Votes Don't Add Up

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yeah it has happened to me a few times also. i thought it might have been the browser i was using, but maybe it isn't? however if you are logged in, and if your name appears in the orble tag under the 'add a comment' section, it seems to work ok. why is that?

Comment by jon

April 27th 2007 04:47

Could you give me the URL of the post you are worried about?

We have changed it so that comments have to be of a decent length to count as a vote. Some people were leaving single character comments on their friend's posts which obviously is not in the spirit..

Comment by DuskDevi

April 27th 2007 04:48

if you are logged in, and if your name appears in the orble tag under the 'add a comment' section,

...still had the problem.
I was logged in and my Orble tag was there.
...but the vote count did not go up.

Comment by DuskDevi

April 27th 2007 04:50

www.asimplechristian.com
Post: Awesome

www.orble.com/twilight
Post: Unveiling Slowly

Comment by DuskDevi

April 27th 2007 04:52

By the way...what is the spirit?

I thought the spirit would be support..in any form.

Sometimes....a "wow" is all one can say.
By voice or by vote.

Comment by Jonathon

April 27th 2007 05:01

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just happened on this blog to me
Really Long Link

Comment by jon

April 27th 2007 05:06

Jonathan -- you left a comment there? can't see one.

DuskDevi -- it is the comment length that you are having the problem with.

Comment by Jonathon

April 27th 2007 05:08

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no no didn't leave a comment but voted for it and it only registered as one vote, or do we now have to comment for it to be counted?

Comment by jon

April 27th 2007 05:09

You have to be logged in for your vote to count, otherwise we don't know how many votes to add.

DuskDevi - you can still vote for a post and get your full Karma added to the score if you are worried about how to show your support.

Comment by DuskDevi

April 27th 2007 05:11

So now votes depend on quantity?

Quantity qualifies as quality?

How many words determine whether the comment is worthy of being counted as a vote?

I'm taken aback by this.

Sometimes I (and many others) do not have the time to leave a full page comment. Sometimes only 2 words will do. Sometimes only one word is indicative of enjoyment gained.

Comment by Jonathon

April 27th 2007 05:12

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i was logged in and still only one vote.

Comment by jon

April 27th 2007 05:13

Dusk -- see above comment. Voting takes even less time than commenting.

Comment by jon

April 27th 2007 05:15

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So it said "Logout" in the top-right corner of the page when you clicked on vote?

Comment by Jonathon

April 27th 2007 05:19

yep

Comment by DuskDevi

April 27th 2007 05:23

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I know voting takes less time than commenting but that's not my grievance.

Could you please tell me how many words qualify as being worthy of a vote?

...because sometimes I want to leave a few words to express my enjoyment or appreciation or pleasure or understanding without writing an essay.

I do this not only with 'my friends' but with 'strangers'.

Comment by jon

April 27th 2007 05:34

Jonathon - I just logged in as you and voting seemed to work fine. Can you try deleting your cookies? You will have to login again.

Dusk - I think it's around 30 characters. I'll check with Jay and get back to you. I'm sure there will now be many comments with exactly 31 characters, perhaps we could have a competition

I appreciate your point of view regarding quickly showing support, however we had to remove this gaming loophole and many forums have a similar rule. You can still show your support with a vote and a short comment.

Comment by Jonathon

April 27th 2007 05:42

techy.Bytes
Video Gamer Kids
Little Green Foosballs
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i would love to but the version of IE that i am on is in korean. damn my feeble korean! if you say it is all good, then i will go with that, and delete my cookies next time (if) it happens. i will let you know if it happens again. thanks jon.

Comment by Ahmed

April 27th 2007 08:48

before voting try refreshing the page, might just work.

Comment by Jay

April 27th 2007 11:46

Hi guys!

We've got a regular debate going on here?!

The comments only count if there are 20 ALPHA characters. If you want to leave a short comment but still want your vote to count in full a) make sure you are logged in b) click the add vote button before/after you post your comment.

