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We are allowing accounts above level 6 to look at which accounts vote on posts and how they vote. Our intention with this feature is to provide greater transparency on the site. We want to provide as much transparency as possible on poal. However allowing brand new accounts that haven't participated access to this feature would probably be abused. We may adjust the level in the future. However for now this is a test case to see how it helps with the brigading problems we have had over the past few weeks.

Someone noticing they are constantly getting downvoted by same accounts can report them to admins' PM, in which case we will review the situation and act accordingly, and as usual, those actions will be documented in and the site logs.

Thanks to for all his hard work on poal.co

Sincerely Boobs2.

EDIT: We have modified the feature to just show downvoters account names. After discussing it at length with the community this seems like a better option.

We are allowing accounts above level 6 to look at which accounts vote on posts and how they vote. Our intention with this feature is to provide greater transparency on the site. We want to provide as much transparency as possible on poal. However allowing brand new accounts that haven't participated access to this feature would probably be abused. We may adjust the level in the future. However for now this is a test case to see how it helps with the brigading problems we have had over the past few weeks. Someone noticing they are constantly getting downvoted by same accounts can report them to admins' PM, in which case we will review the situation and act accordingly, and as usual, those actions will be documented in /s/sitebans and the site logs. Thanks to @AOU for all his hard work on poal.co Sincerely Boobs2. EDIT: We have modified the feature to just show downvoters account names. After discussing it at length with the community this seems like a better option.

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[–] • 6 pts

This is a very long video, but it’s one of the better argumentations for secret ballots that I’ve seen:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=1gEz__sMVaY

But as a more simple example, this kills poals for porn, maybe that’s intentional but something to consider.

If you are worried about repeat brigadiers maybe show a hashed (with secret salt) version of the username.

[–] • 2 pts

Thanks I will check it out.

[–] • 1 pt

The change in approach to only show down voters is a great idea all around. Love it.

[–] • 2 pts

Thank you it was made based on user feed back. We always appreciate it.

[–] • 1 pt

So I watched the video and formulated at what I would say has to be a consideration in a system like poal.I would say it at least should be a consideration in most scenarios what you have a secret ballot system, each person in theory only has a single voat. The nature of having anonymous users means each user in effect can have unlimited votes. That was the nature of the problem we were having. In a normal voting system where each person is accountable for their vote, secret ballot protects them. I don't think the same translates here. Here having a secret ballot system allows the same person to vote multiple times on the same system and even sell those votes should they be so inclined. Hence the manipulation you have on reddit and voat, I believe this new system that makes users accountable for their downvotes serves 2 functions, 1 it forces people to think before downvoting and makes it much harder to use the downvote button as an I disagree button or an I don't like you button, and 2 forces people who would suppress content to be accountable for it.

[–] • 0 pt

Yeah those are fair considerations.

I really like the solution you arrived at, it leverages the downsides of the original approach you described to an upside.

Transparent voting makes people less likely to vote esp on controversial content.

Discouraging downvotes is generally a good thing.

On nab, the current approach to voting all follows from the goal of a lack of central authority. This compounds the anonymity issue you describe. But in my system, voting multiple times is a natural consequence of the approach and not taboo which I think should help equalize the effects some what, and voting power is strongly limited.

My hope is that people will eventually come to realize they are better off focusing their energies on their own contributions rather than silencing others through downvotes.

But another interesting consequence of being distributed is that any peer could ignore the existing vote structure and do their own thing, even if it requires central authority and secrecy.

[–] • 1 pt

Well being as I like you and your system, I'm am clearly of the opinion a different approach is needed as well but I like yours too. I wish you well when and if you have to deal with the kind of issues we have been having, good luck, no matter what choice you make it won't make everyone happy even making no choice will not make everyone happy, such is the life of someone in a position of any kind of power. I did my best to try and do what is right. So again good luck. Join us on chat.poal.co sometime if you feel like it, I'd love to be able to discuss ideas with you in a more live fashion some time. Theres a few of us over there, it asks for an email address to register but its a VPS I control just put in utter bullshit if you decide to join us.