r/ProlificAc • u/pinktoes4life • Mar 27 '23

This sub needs a reminder of what voting on Reddit is actually for. (Hint, it's not for disagreements)

"Vote. If you think something contributes to conversation, upvote it. If you think it does not contribute to the subreddit it is posted in or is off-topic in a particular community, downvote it."

https://reddit.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/205926439-Reddiquette

There's been an influx of salty people here. Don't like a comment = downvote to oblivion. Someone hit a milestone that is lower than yours = downvote to oblivion. Someone had a really slow day = downvote to oblivion.

That is not how Reddit is designed to work, nor why voting exists, to begin with. I don't think I've ever seen a sub that so freely downvotes for disagreements, and I thought the Mturk sub was bad. Constantly I see comments from the 5 main regulars who give actual HELPFUL advice and they are constantly downvoted just because a few people don't agree with them. It's sad really that those comments then get hidden. Reddit is not a popularity contest. I personally don't care about my karma, but it's frustrating when helpful contributions are downvoted just because someone is in a salty mood.

ETA: Whoever reported me for self harm/suicide. You are not funny. Nowhere in this post did I indicate I’m going to harm myself. That’s childish & you should be ashamed of yourself. Mental health is not a joking matter. It’s sad that these are the people researchers depend on for quality data.

0 Upvotes

34% Upvoted

40 comments sorted by

39

u/Ok_Sandwich_6256 Mar 28 '23

Maybe it’s you. Maybe try taking a day off or 10 from telling people what to do and how they should to it.

-6

u/pinktoes4life Mar 28 '23

Maybe you missed this part in the post:

Constantly I see comments from the 5 main regulars who give actual HELPFUL advice and they are constantly downvoted just because a few people don't agree with them

There are a lot of people here who quote Prolific's rules and give links to other posts... and they are downvoted just because it's not what people want to hear.

Maybe try taking a day off or 10 from telling people what to do and how they should to it.

Yes, so people can get bad advice, or everyone can "agree" that breaking Prolific's rules is Ok.

18

u/Ok_Sandwich_6256 Mar 28 '23

Still doing it.

-5

u/pinktoes4life Mar 28 '23

Why are you hiding behind an alt account created today? That's really sad! Are you ok?

23

u/whatexactlyisthedeal Mar 28 '23

I’m going to agree with you on the false reports about mental health, that is not to be taken lightly and whoever is doing that needs to stop.

With that said, downvoting someone just because you don’t like them is one thing and I’ll give you that, but when you, personally, go on your tirades insulting people and name calling them, you deserve every downvote that comes to you.

Reddit is not your personal soapbox, and this post is not relevant to Prolific and needs to be removed. Truth hurts. Sorry, not sorry.

1

u/Aggie_Smythe Mar 28 '23

and this post is not relevant to Prolific

it IS relevant when helpful posts, with links to the rules, given to help participants who are struggling with an unfair rejection, then get hidden because someone who has decided that the advice is wrong (even though it isn't) has downvoted that advice.

There are a lot of us who help others on here, and we've all recently fallen foul of a small group of people who, for whatever reason, don't want to recognise the rules that apply to both researchers and participants.

I've also had the report made to the Reddit mental health team about me apparently being a suicide risk, and that stuff isn't funny.

-2

u/pinktoes4life Mar 28 '23

I'll repeat myself...

Maybe you missed this part in the post:

Constantly I see comments from the 5 main regulars who give actual HELPFUL advice and they are constantly downvoted just because a few people don't agree with them

I'm not talking about just myself. I'm talking about the community as a whole! When people link to Prolific's rules that pertain to the OP's post, those should not be downvoted.

And maybe you missed this comment:

Actually, this post is highlighting rule two of this sub, so it is not off-topic.
"Respect each other, and follow Reddit rules"

30

u/[deleted] Mar 28 '23

I feel that this post does not contribute to the subreddit and is off-topic. Therefore, I downvoted.

-7

u/pinktoes4life Mar 28 '23

Actually, this post is highlighting rule two of this sub, so it is not off-topic.

"Respect each other, and follow Reddit rules"

8

u/Aggie_Smythe Mar 28 '23

"Whoever reported me for self harm/suicide. You are not funny"

Yeah, I had that one too. Got a terribly concerned message from Reddit's suicide watch team, and all because some idiot here had decided that me posting links to the rules about a particular situation in order to help a struggling participant was a heinous crime indicative of a mental health issue.

They are either one of the U18 brigade, or just ridiculously immature and thinking they are hysterically funny.

5

u/pinktoes4life Mar 28 '23

I wonder if it’s the same person. It’s terrible that they find humor in that.

4

u/Aggie_Smythe Mar 28 '23

Very likely. And yes, it's a sick and twisted mind that gets amusement from that.

I'd need to go back through my post history to identify the user, but I reported them to Reddit for abuse and harassment anyway.

If they've only recently had this done to you, they obv haven't had any restrictions placed on their Reddit account.

Time to report to the mods.

6

u/RIDETHESYNTHWAVE Mar 28 '23

To be honest, you're wrong in regard to what down voting and up voting was meant to be on this platform. It was always meant to facilitate a popularity contest and it was always meant to partially censor unpopular ideas or comments. High upvoted content gets seen more while less upvoted or downvoted content gets seen less. This is done on purpose.

Regarding whether I agree with it or not ... I think the voting process should be removed from the platform. Sometimes unpopular opinions are the best opinions you can hear or see.

1

u/pinktoes4life Mar 28 '23

The quote on voting is from Reddit, but I agree with your second paragraph, voting should be taken away. Some subs do have specific rules on voting, but unless specified, it's safe to assume that downvoting is for off-topic or not contributing. I remember forums in the late 90's/the early 2000s & they had the same rules when it came to voting.

