growl. >: (

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   Marye Audetposted 15 years ago

   Someone came through my hubs this afternoon and hit several with thumbs down for no reason..I mean they weren't even controversial.
   BLAH.

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   Stacie Naczelnikposted 15 years ago

   It looks like you got yourself a troll.

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      spudsposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      I say we track down the troll and beat them with a big stick.

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      spudsposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      Damn trolls! Someone should make a hub about Trolls.

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3. 86

   jimmythejockposted 15 years ago

   happens quite often, someone looking for something to do, I often wonder if it is a fellow hubber trying to get a higher ranking by reducing someone else's hubscore, but i am sure it is just someone playing silly games.....jimmy

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4. 85

   Isabella Snowposted 15 years ago

   It happens to everyone.
   
   And I don't think people give thumbs downs for being controversial. I've yet to come across any hubbers who take themselves that seriously. Most people giving thumbs downs are just being prats.

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5. 85

   Isabella Snowposted 15 years ago

   Actually - I'm not even sure why the option exists.
   
   If hubs are total shite or if something is wrong otherwise, they can just be flagged.
   
   Thumbs up, I understand.
   
   Thumbs down doesnt seem to serve a real purpose that flagging can't serve in its stead.

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6. 71

   crazyhorsesghostposted 15 years ago

   There is no way it can be in any way fair to allow people to do that. I am sure there are plenty of people who would vote thumbs down just to try to get a better ranking for their page. The only way it could possibly be fair is if Hubpages was able to see who voted thumbs down and then look for a pattern with that person. If a person is voting thumbs down on a bunch of pages there is a reason. A selfish reason.

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7. 85

   Isabella Snowposted 15 years ago

   Yeah but we all get them, don't we?
   
   A couple don't really affect your rank.
   
   How many did she actually get? More than 5? 10?
   
   Cos if it's just 1 or 2,  that isnt something to complain about, really. Sometimes people just don't like what you've written. And if the option exists, people aren't wrong in expressing their opinion. You should see how many thumbs downs my Pope hub has! Lots of unhappy Catholics, I'd imagine, lol. But it has way more thumbs ups - so it works out in the end.
   
   That said, I still think hubpages would be better *without* the option to thumbs down, because it's such a relative thing, opinion.

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8. 75

   Kenny Wordsmithposted 15 years ago

   May I suggest something?
   I thought this community wasn't like the world out there, but full of love and sharing. So the good souls can do their bit. What I do, which you can also do:
   1. I take part in the discussions in the comments sections, as these discussions convert the section into a miniforum, where hubbers debate the original topic.
   2. Each time I revisit a hub, I give it a thumbs up. And a comment.
   3. Be like Santa Claus! I sometimes just leave a thumbs up without a comment. If you do something like that, it makes you feel good, and gives the hubber a better rating. That's like not expecting something in return.
   
   Spread the love!

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   Isabella Snowposted 15 years ago

   I agree, I do that too.
   
   But most people just leave comments without rating.

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    Kenny Wordsmithposted 15 years ago

    Hee, hee, you know, Isabella, I just leave a thumbs up for your hubs which are so 'women!' Can't be seen commenting, so...

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11. 73

    William F. Torpeyposted 15 years ago

    By definition, Thumbs Up means assent or approval. Thumbs Down means dissent or disapproval. Since HubPages doesn't define how these should be used, it seems to me that each person has his own idea of what is meant by them. Does a Thumbs Down mean the Hub is poorly written? That the illustrations are inappropriate or poorly displayed? That the Hub is too short, too long, badly flawed, full or errors, confusing and inaccurate? Or does it mean we simply disagree with what is said, how it's said, or with its conclusions. If we think the Hub is well written and well researched, but we disagree with its conclusions, should we give it a Thumbs Up or a Thumbs Down? Personally, as it is now, I would be very reluctant to give a Thumbs Down because it likely would be misinterpreted by the Hub writer. I do give a Thumbs Up when I find the Hub enjoyable, useful  or especially well done -- particularly if I think it states something of importance.

