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Shiny AJAX up/downvoting

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  1. Dan 55 Silver badge

    Shiny AJAX up/downvoting

    If you upvote, then downvote, it copes with it - good.

    But you can't upvote, downvote, then upvote again, you have to refresh between the downvote and the second upvote. Then after the second upvote, your previous downvote is not removed immediately from the total, you have to refresh again.

    This is on the mobile version.

    Then there's a feature request: If you downvoted in error you can upvote to cancel out the downvote, but if it was not really good enough for an upvote it would be nice to be able to downvote again to have your downvote removed from the total.

    And now repeat all of this post again but back-to-front (replace down with up and up with down).

    Sorry, you're dealing with obsessive geeks here. But I guess you knew everyone would be testing it like a bull does a red rag.

    5 0 Reply
  2. Marco Fontani

    But you can't upvote, downvote, then upvote again

    Well spotted! You now can ;)

    Re the feature request – yes, it's been something we've had on the back burner for a while, along with showing which way you voted – if you did – on posts.

    It'll come soon®

    5 0 Reply
    1. handleoclast
      Reply Icon

      Null points

      The way youtube implements the "I upvoted by mistake but it's not bad enough to downvote" is to cancel your upvote if you upvote it a second time (and the same in reverse for a mistaken downvote).

      Just tried it here, on an article I previously upvoted. It increased the upthumb total (which it shouldn't have). Not sure if that increase actually got into the db or not.

      Ah well, it's good enough. If you manage to improve it, that would be good. If it stays as it is, it's still miles better than the old system.

      However...

      When I posted this your new Cloudflare DDoS system kicked in to verify I'm a real person operating a real browser. My post was neither accepted nor rejected (checked by control-refreshing the comments page). Good job the browser let me go back, so I could copy my comment from the textarea then paste it into a fresh reply.

      1 0 Reply
      1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
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        Re: Null points

        handleoclast,

        I've just upvoted then downvoted then upvoted everyone on this thread. Then gone back and upvoted them again, and was unable to register more than one upvote. I'll now try logging out and back in again. Then log in on the iPad and see if that can do it.

        0 0 Reply
    2. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
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      Thumb Up

      Marco,

      I just upvoted everyone. Then logged out and back in again. And was allowed to upvote everyone again. Hooray!

      Obviously this bug isn't a problem. But using it for multiple downvotes on the other hand... [evil laugh]

      However, as a general point, thanks for fixing the voting to mean you don't get navigated away from the page. Hooray.

      1 0 Reply
      1. Marco Fontani
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        I just upvoted everyone. Then logged out and back in again. And was allowed to upvote everyone again. Hooray!

        You've always been allowed to "do" that.

        I say "do" as our forums code simply "records your vote preference", and then kicks off a separate task to actually "make it so".

        In the end, the last vote wins and gets recorded – as each "per forum post, per user" vote can be expressed only once, but you can change your mind anytime.

        Unfortunately, the front-end code isn't currently showing which way you voted, so by tricking things a little you can make it appear as if you managed to (up- or) down-vote somebody into oblivion… but in reality, so long as you're using the same user account to make your "tests", all you've accomplished in the end is to choose whether to upvote or downvote a post.

        This is going to be addressed Soon®: we'll be showing a slightly different icon depending on which way you up/downvoted a post (even with JS disabled, obviously), and (while still allowing you to re-cast your vote anytime) the numbers should be quite a bit more clear in the end – as the JS will also be able to take into consideration whether you had or hadn't already up/downvoted a post – and it not being currently able to do so is the source of the "visual bug".

        The other "bug" is that we don't currently have a way for you to reverse your vote choice, i.e. if you upvote somebody then you decided that you actually didn't want to either upvote nor downvote the post, you can't go back to "no vote preference given": once up- or down-voted a post, you can only pick which way to vote. We're unlikely to fix this anytime soon, to be honest. Little to gain for a very small corner case.

        3 0 Reply
        1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
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          Marco,

          To be honest, fixing either is barely worth the effort. Unless you're working on that code anyway.

          I think the votes are useful. Much better than a whole bunch of people posting just to say, "I agree/disagree" - and it's often interesting to see that even when a vocal group of people are dominating a thread the voting can go the opposite way (which genuinely means there's a silent majority).

