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1191

Understanding the logic behind Upvotes and Downvotes ratio. (imgur.com)

submitted ago by AgentRG

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[–]primeight 210 points211 points ago

FTFY

[–]FlyingPasta 30 points31 points ago

I am curious as to how you did this.

[–]Electri 38 points39 points ago

Probably just filled in the pink in each frame with orange.

[–]FlyingPasta 25 points26 points ago

Sounds time-consuming.

[–]Electri 18 points19 points ago

Probably not. It's been years since I messed around in photoshop, but I bet it could be done in under 10 minutes, assuming there weren't any major hangups.

[–]primeight 22 points23 points ago

Pretty much how Electri described. Although I made a macro to fill with orange. I don't think that helped a whole hell of a lot but it didnt take too long anyway. However one could find better ways to spend ones time, if one were so inclined.

[–]FlyingPasta 14 points15 points ago

But we're on Reddit, so we're not exactly inclined to find better uses for our time.

[–]shitsandwitch 6 points7 points ago

masturbation

[–]fractalife 2 points3 points ago

And we talk about ourselves a lot, as if we are all the same person.

[–]FlyingPasta 6 points7 points ago

Exactly. It is obvious that we are one bored consciousness interacting with itself.

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points ago

Then it's a fact of life that we eat pasta and sandwiches while flying with a primate and a wicked clown

[–]EntingFantastic 1 point2 points ago

10 frames with a single colour paintbucket tool? Nah, go fly your pasta in some other metaphorical restaurant sir.

[–]FlyingPasta 4 points5 points ago

I AM THE PASTA, SIR.

[–]goofydylan8 8 points9 points ago

Open in Photoshop. In each frame select the paint and the painted wall color, which is pretty easy since it is a single color so the magic wand should work. Then fill with the color of your choice.

At 56 frames it probably took about 10 or so minutes but I have seen people spend much longer for a lot less payoff.

[–]FlyingPasta 1 point2 points ago

Ah I see, thank you.

[–]Cepheia 15 points16 points ago

Only now, after seeing this "ftfy" for years and not understanding... but also wanting to figure it out on my own, do I realize what this means.

Fixed That... For You.

GOT IT.

[–]The_Vizier 5 points6 points ago

'Bout 6 months ago I thought it meant "Fuck this, Fuck you"

Couldn't understand why everyone was being so mean.

[–]qu4ttro 3 points4 points ago

Atta boy!

Or girl

[–]sindekit 3 points4 points ago

Or animal, let's not discriminate!

[–]Cepheia 0 points1 point ago

Girl.

[–]IrrelevantLeprechaun 3 points4 points ago

For the longest time I thought it meant "for the f***ing yes", like a synonymn for FTW. I would always wonder why people would post altered versions of a post and then agree with it...

[–]Frankyminion 0 points1 point ago

Wow thank you. I feel really dumb now....

[–]kennygk 56 points57 points ago

I never knew how many downvotes some posts got until I got RES

[–]carrotman424 34 points35 points ago

Many downvotes are automatically generated.

[–]ed1989 8 points9 points ago

how so?

[–]FluffyPillowstone 21 points22 points ago

I believe when a post rises very quickly the automatic downvoting system kicks in to prevent those posts from completely monopolising Reddit. It is to prevent spamming.

[–]Jonas223XC 3 points4 points ago

Why don't they just make a better algorithm? Like, surely they can come up with something that will give us the users the same kind of content that changes over time without making the upvote to downvote ratio meaningless. Like, when you see good videos on youtube, some of them can have 100 thumbs up for every thumbs down, but on reddit even very popular posts will have only a 60% upvote to downvote ratio because the reddit algorithm just adds so many downvotes. It's pretty stupid

[–]chinagreenelvis 0 points1 point ago

I was just saying the same thing in another thread. The percentage is ultimately meaningless.

[–]MachinesTitan 5 points6 points ago

This. I hit the front page once. I watched the upvotes slowly go up. Then it would plummet down about 500 votes all at once. Literally, in under five minutes, take giant leaps down.

[–]WErideAtMarket 7 points8 points ago

The score stays the same, but the upvotes and downvotes are site generated.

[–]ramsrgood 9 points10 points ago

i wondered why some of the best posts have like 20,000 downvotes or something. surely there aren't that many people downvoting for fun.

[–]jag0007 3 points4 points ago

unfortunately, this happens more often than one would think. according to older site site statistics, less than 10% of all registered users vote. Of those, a very small margin actually upvote. Something like 5% of the voters change their votes to upvotes.

TLDR: im drunk

[–]MrGoodbytes 2 points3 points ago

It also hides down-voting bots from seeing if they've been ghost banned.

[–]Vorrel 3 points4 points ago

Prevent spamming and keep content fresh

[–]Doctor_of_Recreation 12 points13 points ago

And look how well it works.

[–]hwbehrens 3 points4 points ago

The site automatically adds both up- and down-votes to prevent spammers from determining exactly how many people have voted on a given post.

This is also why "upvote if you are male, downvote if you are female" type posts aren't accurate.

You can learn more about it in this ELI5 post.

