mterek Posted:

To be honest, the description was sort of funny, although the item itself is a lame idea and there were better, non-meta ones available earlier.

Something I don’t understand in the vote psychology is that one has to upvote something, then downvote something. When there’s only one item, theoretically people should vote on it if they like it – they have no alternatives to compare, so it’s not a relative thing at all except for other items on the site. So, why do people mbumively upvote the last item standing?

The part that I always find odd, is that when there are 2 choices left, some people will upvote them both. Same overall effect as not voting at all (with the exception being if one was close to being -5ed. But in terms of relative score, upvoting both choices is kind of a waste. Better to pick the one you like better and help it towards winning as best you can (by upvoting your favourite and downvoting the competition).

When there are more still in the running then yes, upvote everything you like the sound of, because the odds are that your one specific favourite won’t be the winner, so you should help your 2nd/3rd/etc choices get ahead as well. But however many options there are, upvoting every one of them (or downvoting every one of them) does nothing for the ranking between them.

The last-choice upvote spree is just a result of people feeling they should vote, but not having any other option to consider… in that situation I tend to just not vote. Especially if it’s in forumbuildr (subject icons for example often have only one choice for quite a while) because then I can save my vote until there’s actually a choice to be made.

BobTheSqueakyWeasel Posted:

It is hard for me to imagine a less funny itembuildr concept than today’s winner (though it’s apparent that there are people who are much more adept than I am at imagining such things). I think I’m going to give up on paying attention to it altogether now; it’s easier to put up with unfunny content when I am blissfully unaware of what the alternatives were. It’s been a fun two weeks, itembuildr — get well soon, little buddy.

I was disappointed… my sub was doing pretty well, almost looked like it was going to take it in the last hour of voting, but then it lost. I thought it was a better idea than what we’ve got, but evidently the voting population disagree. (I take this as proof positive that democracy was a Bad Idea™)