Mooing Tricycle
Misanthrope / Childfree
- Joined
- Jun 21, 2005
- Messages
- 6,156
- Reaction score
- 140
- Points
- 0
- Age
- 40
- Location
- Great Barrington, Massachusetts
Whats the majority say?
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Responding to email notices you receive.
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In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.
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IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! About the Google Adsense ads being displayed
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Posted 08/15/2025
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Yeah, I know. They are a pain in the butt. But they pay the bills to keep my server running. Just a fact of life, I am afraid.
Want to get rid of them? Simple. Just become a Contributor level member or above and they will be gone. -> Please click HERE."
Is that too much for me to ask of you to keep this site running? Well, sorry about that. I too wish I could get everything for free. But alas.....
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Addendum: 01/10/2026
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Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....
Do you like the Karma System?
- Thread starter Mooing Tricycle
- Start date
I like it. Green and red are my favorite colors. And I seem to be in both a few times each year!!
Southern Wolf
I don't bite..... HARD!!!
I dont really care one way or the other.... I figure with my ethics I prob wont get much bad.... and if I do... so be it. I carry myself in an ethical way and if I upset a few bad apples.... then the rest of the good will out weigh it.
IMO here is what its gonna amount to.... someone comes here to inquire if they should do business with me.... they will post a thread... and folks can speak up... chances are they are not gonna look at a green or red box.
IMO here is what its gonna amount to.... someone comes here to inquire if they should do business with me.... they will post a thread... and folks can speak up... chances are they are not gonna look at a green or red box.
Seamus Haley
Big Game Hunter
The karma system is a tool, it's not inherently positive or negative by itself- the nature of the system is determined by the users. The questions about it always strike me as boiling down to- "Is this the right tool for the job?" "Are the tool users the right people to be weilding the tool?" "Is the job even worth doing, regardless of the tools used?"
I think the system has, over the time it has been active in one form or another, been problematic as individuals apply the tool inappropriately. There are numerous examples of people who have apparantly set out to trade karma, ignoring the idea of a merit and opinion based system in favor of maximizing some numbers. There are people who have used it in a retalitory way that I don't *think* was intended when it was implimented. There have been users who respond to the karma totals in a way that seems disproportionate to their importance (based on my perspective of it's importance). The system has definitely resulted in time, attention and hassle for the mod team.
The plural of "antecdote" isn't "data." The examples of problems aren't easily weighed against the ambiguous benefits that the system might be granting to users who are simply less noisy about their satisfaction than those who are dissatisfied.
I think the tool is also used differently for different jobs by different people. Some reserve positive and negative karma for extreme posts that they approve or disapprove of the attitude inherent in. Others will likely use it directly as a method of voicing their base opinion on content. It's applied to both HOW someone expresses themselves as well as WHAT they actually express. Combine that with the varied opinions about it's importance and it has a lot of potential to be an inappropriate tool for the job.
For my part, I rarely give out karma and rarely check my own. If I agree or disagree strongly enough to share my opinion, I'll usually take the time to write out something explaining that. I regard it as being a quick way of expressing a sentiment that I (or someone else) likely doesn't feel strongly enough about to express more directly. That said, if I notice particularly frequent karma numbers related to a specific post I have made, positive or negative, I do gain some impression that whatever I expressed or however I expressed it resonated with people who read it... and that has been a guideline for me a time or two in the past that has modified my participation in the related thread.
I think the system has, over the time it has been active in one form or another, been problematic as individuals apply the tool inappropriately. There are numerous examples of people who have apparantly set out to trade karma, ignoring the idea of a merit and opinion based system in favor of maximizing some numbers. There are people who have used it in a retalitory way that I don't *think* was intended when it was implimented. There have been users who respond to the karma totals in a way that seems disproportionate to their importance (based on my perspective of it's importance). The system has definitely resulted in time, attention and hassle for the mod team.
The plural of "antecdote" isn't "data." The examples of problems aren't easily weighed against the ambiguous benefits that the system might be granting to users who are simply less noisy about their satisfaction than those who are dissatisfied.
I think the tool is also used differently for different jobs by different people. Some reserve positive and negative karma for extreme posts that they approve or disapprove of the attitude inherent in. Others will likely use it directly as a method of voicing their base opinion on content. It's applied to both HOW someone expresses themselves as well as WHAT they actually express. Combine that with the varied opinions about it's importance and it has a lot of potential to be an inappropriate tool for the job.
For my part, I rarely give out karma and rarely check my own. If I agree or disagree strongly enough to share my opinion, I'll usually take the time to write out something explaining that. I regard it as being a quick way of expressing a sentiment that I (or someone else) likely doesn't feel strongly enough about to express more directly. That said, if I notice particularly frequent karma numbers related to a specific post I have made, positive or negative, I do gain some impression that whatever I expressed or however I expressed it resonated with people who read it... and that has been a guideline for me a time or two in the past that has modified my participation in the related thread.
deborahbroadus
HARD CANDY
As Seamus said, it's a tool. Some do not use it appropriately and some do not use it at all and some abuse it.
I haven't been participating long enough to see if it's actually effective in cutting down on posts of people that haven't read threads..yet want to post and opinion. Nor do I know how effectively it deters off-topic posting. That said, as of yet, I am undecided.
I haven't been participating long enough to see if it's actually effective in cutting down on posts of people that haven't read threads..yet want to post and opinion. Nor do I know how effectively it deters off-topic posting. That said, as of yet, I am undecided.
Chandler Reptiles
New member
I voted for don't care. If someone has issues with my posts I would expect them to confront it. I have never really put any thought into the good part of the karma. I know it's there it really just never had any appeal to me. You are what you do or type in this case to me not some green dots or point totals...
I wouldn't care if the system had no influence in the attitude of the members but regrettably it does, and time has demonstrated that it's more negative than positive.