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    Kenny Wordsmithposted 15 years ago

    Yes, we needn't give a thumbs down if we disapprove of the hub's contents. We need not give it a rating, but express our disapproval in the comments. We could give a thumbs up if it's well-written and well laid out, and need not when it's badly written even if we agree with its view.

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    Marye Audetposted 15 years ago

    eh..whatever..I just think it stinks to go down someones pages with thumbs down and no explanation.. I am not going to get suicidal over it or anything.

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    Kenny Wordsmithposted 15 years ago

    Hey, Marye, wait for the good guys and gals. If there are people who go round doing this, there wil surely be good ones who will go round giving up thumbs ups!

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    SunSevenposted 15 years ago

    Perhaps a little transparency will help. Just like at DIGG(where you can see who dugg your story and who buried it) I have too many thumbs down on a lot of my hubs. Personally I wouldn't worry  too much about it, as long as I get enough traffic to them.

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       darksideposted 15 years agoin reply to this

       That opens up a whole other can of worms.
       
       Lets say you fairly give someone a thumbs down. Their information was not only poorly written but it also contained factual errors. To top it off they threw in few bikini shots in the vain attempt to try and appeal to who knows who. It may have well been a hub on the subject of Hitler, but in the mind of the author he KNOWS "everyone" loves photos of girls in bikinis.
       
       So you give a thumbs down.
       
       He knows it's you.
       
       What does he do?
       
       Contacts you, berates you, abuses you. And goes through every single one of your hubs and gives them all thumbs down.

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          C.M. Vanderlindenposted 15 years agoin reply to this

          Which may be why getting rid  of "thumbs down" completely is a good idea. If someone did publish such a poor quality, misleading hub, it could be flagged and looked at by admin. I don't think transparency for the thumbs-down will help at all. We either have to just start ignoring any thumbs-downs we get or get rid of the thumbs-down and rely on flagging to weed out poor quality hubs.

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             darksideposted 15 years agoin reply to this

             It depends on how much a Thumbs Down affects you.
             
             There have been hubs of mine that have got a Thumbs Down and I think "what the heck is wrong with my hub?". Then my next thought is "what the heck is wrong with the person who gave the thumbs down".
             
             They can also be used as an indicator of whether or not your hub is making an impact. I have a few on one (the thumbs down outnumber the thumbs up) and in my opinion I think that it's really rattled the cage of the people who gave it a thumbs down. While my hub is not offensive, I do think they were offended by it. Offended by the facts.
             
             It all depends on a persons attitude (and self-esteem). Having done a lot of freelance writing in 1995 to 1999 I got a lot of rejection letters. And while it would be emotionally draining or even devastating for some I took it in my stride. You can't please all the people all the time. The rejections often outnumbered the acceptances. But I gotta tell you, getting 3 or 4 rejections in the mail that's accompanied by one cheque made the rejections seem insignificant. I'd head to the bank as soon as I could and then analysed my rejected submissions and if I found another magazine that might publish it I'd do an edit in their style and send it back off in the next day or two.
             
             So having developed a thick skin I can handle any amount of thumbs down. So long as it doesn't have an adverse effect on it being able to be seen by the public (I wouldn't like it if such hubs were locked due to all the thumbs down).

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    Kenny Wordsmithposted 15 years ago

    I agree with SunSeven. Just keep on with your good work!

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    Kenny Wordsmithposted 15 years ago

    But, Sunseven, I don't know about the transparency. How can I give a thumbs up to Isabella's wedding dress hub without everybody knowing I did it?

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       SunSevenposted 15 years agoin reply to this

       Currently you can do it without anyone knowing it!!

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    Kenny Wordsmithposted 15 years ago

    Yes, but if the powers that be listen to your request and give us transparency? Only till then.

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    C.M. Vanderlindenposted 15 years ago

    I don't have much to add other than to say that I agree that the "thumbs down" option is a little pointless, and generally an invitation for bored trolls to annoy us.
    
    And, Marye, your hubs are awesome. Keep up the good work!

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    Angela Harrisposted 15 years ago

    Marye,
    I'm going to even out the odds a little and visit your hubs with some happy thumbs. You have a lot of hubs that I really like, so it's not undeserved.
    
