The best that can be said is that it’s a noble experiment that may not have been thought out as carefully as it might have been.
The decision to make flags anonymous, to not make the number of flags on a comment visible, to hopefully promote greater amity (or at least reduce the threadjacking caused by ratings fights), sounded as though it was at least worth trying. Like many changes, though, the unintended consequences seem to be of greater weight than the desired results — which don’t seem to be occurring, either.
The unintended consequence? Rising numbers of unexplained single flags on semi-random comments, many by people who ordinarily would never have given negative ratings when they were not anonymous, and most, as far as I can tell, for disagreement. So far, I’ve seen very little harm, but having a flag appear on your Comments page can be more than disconcerting, especially when you’re actually playing by the rules, and more especially when you can’t ask why it’s there because you have no idea who left it for you. Not a good feeling.
Date |
# comments |
# flagged |
# Hidden |
# fights
(not
hidden) |
# single
flags |
% single
flags |
Flag Breakdown - 10/29-11/25
10/29 |
7,278 |
29 |
8 |
8 |
12 |
41% |
10/30 |
7,722 |
29 |
11 |
7 |
8 |
28% |
10/31 |
3,484 |
16 |
4 |
3 |
7 |
44% |
11/1 |
4,317 |
26 |
13 |
5 |
9 |
35% |
11/2 |
4,747 |
12 |
7 |
2 |
2 |
17% |
11/3 |
6,764 |
25 |
11 |
4 |
8 |
32% |
11/4 |
5,405 |
21 |
9 |
3 |
9 |
43% |
11/5 |
7,809 |
34 |
14 |
9 |
9 |
26% |
11/6 |
8,327 |
18 |
3 |
7 |
8 |
44% |
11/7 |
2,263
changeover
|
22 |
15 |
1 |
6 |
40% |
11/8 |
7,142 |
19 |
4 |
4 |
8 |
42% |
11/9 |
5,532 |
20 |
2 |
1 |
17 |
85% |
11/10 |
5,789 |
20 |
1 |
4 |
13 |
65% |
11/11 |
4,323 |
22 |
5 |
6 |
11 |
50% |
11/12 |
4,832 |
32 |
12 |
5 |
14 |
44% |
11/13 |
5,709 |
32 |
10 |
7 |
14 |
44% |
11/14 |
4,102 |
40 |
12 |
3 |
23 |
58% |
11/15 |
4,105 |
38 |
7 |
6 |
21 |
55% |
11/16 |
5,157 |
36 |
9 |
9 |
17 |
47% |
11/17 |
5,791 |
52 |
7 |
9 |
36 |
69% |
11/18 |
6,333 |
62 |
13 |
10 |
33 |
53% |
11/19 |
6,928 |
54 |
9 |
11 |
34 |
63% |
11/20 |
6,622 |
64 |
5 |
15 |
44 |
69% |
11/21 |
4,292 |
47 |
8 |
7 |
30 |
64% |
11/22 |
4,412 |
31 |
5 |
7 |
16 |
52% |
11/23 |
5,400 |
63 |
12 |
9 |
39 |
62% |
11/24 |
5,242 |
59 |
13 |
11 |
35 |
59% |
11/25 |
5,159 |
37 |
5 |
7 |
22 |
59% |
Note: The actual number of Hidden comments is staying about where it was before, as is the number of ratings fights (YMMV — this is at least partly subjective on my part). The number of comments with single flags, most of them unexplained, has skyrocketed. A quick once-over of some of the single flags shows that many of them are not viable under community guidelines, but it becomes harder to report problems when there is no way to see any patterns of user rating.
Also subjective — the number of fights in the threads seems to be at about the same level, with at least as many problems caused by anonymity as were caused by knowing the names of the downraters. The level of insults remains about the same with respect to the ratings fights, but the specific insults have changed to reflect the frustration with anonymity.
In short, this is an experiment, imho, whose time has come, and gone.