 points [-]

A quick look at the first page of your recent comments shows most of your recent activity to have been in the recent "Is Less Wrong too scary to marginalized groups?" firestorm.

One of the most recent users to complain about mass downvoting also cited participation in flame-bait topics (specifically gender).

Comment author: gjm 26 January 2014 10:32:46AM 1 point [-]

I would prefer to see a little less victim-blaming here.

(I'm not sure whether you intended it as such -- but that phrase "participation in flame-bait topics" sounds like it.)

Comment author: CAE_Jones 26 January 2014 10:45:40AM 9 points [-]

That was not my intention. (If it's any consolation, I participated in the same firestorm.)

Comment author: drethelin 26 January 2014 09:48:54PM 2 points [-]

How is this victim blaming? As I interpret it the claim is that the person was probably NOT the victim of systematic downvoting but instead made a lot of comments that are counter to what people like to hear, creating the illusion of same.

Comment author: gjm 26 January 2014 10:12:13PM 3 points [-]

Hard to explain getting downvoted for

a comment where I said "thanks" when somebody pointed out a formatting error in my comments

as being about saying things "counter to what people like to hear". Which is why I didn't interpret CAE_Jones as suggesting that that's what was going on.

Comment author: CAE_Jones 27 January 2014 09:48:56AM 0 points [-]

For what it's worth, I agree with gjm that "flame-bait" was a poor choice of words on my part, and I understand how it could have been taken as victim-blaming in spite of my intentions.

Comment author: pragmatist 26 January 2014 09:11:47AM *  4 points [-]

Gah... This is becoming way too common, and it seems like there's pretty good evidence (further supported in this instance) regarding the responsible party. I wish someone with the power to do so would do something about it.

Comment author: ChrisHallquist 26 January 2014 09:43:33PM 3 points [-]
Comment author: VAuroch 30 January 2014 01:09:30AM *  1 point [-]

I have experienced this also, though roughly a month ago, after an extended debate on trans* issues specifically.

I responded by messaging the person I had argued with, and politely asking that, if it was them who had been downvoting me, they please stop going through my comment history. I got no response, but the stream of downvotes seemed to tail off shortly thereafter.

EDIT: As a side note, the person with whom I had been debating/arguing was the same one that showed up in the thread ChrisHallquist linked. It looks like it's a pattern of behavior for him.

Comment author: Gunnar_Zarncke 26 January 2014 07:12:37PM -2 points [-]

I have blindly upvoted your 10 most recent comments. This is meant as consolation but likely a one-time action .