    I like Kenny's suggestion to just be a happy thumber as we surf various hubs. I try to, but sometimes I forget to give a thumbs up, unless it's an outstanding hub.
    
    Personally,  I don't worry about ratings. As long as my traffic keeps up and the approvals outweigh the disapprovals, it's all good. If I get a hub with more than 1 thumbs down, I check it out and see if it needs improving. Overall, I think my Hubs have about 20% with a thumbs down. However, all of these have more up thumbs than down, as noted before. I don't let it get to me.

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    Angela Harrisposted 15 years ago

    Excellent point, Darkside. I've seen similar occurrences on other sites.

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    Marisa Wrightposted 15 years ago

    I've only had one thumbs down so far.  It was useful, actually, because it made me look critically at the Hub and see ways to improve it. 
    
    I can see it would be annoying to get multiples, but if it's known that there are people out there doing it for fun, I don't see why anyone shoudl take it personally.  So long as it doesn't affect our scores or have any other negative impacts.

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23. STAFF

    pauldeedsposted 15 years ago

    This is a great discussion and echoes a lot of the talk we had at HubPages, way back in the garage when we originally set up the reputation and flagging system.    I don't think we're going to get rid of the thumbs down button just yet.   But you are, of course, free to ignore it.
    
    In my opinion, there are quite a few hubs that fall somewhere between mediocre at best and a violation of the rules that are perfect candidates for a thumbs down.  We take free speech fairly seriously around here, so we don't remove stuff just because we think it sucks.  However, we hope that through HubScore and the Hot list we are able to bubble the better stuff to the top of both HubPages and the search engines.

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    Marye Audetposted 15 years ago

    eh..I know exactly where he is..I have his ISP..he is stalking me on several of my blogs as well.

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       C.M. Vanderlindenposted 15 years agoin reply to this

       Now that's just creepy. What a pain!

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    Stacie Naczelnikposted 15 years ago

    He's stalking you?  How lame.  I just noticed that I got a couple more thumbs down today.  I get it on the couple's mud wrestling hub--maybe some people think it is inappropriate.  But what is so thumbs down on my How to Cook Pumpkin Seeds hub?
    
    I think some people do it without rhyme or reason.

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    Michele Engholmposted 15 years ago

    I just got a thumbs down also.  My first.  Sort of puzzled by it also.  I too try to leave a positive comment and give a thumbs up.  I feel that what goes around comes around...but then I get hit with this thumbs down.  Earlier today one of my hubs said it was flagged???  So what happens there?  It certainly was a decent hub IMHO.

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    blessedmommyposted 15 years ago

    What about these teenagers that just write hubs to conversate?  Can't they do that through e-mail or something?  Some of (not all) that I've seen have a fairly decent Hub score, but probably only because their friends get on and leave comments and thumbs up.  The conversations are usually a bunch of nonsense that know one else except the kids even know what they're talking about.  How come these aren't the ones flagged instead of the decent ones?

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       Marisa Wrightposted 15 years agoin reply to this

       I assume you're giving those a thumbs down yourself!  The question is, should we be flagging them, or are they the kind of thing that HP wouldn't boot off (because it doesn't actually transgress any rules)?

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    blessedmommyposted 15 years ago

    No, actually, I don't like to give anyone a thumbs down.  As far as I can remember, I haven't ever done so.  I'm just saying that if someone was going to, why not not ones like these? 
    The hubs that I'm talking about are more like text messages.  They don't provide information and are only about as long as this comment.  Their hub length is in the comment box itself.

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    Marisa Wrightposted 15 years ago

    I've come across a couple like that and I haven't given them the thumbs down (because I reckon they wouldn't pay any attention anyway).  I've flagged them as "low quality", because they're "empty or nearly empty" and/or not of interest to anyone.

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    Gokkayaposted 15 years ago

    Same here i got 2 thumbs down for no reason on both my hubs..

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    Mark Knowlesposted 15 years ago

    It sounds like we are all in the same boat. I have not had a single thumbs down since I began writing here, then yesterday, 2  - Although, how you can thumbs down a spaghetti bolognese recipe is ...entertaining. I may have offended someone with the gratuitous use of carrots

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