The Illusion of Voting

[Ward - MvM Anyone?]

"This suggestion is bad, the proof is bad, I choose to downvote this"

 

"This suggestion is good! the proof is good, I choose to upvote this!"

 

"This suggestion is okay, I'll stay neutral"

 

Hello everyone, I would like to have a discussion about the voting system. I'll just jump right into it.

 

Why is it there? Votes literally influence Nothing And for some reason i'm just starting to notice now. 

 

In the end of every price suggestion, the Moderators control the prices. If your trade has good proof/no decent counterproof, it'll get accepted. 

 

I have seen so many suggestions with a net voting of over 250 and they are still closed.

 

I've seen a few suggestions that get more downvotes than upvotes and it's still accepted.

 

Is the voting system there to give off the illusion that backpack is community driven? 

 

I know prices can't be based on votes alone, otherwise keys would be 1 scrap but why does it exist if it's just there to exist?

 

I'd like to hear your thoughts on this.

[Roller]

Voting are only used when Moderators can't decide if they are going to accept or not. If it's 70+ (I believe), it will get accepted. If it's lower, it will get closed.

 

Therefore, The voting system isn't really nothing.

[Wesley]

Mods explaned this matter multiple times, i don't think i can find a thread though.

 

basicly,

most of the time the votes agree with the proof (proof = correct, upvotes>downvotes), it gets accepted without much of anything

if it is very close wether a suggestion (or which one of the suggestion incase of counter suggestions) should be accepted, the mods go with the community vote.

 

Alot of the times people just blindly vote, without looking at anything. If mods do go againt the community vote, they make a comment on the suggestion as why they did so.

 

some proof of people blindly voting:

http://backpack.tf/vote/id/52fbe06d4cd7b853788b456b used sales a month old, had only 2 valid links but got 80%

http://backpack.tf/vote/id/52fba8f74cd7b8457c8b4568 no proof, got 55%

[dabaers]

You are kind of correct from what I've heard. The voting system is partially in place to help decide when the mods don't know what to do. A 90+ percent suggestion is usually a good indicator that the proof is good and the mods (most likely) only take a quick glance at the proof, saving them some time. In addition, mods have told me that they rarely go against a community vote for normal items. If a price gets down voted to oblivion, then they abviously won't accept it.

There are acceptions however. Currency suggestions almost always get a huge number of down voters because people think that raising the price of keys on backpack.tf will "hurt the economy".

Voting also provides users with more sense of involvement. If they are decent people, they'll say why they are down voting or upvoting. This creates counterproof, extra proof, showing other people that things quick sold, meow meow meow.

To put it much more simply: yes, the mods have the final say but they use the votes on most suggestions to help them decide.

[Mr Prince]

votes are their to save mods time from dealing with bad suggestions and responding faster to good suggestions, however i dont think it really works effectively currently.

[Baloo]

I've seen a few suggestions that get more downvotes than upvotes and it's still accepted.

 

At the end of the day its still proof or counter-proof that makes or breaks a suggestion.

[Amen]

I'm guessing here (but pretty sure) that many people don't even bother looking or thinking about suggestions before they vote. MODS hopefully don't consider the votes too much. A few days ago someone tried to suggest a 4 ref price for a strange RL. Many ppl didn't even give it a thought and just said good proof upvote (these are the many inexperienced users who either have one or dont know how to think or look by themselves). The proof was not even good for a new price of 4 ref and all my comments were down voted as I tried to explain it. The suggestor later closed it as someone more familiar with pricing also explained it.

 

So pretty much there are way too many inexperienced users (dumbdumbs) who place random votes without doing any sort of thinking so you'll see the <50% votes get passed and vice-versa.

[polar]

 Votes literally influence Nothing 

 

This statement isn't true at all. Votes weigh into my decision on almost every single suggestion. If there are major flaws with the proof provided, obviously a suggestion won't be accepted. I have closed suggestions with positive votes where the currency was incorrect, where the suggestion was for the wrong hat, where all the proof involved duped hats, where the proof entirely consisted of quickbuyers, etc. But in many situations things aren't so clear. We have to weigh in on proof, votes, and our judgment (this one especially on unusuals) before making any decision. In close calls, I always go with the votes. And in situations where we go against the votes, we always give a reason. 

[jjjon123]

In the early days of bp.tf, voting had much more inflence than today, it was probably the #1 reason for accepting/denying suggestions.

 

Now, voting is more of a way to reward people who examine the proof given than actually deciding the suggestion.