[–]sidemissionchris 4 points5 points ago

They auto-downvote? So people don't actually hate my newborn baby?

[–]qu4ttro 1 point2 points ago

They might i find it hard to tell when votes are getting balanced

[–]Brisco_County_III 4 points5 points ago

I refer you to my fairly extensive research on this topic.

[–]MrGoodbytes 2 points3 points ago

Even without RES it shows the up/down count.

[–]chinkostu 1 point2 points ago

Thats vote fuzzing.

[–]Sharkbate12 38 points39 points ago

Explain like I'm 5.

[–]Reavers_Go4HrdBrn 29 points30 points ago

As a post rises and becomes popular reddit automatically downvotes the post so it doesn't take over the front page.

Also a post will fall down from the front page based on how old it is.

For example if two posts have 1500 upvotes, but one was posted 3 hours ago and the other was posted 10 hours ago the younger post will go ahead.

[–]Positronix 12 points13 points ago

I thought the automatic downvotes were to prevent spambots from operating on reddit. That's why it adds both artificial upvotes and downvotes as the number of 'true' upvotes gets higher.

[–]Brisco_County_III 5 points6 points ago

According to the FAQ, the net score is accurate.

[–]Reavers_Go4HrdBrn 0 points1 point ago

yeah its for spambots too, but its also just so links don't stay on the front page for days, none stay for much more than a day

[–]Ceejae 5 points6 points ago

I was under the assumption that it does this so that as Reddit rises in popularity, the more recent submissions don't dominate "top submissions of all time" view simply because there were more people to distribute upvotes at the time.

Example:

This link is the most popular of all time. It was submitted two years ago and has an upvote/downvote ratio of (26754|4885). You would never see that few downvotes on a link that had 26754 upvotes anymore.

Conversely, this link is the third most popular of all time, was submitted five months ago and has a ratio of (61676|50625). Reddit automatically downvoted it so heavily because though it is not necessarily better, there were a lot more people visiting Reddit at the time to distribute upvotes.

I could be wrong, but that is what I had assumed was the reasoning.

[–]Brisco_County_III 1 point2 points ago

That's largely because every time they update the upvote/downvote reporting algorithm, posts that were archived under a prior algorithm are handled inconsistently.

[–]brosenfeld 1 point2 points ago

That first one has a couple of threads in it that are still alive. Please contribute to them. We must keep them alive forever.

[–]ara_p 2 points3 points ago

You mean karma is meaningless? My life is a lie!

[–]paulduve 3 points4 points ago

This is such a terrible system. That's as dumb as... destroying the meaning of upvotes & downvotes to control a post's position. Hm. Can't come up with an analogy that's more stupid than the actual thing.

If there's some reason why it's too expensive or technically prohibitive to have a behind-the-scenes formula to control post rank, rather than actually modify the humans' voting, then fine. But if anyone actually thinks this is a good system, you're crazy.

As a testament to how powerful the status quo is, I've commented about this before, and there were half a dozen replies about how it was actually a good system.

Too vexed by the stupidity of it to argue intelligently about it, sorry. Downvote away.

[–]ANAL_QUEEN 0 points1 point ago

Now explain it in a sexy voice.

[–]Electri 9 points10 points ago

So commands ANAL_QUEEN.

[–]ara_p 1 point2 points ago

Do it ducimo do it very slowly.

[–][deleted] -2 points-1 points ago

reddit automatically downvotes

You mean the users, right? I'm pretty sure the site just lets it slide on its own.

[–]PerfectSplit 6 points7 points ago

I concur. What's going on here?

[–]Whiskee 7 points8 points ago

Reddit magic

[–][deleted] ago

[deleted]

[–]deni_an 5 points6 points ago

I read this twice but unfortunately I still don't understand. One of my submitted links got 92 upvotes 8 downvotes. Yet it shows I only have 49 karma. Where is my hard earned karma??

[–]tyrantlytamale 3 points4 points ago

That's a separate issue. You get the same amount of upward push from the second 90 upvotes as from the first 10. Hence why front page material only gets 2000-3000 points total.

[–]deni_an 18 points19 points ago

I understand the electoral college better than I understand this sorcery.

So what I've gathered is -there are automatically generated downvotes, at an unknowable ratio to upvotes.

A post with 90 upvotes will be rated similarly to posts with 10 upvotes.

A front page post with 2,000 points will only give the OP around 1,000 karma. Does that mean the formula for karma is (upvotes-downvotes)/2?

(So sorry, I know I'm being blonde.)

Edit: grammar

[–]ghostly5150 4 points5 points ago

I understand the electoral college better than I understand this sorcery.

I actually laughed out loud when I read that :D

[–]Diskausity 2 points3 points ago

no, it decreases in karma-value per vote. so the more upvotes, the less a upvote will actually do.

also, the newer the post, the more a upvote will do, thus, pushing older posts off the page.

ALSO, 'fake' downvotes are made to wade away 'upvote spammers/bots'. If a bunch of bots were to be upvoting one single post, it would ALWAYS make it to the top. So downvotes are created to more or less equalize the playing field.