Jonathon - it certainly sounds like you are having problems with cookies. We store several cookies to keep you logged in on every Orble domain and it might be that one has expired while another hasn't, which might cause the problem you describe. I would advise clearing your cookies periodically.

Laters
Jay

Comment by Jay

April 27th 2007 11:55

Hmmm - actually, looking at the votes on this post they add up perfectly:

- 10 points for the original post by JoshZ (karma: 10)

- 1 point for a vote by Damo (karma: 10 - he musn't have been logged in when he voted) followed by a subsequent comment, which didn't count for anything as he had already voted (determined by his IP address)

- 1 point for a vote by Cibby (karma: 10 - he musn't have been logged in when he voted) followed by a subsequent comment, which didn't count for anything as he had already voted (determined by his IP address)

- 10 points for the comment by DuskDevi (karma: 10)

- 7 points for a vote by Jay (karma: 7)

So the total is 29, which is correct, is it not??

Laters
Jay

Comment by Jay

April 27th 2007 12:03

And looking at the votes on this post we have:

- 10 points for the original post by JoshZ (karma: 10)

- 1 point for a rating by someone who was not logged on, I'm guessing this was DuskDevi? Subsequent comments by DuskDevi will not have been counted because a vote has already been registered against her IP address.

I think that all make sense? I know it is annoying that you can vote without being logged in but (from a technical point of view) there isn't much we can do about that. You just have to remember to look for the Logout link at the top of the page before you comment/vote.

Laters
Jay

Comment by DuskDevi

April 27th 2007 13:59

...I don't get this....

Why would a blog tag pic and Orble tag be visible if the blogger hadn't logged on?
...and even then...it automatically goes to 'community login' when previewing or creating comment.

So one has no choice but to log in.

Unless one chooses to be anonymous...or can't be bothered logging in because one is in a rush (or pissed off at young and jaded cynics) but then ones blog tag pic and ones Orble tag would not show...yes?

(Why would 'logout' be visible if I hadn't logged on?)

Why is it that prior to yesterday Thursday 27/04, I could leave a quick comment "hi", "wow" or "yuck" (if I so chose...which I have never done because I'm nice...) and my numerical karma supported my words?

...and I don't get this (maybe I'm thick...but that's highly unlikely);

1 point for a rating by someone who was not logged on, I'm guessing this was DuskDevi? Subsequent comments by DuskDevi will not have been counted because a vote has already been registered against her IP address.

I hadn't voted prior to leaving the comment.

I completely agree with the once only vote then subsequent comments don't count.
That's fair and just but this kind of confused my sense of contribution and support. And karma.

So....if I want to leave a comment with the full count of my numerical karma, I have to
a) make sure I'm logged in
b) vote
c) then write a comment

...or type "!" 20 times.

Okay. Simple.

Thank you Jon and Jay.

I need a drink.

Another one.

Comment by Jay

April 27th 2007 14:40

Actually typing ! 20 times won't help at all, since ! is not an alpha (ie - a to z) character

We introduced this addition because people were taking advantage by posting single word comments. If you want to show your support for a post you can either:

a) create a comment with more than 20 alpha (a-z) characters in

b) vote for the post by clicking on the Vote button

So you have two options. If you use (a) their post rating will DEFINITELY increase by your full karma, whether you are logged in or not. If you use (b) you'll need to make sure you are logged in - ie - the Logout link is showing - otherwise your vote is only worth 1 point.

Sorry if you do not agree with this change but we needed to something to stop people playing the system. I don't think the change we have made is particularly inhibitive?

I hadn't voted prior to leaving the comment.

Strange - maybe there is a problem? But I just commented on the second post myself and it worked fine. Can you try commenting again, just out of interest? Make sure you write more than 20 characters

Thanks
Jay

Comment by DuskDevi

April 27th 2007 22:32

techy.Bytes
Video Gamer Kids
Little Green Foosballs
PolyKicks
Qwerk
Cinema Three

Oh...I thought ALPHA characters were also non-alphabetic characters that are used like letters.

