Comment 56938

By matthewsweet (registered) | Posted January 18, 2011 at 22:04:28

I will again concede that the current upvote/downvote system is flawed insofar as many people who visit RTH do use it as a consensus meter. It is not, however, censorship since the comments are not removed. As seancb noted earlier, there is no secret listserv out there somewhere of likeminded RTHers who are immediately alerted of contrary viewpoints in comment threads and launch a salvo of downvotes.

Mr Smith, I also happen to like contrary viewpoints and the challenge of a good debate. To me the distinction between legitimate point-for-point debate and petty squabbling is very clear. Its unfortunate that the current system does often function as a consensus meter rather than a true reflection of the quality of some posts. I'm not sure what has created that problem, the system itself or the blatant trolls who have garnered so many downvotes and manage to overshadow legitimate counter-arguments.

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