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###Does downvoting on Ask Ubuntu make Ubuntu culture more authoritarian and/or closed-minded?

###With that said, there are some real concerns about the negative effects of our reputation system.

###Are there alternatives to downvoting that should usually be used instead?

###Why not just not upvote bad posts?

Does downvoting on Ask Ubuntu make Ubuntu culture more authoritarian and/or closed-minded?

With that said, there are some real concerns about the negative effects of our reputation system.

Are there alternatives to downvoting that should usually be used instead?

Why not just not upvote bad posts?

Votes on a post are about the post and not the author. Voting up or down based on the identity of the author is actually the one kind of voting that is prohibited here.

• The problem with extrinsic motivation

This is not just a theoretical point. It has happened.

Votes on a post are about the post and not the author. Voting up or down based on the identity of the author is actually the one kind of voting that is prohibited here.

• The problem with extrinsic motivation

This is not just a theoretical point. It has happened.

Does downvoting on Ask Ubuntu make Ubuntu culture more authoritarian and/or closed-minded?

 

Being "down-voted" is somehow ancient and leads into direction like  being "pilloried".

 

Down-voting reminds me always of educators or child-care-workers like  in times before high-school (schools in time of colonialism ? --- ;o)  --- ).

Furthermore, one of the differences between the Ask Ubuntu voting system an an authoritarian "educational" system like the kind presented in Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist (and the kind that exists today, more or less, throughout many parts of the world) is that:

With that said, there are some real concerns about the negative effects of our reputation system.

The strong emphasis on reputation is a way in which Ask Ubuntu (and the Stack Exchange system as a whole) might share disadvantages with some authoritarian, reward-based "educational" practices. In short, the problem is that rewarding people for doing something often tends to send the message that it's not worth doing without the reward, and not worth excelling at except as measured by the reward.

As I've said before in other contexts, I think this just illustrates why it's important to have a variety of different resources with different communities that work in different ways. Ask Ubuntu (and the Stack Exchange system in general) has many advantages, but some disadvantages too. No one website is best for everything or in every way. The Ubuntu community is sort of a microcosm of this: we have a number of different support options including and beyond Ask Ubuntu.

Are there alternatives to downvoting that should usually be used instead?

Why not just not upvote bad posts?

###Does downvoting on Ask Ubuntu make Ubuntu culture more authoritarian and/or closed-minded?

 

Being "down-voted" is somehow ancient and leads into direction like  being "pilloried".

 

Down-voting reminds me always of educators or child-care-workers like  in times before high-school (schools in time of colonialism ? --- ;o)  --- ).

Furthermore, one of the differences between the Ask Ubuntu voting system an an authoritarian "educational" system like the kind presented in Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist (and the kind that exists today, more or less, throughout many parts of the world) is that:

###With that said, there are some real concerns about the negative effects of our reputation system.

The strong emphasis on reputation is a way in which Ask Ubuntu (and the Stack Exchange system as a whole) might share disadvantages with some authoritarian, reward-based "educational" practices. In short, the problem is that rewarding people for doing something often tends to send the message that it's not worth doing without the reward, and not worth excelling at except as measured by the reward.

As I've said before in other contexts, I think this just illustrates why it's important to have a variety of different resources with different communities that work in different ways. Ask Ubuntu (and the Stack Exchange system in general) has many advantages, but some disadvantages too. No one website is best for everything or in every way. The Ubuntu community is sort of a microcosm of this: we have a number of different support options including and beyond Ask Ubuntu.

###Are there alternatives to downvoting that should usually be used instead?

###Why not just not upvote bad posts?