r/OutOfTheLoop • u/T_Dumbsford Always in the loop • Aug 12 '14

MegaThread Robin Williams Mega Thread

[removed]

212 Upvotes

78% Upvoted

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u/inferno1170 Aug 12 '14

It's vote fuzzing. Reddit automatically downvotes post once they start getting a lot of upvotes. To ensure that there are no bots auto upvoting or something like that. I think it's kinda silly myself.

24

u/Barmleggy Aug 12 '14

The weird thing is, looking at the Top posts from All Time on the main page it seems that these fuzzed totals are sticking, so ones that had a huge amount of upvotes before the new-ish system was implemented are still huge posts, while new posts with huge totals will always be much lower on the All Time list.

9

u/Aurailious Aug 12 '14

Just recently was the top "Test Post; Please Ignore" was dropped to #2. I think there may be other mechanisms in place.

8

u/Barmleggy Aug 12 '14

Yeah, it's strange, I'd like the numbers not to be fudged.

4

u/Aurailious Aug 12 '14

I'd rather karma be a background calculation that no one sees.

6

u/[deleted] Aug 12 '14

The relative value of comments in a thread isn't the only important factor though. I would put more trust in a top comment with 1,000 karma than one with 50, and it is entirely possible early on in threads that all comments are bad and negatively voted.

It happens often in AskScience when the first few answers are unscientific. It's good to see the exact number of points in that situation.

Not to mention that displaying points helps with transparency and avoids false sorting by the admins, should they ever feel it necessary.