Can you try commenting again, just out of interest? Make sure you write more than 20 characters

...on that post? Okay...that's not hard.

Comment by Ahmed

April 28th 2007 12:09

yeah I'd imagine it would be pretty easy

Comment by Jay

April 28th 2007 17:22

Nice one! I'll check out the ratings on Monday

Comment by MelissaA

April 30th 2007 01:35

Ahhh, I thought I was going nuts when I saw Ahmed had just commented and my vote count hadn't gone up. I guess I have to assume there's under 20 characters then...?

Actually that's a bummer for me because most people generally leave short comments on my posts - it's a little hard to get too deep and meaningful about fun facts ; )

I'll lay odds no-one remembers to hit the voting tag AND comment - I myself only use one or the other, but pretty much never both as in the past I always used to forget!

Comment by MelissaA

April 30th 2007 04:52

OK, well now I REALLY don't get it - Ahmed came back and posted with a comment with well over 20 letters and yet it still shows up up the original 10 votes of my own!

Have a look for yourself.

The more I think about it, the more I'm with Dusk! I don't like this new system!

Comment by MelissaA

April 30th 2007 05:01

I'd just like to add that I don't see how you can think this change is particularly inhibitive. It way work in stopping some people 'playing' the system but it screws others like myself who don't play the system, up one heck of a lot.

For example:
It's actually not all that often that I get a number of comments on my post this early on in the day, but today I have so far 4 comments, (none are my own), which would have normally put the post up in the Orble top 20 for a short time at least, but it's nowhere near it, and due to the number of posts done today, my post doesn't even feature on the front page any more so nobody is going to go looking for it, if you know what I mean.

I've been pretty happy up until now to accept all of the other changes, but this one I really am well and truly not happy about.
I'm sorry if you're not happy about that, but I really feel I need to state my piece at the moment. OK, maybe something does need to change due to certain people, I just don't see why I need to be penalised in the process!

Comment by Jay

April 30th 2007 11:40

Hi guys!

I think Jon is going to comment on this

In the meantime I've changed the limit to SEVEN CHARACTERS, which should hopefully appease someone.

Laters
Jay

Comment by MelissaA

May 1st 2007 01:35

Thank you very much Jay! ; )

I am so grateful you are taking this seriously, even if I am sounding like just a huge whinger at the moment!

But I think I'll let the rest of my track record speak for itself! ; )

( ...... and maybe I won't tell you about the dream I had last night where all voting and comment counts were made redundant!) ; )

Comment by MelissaA

May 1st 2007 02:16

techy.Bytes
Video Gamer Kids
Little Green Foosballs
PolyKicks
Qwerk
Cinema Three

Actually now that I think about it, why don't you just make it that the vote number only works off votes, and comments don't add up towards the vote number at all?

Then there's no manipulation, no word limits etc and everyone is in the same boat?

Just a thought

Comment by Kleonaptra

May 1st 2007 03:08

Kalikapsychosis

In short - this sucks. Thanks for making it that bit more complex...
Even if I DO understand your reasoning....ARGH
Not everyone knows about this. People are running around supporting each other and they dont know their comments arent counting as votes. I know it caught me out because I like seeing things Ive commented on move up the list. We need a public announcement or notification or something - I came to check it out after I saw Dusks gripe on a post.
Thanks dusk - I would never have known!

Comment by Ahmed

May 1st 2007 03:15

You see it all comes down to putting undue worth to something that is absolutely worthless, who cares if your vote count is 10 or 50? No ones going to recognize you for it, you're not going to get more hits, all it shows is that there are a certain number of people who comment/vote on your blog, simple as that.

This is just a method of crowd control, to keep little micro communities from continuously hogging the popular post lists with the usual 'good job' rhetoric they exchange between each other (as far as I can tell).

The problem is someone comes to Orble and they see the popular post list as a reflection of the community, what good is it if there is no diversity in it and it's the same blog with three or four stories on it?

Comment by David

May 1st 2007 18:55

Alpha Post!!!

Comment by DuskDevi

May 2nd 2007 00:40