I was thinking more "FA/AC/MFF forum might not be a great place to discuss related issue X, because they can hard-censor you, maybe ban you from the forum." In that case, you'd potentially have a lot of people agreeing, or at least being interested; but those in charge have a vested interest in not letting you saying it - so you can't.
You're talking about something different, where in some cases the majority of people simply don't agree with what you're saying. But I'd note that even in that case, you still get to say it. We're just saying you're wrong - and if you keep saying it, we'll discount everything else you say; some may outright ignore you. Just like real life.
In practice you do see a lot of approval voting; even so, you got 17% of voters to do something different. That's typical; I got 20%. The difference is that you write more rubbish comments (i.e. they repeat something you said that people still disagree with).
Of course, that's where karma comes in. Maybe you're an intelligent person who makes many good points on which most people can agree, most of the time. In this case, it gives you some latitude to take controversial positions from time to time. But if you're generally disagreeable, or never say anything good, it'll work against you; again, like real life. You're up ~0.26 on anon/new users.
I think you're trying to say there's an objective measure of quality, based on the construction of argument, and therefore if you're making well-reasoned, well-constructed arguments, you should be rated highly. But you're way off base. Quality is in the eye of the beholder. If they don't agree with your argument, they'll consider it to be a poor comment, or at best OK; certainly not great.
If essentially everyone disagrees with a comment, it's terrible and doesn't require further consideration except by the masochistic. That's what folding tries to do: eliminate suck. Non-controversial comments don't suck, or at least not enough to deserve folding. Even controversial ones tend not to fold - just fade, to represent the weakness of their support by the community.
I was thinking more "FA/AC/MFF forum might not be a great place to discuss related issue X, because they can hard-censor you, maybe ban you from the forum." In that case, you'd potentially have a lot of people agreeing, or at least being interested; but those in charge have a vested interest in not letting you saying it - so you can't.
You're talking about something different, where in some cases the majority of people simply don't agree with what you're saying. But I'd note that even in that case, you still get to say it. We're just saying you're wrong - and if you keep saying it, we'll discount everything else you say; some may outright ignore you. Just like real life.
In practice you do see a lot of approval voting; even so, you got 17% of voters to do something different. That's typical; I got 20%. The difference is that you write more rubbish comments (i.e. they repeat something you said that people still disagree with).
Of course, that's where karma comes in. Maybe you're an intelligent person who makes many good points on which most people can agree, most of the time. In this case, it gives you some latitude to take controversial positions from time to time. But if you're generally disagreeable, or never say anything good, it'll work against you; again, like real life. You're up ~0.26 on anon/new users.
I think you're trying to say there's an objective measure of quality, based on the construction of argument, and therefore if you're making well-reasoned, well-constructed arguments, you should be rated highly. But you're way off base. Quality is in the eye of the beholder. If they don't agree with your argument, they'll consider it to be a poor comment, or at best OK; certainly not great.
If essentially everyone disagrees with a comment, it's terrible and doesn't require further consideration except by the masochistic. That's what folding tries to do: eliminate suck. Non-controversial comments don't suck, or at least not enough to deserve folding. Even controversial ones tend not to fold - just fade, to represent the weakness of their support by the community.