          But it's not all that important.

          1 0 Reply
        2. Marco Fontani
          Reply Icon

          This is going to be addressed Soon®: we'll be showing a slightly different icon depending on which way you up/downvoted a post

          The time has come ;)

          6 0 Reply
          1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
            Reply Icon
            Happy

            Oooh shiny.

            Now I just need the tool to see who's downvoted me, so that I can automatically downvote all of their posts with this, and my army of alternate accounts...

            1 0 Reply
            1. jake Silver badge
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              Please don't

              " I just need the tool to see who's downvoted me"

              That way lies madness ... And before anybody says it, I can't remember the last time I gave anybody a thumb, up or down. ElReg's current methodology behind thumbing people is all but useless.

              1 1 Reply
              1. Marco Fontani
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                Re: Please don't

                ElReg's current methodology behind thumbing people is all but useless.

                … as it's always been :)

                up/downvotes "just" serve as an indication of whether commentards are liking or not a given comment.

                I just need the tool to see who's downvoted me

                Ain't gonna happen.

                3 0 Reply
                1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
                  Reply Icon
                  Happy

                  Re: Please don't

                  Marco Fantani,

                  Come on. I've got the gold badger and everything...

                  Perhaps a karma feature then. Whenever you downvote someone, one of your own posts is randomly selected and also downvoted.

                  Or perhaps we could each have an icon next to our usernames showing the number of downvotes to upvotes we've given, displayed in the form of a barrel of toxic waste filled appropriately.

                  I also think the brown badge of dishnour should be available to everyone who's received more than 1,000 downvotes.

                  And perhaps the pink fluffy unicorn of disgusting cheerfulness, awarded to those who issue too many upvotes.

                  0 0 Reply
                  1. Marco Fontani
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                    Re: Please don't

                    I've got the gold badger and everything

                    You're welcome to install NetBSD on it ;)

                    3 0 Reply
                    1. jake Silver badge
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                      Re: Please don't

                      "I've got the gold badger and everything"

                      I wouldn't be too proud of that ... They were given completely capriciously. For all we know you've been giving Vultures favo(u)rs of a certain nature ...

                      2 0 Reply
                      1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
                        Reply Icon
                        Happy

                        Re: Please don't

                        jake,

                        I'll have you know I got my badge by honest blackmail! No dubious sexual favours were offered, only photographed...

                        1 0 Reply
                        1. jake Silver badge
                          Reply Icon

                          Re: Please don't

                          Who said anything about sex? I was talkyping about freelance interface testing and gratuitous proofreading. But blackmail is an honest profession, I have no issue with that!

                          2 0 Reply
                    2. jake Silver badge
                      Reply Icon

                      Re: Please don't

                      Silly person ... Badgers don't run NetBSD. Badgers run ORVYL and WYLBUR, everybody knows that. (Contrary to popular belief, they absolutely abhor Ubuntu 5.10).

                      1 0 Reply
    3. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
      Reply Icon

      OK, that's interesting. Not multiple votes. I can upvote your post again, and it will show as four upvotes (currently 3, including one from me). Or in fact give you a downvote instead, so you're still on 3 up, including mine, plus one down. But as soon as I change something, by navigating away from and back to this forum, or post a comment, the vote disappears again. So it's a display bug.

      1 0 Reply
  3. handleoclast
    Pint

    Yayyyyyy!

    Thanks, guys. Much appreciated. It makes voting much easier, faster, and less frustrating.

    Have a pint on me.

    7 0 Reply
  4. Dan 55 Silver badge

    Excellent. Have an upvote.

    Oh come on, you know you want to do that 'nul points' corner case.

    2 0 Reply
  5. Neil Barnes Silver badge

    One thing I'd *really* like to see is a requirement, when downvoting, also to make a post stating why.

    Upvotes are obvious; you're agreeing with someone without wanting to clutter up a thread, but a downvote? Why, damnit! What are you disagreeing with? The grammar? The logic? The point?

    A downvote without comment is just throwing a rock through the window and running away!

    p.s. I do like the new system.

    4 0 Reply

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