[–]paulduve 0 points1 point ago

... which is a terrible reason to completely bonk the voting system.

[–]PhotoGladiator 5 points6 points ago

Is it bad that I watched this for about 2 minutes?

[–]AgentRG[S] 12 points13 points ago

No it's not. Pink Panther has this magic on people.

[–]tankwars99 0 points1 point ago

Shit, I watched for ten minutes just to see if anything changed.

[–]VeryYummy 1 point2 points ago

How can you downvote the pink fuckig panther

[–]TheRealDickler 4 points5 points ago

I have been watching this for 20 minutes why has the pole not grown in diameter?

[–]corballer 2 points3 points ago

Pink panther is my upvoting hero

[–]woofer212 2 points3 points ago

that gif is what i imagine congress is like.

[–]The3GKid 1 point2 points ago

Actually, it's more like saying "I won't pick up my brush until he picks up his" from both sides.

[–]ThereIsNoSunHere 2 points3 points ago

How much paint do these guys have?

[–]_bigb 2 points3 points ago

If one person finds joy in this YTMND, I'll be happy: http://pinkandblue.ytmnd.com/

[–]MasterTamago 2 points3 points ago

It matched almost exactly to the beat of the song I was listening to...

[–]J4Seriously 2 points3 points ago

Sir, that is preposterous, the paints would just mix, none are dry yet.

[–]Darth2132 2 points3 points ago

I've seen that episode.

[–]Nefarious_Lobster 2 points3 points ago

I think i've probably watched that episode of pink panther at least 600 times in my childhood.

[–]RainbowHippie 2 points3 points ago

Wow i can't belive they keep doing this i have been watching for hours and they dont even bother too look round

[–]bkelly1984 1 point2 points ago

Ah yes, The Pink Phink, first Pink Panther theatrical cartoon short.

[–]0BC 1 point2 points ago

Watched this for 5 minutes..
Could hear Henry Mancini. When did animated GIFs get this ability?

[–]AtTheLeftThere 1 point2 points ago

YouTube upvotes/downvotes based on the content expressed in the video. "I disagree with this video, I'm going to downvote it! It's terrible!"

Reddit upvotes/downvotes based on the relevance of the topic, even if they disagree with it. "Ugh I fucking hate Mitt Romney, thanks for posting that video of him flip-flopping and calling Obamacare unconstitutional! Have an upvote!"

But let's be honest, a lot of idiots are ruining the karma system here by upvoting blatantly stolen content; whether it be someone else's post, or someone else's work (Cyanide and Happiness comes to mind).

[–]qu4ttro 0 points1 point ago

Reddit wants votes to be cast that way but it rarely happens...

[–]tmccarthy53 1 point2 points ago

I love this.

[–]Violador 1 point2 points ago

And they never have to dip their brushes for more paint..

[–]Willis_D 1 point2 points ago

this made me really happy http://i.imgur.com/AFGuq.png

[–]im_no_expert_but 1 point2 points ago

American politics?

[–]Keane1522 1 point2 points ago

OK there's no way the paint wouldnt smear!

[–]sidemissionchris 1 point2 points ago

Nobody has asked this: Why show us the numbers, if they're not real?

I liked the idea that the numbers attached to a post told me how many people liked and disliked it. I'm kind of bummed out by the realization that it's just smoke.

I understand the explanations given in this thread - spam countermeasure and creating noise to counter the effectiveness of bots, etc.

But the reality is, the numbers we see don't actually mean anything. This post currently has 4057 upvotes, 2861 downvotes. We don't know how many of those votes are 'real'. In essence all the number tells us is, "this post is pretty popular."

[–]M_Night_Shamalayan 1 point2 points ago

The twist: Next month they will be intoducing lateral votes.

[–]pahncrd 1 point2 points ago

Reminds me of our politics.

[–]mikeehawk 1 point2 points ago

Wouldn't the paint have mixed and become some purplish color? Just sayin'

[–]mikeehawk 1 point2 points ago

Wouldn't the paint have mixed and become some purplish color? Just sayin'

[–]johnrauda 1 point2 points ago

i never understood why it was so close always.

7 thousand people like this now, and 6 thousand dont..

what?

[–]argentinoloco87 2 points3 points ago

they are actually training for Mr. Miyagi

[–]Solenka 1 point2 points ago

Politics in a nut shell.

[–]kehrk 0 points1 point ago

THANK YOU!

[–]abasementperson 0 points1 point ago

I kept watching and watching, waiting for something else to happen. But nothing ever did...

[–]WErideAtMarket 0 points1 point ago

Best DVD ever.

[–]Bobosaurus 0 points1 point ago

Reminds me of Trix Yogurt.

[–]anotherkeebler 0 points1 point ago

The day Dexter and Dee Dee did this down in the lab is the day I fell in love with that show.

[–]thatnormalperson 0 points1 point ago

democrats and republicans painting a pole...

[–]qu4ttro 0 points1 point ago

Well done

[–][deleted] -2 points-1 points ago

Downvoted this garbage repost. Fuck you.

[–]The_Dirty_Dutchman -1 points0 points ago

repost

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