Thanks for the comments first of all… No, I was not saying (or at least didn’t mean to say), it is straightforward. An simple algorithm = bad algorithm – actually I was implying that a good thing about SU thumbing is that it’s not the matter of black/white judgements, i.e. that’s its “non-straightforfardness” (hmmm) that makes SU thumbing system one of the best solutions.

So I guess SU still qualifies the “don’t show” thumbs down.

Unless you have observed the page shown to others. Then again, it could happen, if the page was thumbed up again.

Sigh. Sorry for making assumptions, but I don’t think the SU thumbing thing is so straight forward as you have described.

A few years ago, I was a PowerSeller on eBay with an eBay store. Anyone who hangs around eBay for awhile will realize that they have really poor customer service, but luckily some bright eBay employer dreamt up the idea of the eBay Answer Center.

At the AC, people can come and post questions and regular old eBayers will post answers. This sounds dangerous, but there’s a dedicated group of AC responders who are very familiar with eBay policy that will come along and correct (not always gently) anyone who posts incorrect information.

Anyway, the AC was humming along just fine, providing helpful info to anyone who needed it, when eBay announced they were adding a voting system to the answers in the AC.

Basically, now someone would be able to “thumb up” or “thumb down” any answers or comments given in the Answer Center. Word on the street was that eBay wanted us to be more like Amazon, with their “I found this review helpful” rating system.

The thing is, in the AC, the answers weren’t book reviews. They were things like “If you don’t ship with delivery confirmation, you don’t quality for PayPal Seller Protection”. In other words, important matters of policy and even matters of federal and international law.

The dedicated group of AC responders (of which I was a member) rallied, contacting eBay and writing letters of protest over the proposed change. It didn’t matter how clearly we explained the kind of damage that a ratings system would cause the AC. eBay management didn’t care.

The only concession they were willing to make (and this was after months of discussion) was to add two phrases to the options. Instead of “Was this answer helpful? Y or N”, it now says “Was this answer helpful? Yes, this was helpful/No, I need more information”. That was the only change they would make.

Of course, people troll the AC all the time and vote down responders they don’t like, even if the answers are perfectly valid. We warned eBay of this, but they didn’t care.

Suffice it to say, I will never view a thumbs/rating system the same way again.

Sorry for the long comment! Love your blog!

@rishil: yep, SEOMoz is doing better day by day

@Sean: moderation is critical, thank you for adding this to the discussion – very, very true!
Oh, and thanks for the ‘hot’ sphinn

Mike: thanks and the discussion is really great!

@James: true, I also think that comments make the down vote fair; but anyway, why we feel ok that thumbs ups can (and sometimes should) be unfair, but thumbs down must be given for a good reason…

@David: I do my best not to take it too personal but you know when you spend so much time and effort on what you are doing – that can be too hard not to think about negative votes. And that’s not only about myself, I do hate when people thumb down another person for no reason!

You mean it’s not because of the sheets?

Ann – Good post, nice blog. Try not to take negative feedback too personally. I don’t think I’ve ever down thumbed anyone, but I receive a regular sprinkling of them. I don’t usually know why or even on which comment – they just appear on my profile. Ever since Al Gore invented the Internet there have been those who get their jollys attacking people. Thumbs are a lot less frustrating than the flame wars of old. Look at them as a badge of honor that you earn by offending ass holes.