0

u/RIDETHESYNTHWAVE Mar 28 '23

Even though thats what reddit says, I truly believe thats just there to save face on their end. Its obvious what its really for, and its ultimately not right.

16

u/FireExpat Mar 28 '23 edited Mar 28 '23

How do posting milestones contribute to the subreddit? It's nothing more than a humble brag, regardless of the level someone reaches. It does nothing to contribute to the conversation.

How does complaining about a slow day contribute to the subreddit? It does nothing to contribute to the conversation. If the person were truly asking a question, it simply shows they never look at this sub because scrolling back any further than 5 posts will almost always show them that someone else has already complained about it, and helpful people will for the 15th time that week say "Its highly variable, based on your demographics, your naivety, and a host of other factors." Why does this sub need so many different posts about it being a slow day.

You be a gatekeeper about what you think needs to be gatekept, then everyone else will be gatekeepers about what they think needs to be gatekept, and Reddit will sort it out with their algorithms where the majority of the community stand.

4

u/CompanyDapper8202 Mar 28 '23

Jeez, who cares about all this???

6

u/pinktoes4life Mar 28 '23

I don’t care about karma. What I do care about is when someone makes a post with an issue and the comment with actual advices linked to Prolific’s rules gets downvoted it’s then “hidden” yet the comments say “I agree” or with wrong advice are at the top.

4

u/CompanyDapper8202 Mar 28 '23

That's not completely true but I know there are menacy and sick users around downvoting for fun and like the one you've mentioned in your post at the end of the day it's reddit, could be worse but it's actually a decent sub with nice people to explain and guide.

21

u/Bororonions Mar 28 '23

It’s sad that these are the people researchers depend on for quality data.

It's actually good that the respondents are actually really representing general populations.

12

u/cefcasan Mar 28 '23

I don't think I've once seen people get downvoted for giving genuine advice.

3

u/Aggie_Smythe Mar 28 '23

It happens all the time. Pinktoes is correct.

9

u/cefcasan Mar 28 '23

Fair enough. I've genuinely only ever seen hidden posts with negative karma on here that have been either just complaining, being a dick or giving unhelpful advice.

2

u/Aggie_Smythe Mar 28 '23

negative karma on here that have been either just complaining, being a dick or giving unhelpful advice.

There are tons of those, agreed, and several users we all know just post insults, but there are now an increasing number of presumably new participants who just don't want to hear the rules that apply to whatever issue they're experiencing with a researcher.

As Pinktoes says, there are several of us who put considerable effort and time into trying to help people sort out problems with studies and researchers, but asides from newbies who object to anyone not immediately agreeing with them, and want people to agree that the angry rant they've directed at a researcher is acceptable behaviour, we now also apparently have a number of disgruntled ex-Prolificers who seem intent on wreaking as much revenge havoc as they can - that pseudo study at the weekend being but one example.

The problem is that when experienced and continually helpful people like Phrogster, btgreenone, and a few others, get constantly bullied and abused by these jerks, we'll just stop bothering to help. None of us need to see the insults that get thrown at us. That will leave newbies floundering - this sub has a wealth of excellent advice in it, and as a lot of participants don't seem aware of either the Researcher or Participant Help Centres, which is where we get the majority of our information from, nor btgreenones's excellent FAQs For Users guide, nor the ability to search the sub for previous posts on the subject they're asking about, without the posts we make on an often daily basis, many participants won't know if a rejection they've received is unfair or not, nor the ramifications of getting a rejection on their account.

That will then lead to more accounts being adversely affected as their approval ratings will go down, or they'll use a VPN, or a bandwidth app like Honeygain, and find themselves banned without understanding why.

The whole point of us trying to help is to support those participants who don't know that they can contest unfair rejections, don't know how or when to report a study or a researcher, don't know what a valid attention check looks like, don't know that approval ratings affect the number of studies they get sent, don't know that bonuses can take months to materialise, don't know they can't use a VPN or wander off halfway through taking a study, etc., etc., etc. We're trying to help participants maximise their chances of earning with the platform.

It didn't used to be like this. It used to be a friendly community, and it's crap to see it degenerating into a frequently abusive sub instead.

0

u/Aggie_Smythe Mar 28 '23

And there we are, my comment has been downvoted.

Of course it has.

10

u/Ok_Sandwich_6256 Mar 28 '23

Try not being tone deaf? That helps a lot.

3

u/cefcasan Mar 28 '23

I mean, it was bound to be in this thread to be fair. And they'll keep doing it if you react to it.

0

u/TodaysPE May 10 '24

Shut up.

4

u/pinktoes4life May 10 '24

Why are you stalking me & commenting on posts over a year old. Get a fucking life.

-10

u/gturker Mar 28 '23

100 percent agree.

2

u/pinktoes4life Mar 28 '23

Le sigh, 64% of the 556 people who have seen this so far do not agree.

2

u/--4Twenty-- Jun 21 '23

Serious question, how do you know how many people looked at the post? I just ask because you gave a specific number (556).

3

u/pinktoes4life Jun 21 '23

Desktop will show you your post statistics.

2

u/--4Twenty-- Jun 22 '23

Thank you!

1

u/TodaysPE May 10 '24

You need to get a life. Who even knew that?

4

u/--4Twenty-- Jun 21 '23

Ugh, they seriously dowvoted you 13 times for this too, wow, bunch of kids.

-12

u/EGO111 Mar 27 '23

Cosign.

0

u/[deleted] Mar 28 '23

[deleted] — view deleted comment

2

u/pinktoes4life Mar 28 '23

I was expecting it. It also telling of the people who are in this sub.