[Autocrat]

Was it fair enough to vote this tutorial down for no reason:
http://www.dreaminco...ost__p__1084437
?

Was it fair enough not to give me credit for these posts:
http://www.dreaminco...ost__p__1079091
http://www.dreaminco...ost__p__1024591
http://www.dreaminco...ost__p__1020672
http://www.dreaminco...ost__p__1020171
http://www.dreaminco...ost__p__1015790
http://www.dreaminco...post__p__995138
http://www.dreaminco...post__p__988557
?

People are too fast at voting my posts down, yet few bother to give me credit for useful ones. Is this fair?

[PhunkRabbit]

I will gladly offer explination as to why I voted on this.

Personally I felt the tutorial gave little to no real creative input. A good 80/90% of the final result is someone elses work, in this case a photograph.

So you have taken someone elses photograph, blured it and put a masked oval over the top...

I am sorry if you feel it is unfair but I stand by it.

[baavgai]

Voting down a tutorial seems a little mean spirited, unless it's misinformation.

Not voting up? Seriously? People vote as they like. Doubtless most newbies don't even notice.

How can you reasonably complain that the person you helped didn't hit the "go you" button, probably due to ignorance or apathy. Hell, it was most likely those qualities that got them here in the first place.

If you offer help and expect some kind of compensation, you're really setting yourself up for pain and suffering. Be happy you might have helped, that's really all you can do.

[Lemur]

If you're worried about rep and only rep you're in it for the wrong reasons mate, especially seeing as rep means relatively nothing as far as I know other than a little trinket.

No, the real prize for helping is seeing someone grow and progress on the forums into a pro or getting a good job, that's the ultimate goal. Not saying that little things from students that have problems and one-shot us are bad but I far more enjoy seeing and hearing those types of stories than anything.

As far as downvoting, a tad mean yes, but if the tutorial wasn't much content or even false content then it was deserved as a warning to other members to avoid following something as such. It just means you need to put a little more effort in next time, possibly revise the tutorial.

After seeing the tutorial though I have to agree it's pretty poor quality, lazy in fact. The bordering effect you're going for is a vignette which implies a fade, not a sudden jump. Just use a circular gradient with black/transparent, the effect is far cleaner. If you want to go without a photo just render clouds a few times, then difference clouds, then blur it, this would be considered more original.

I have to agree, 80/90% of the work was due to the photo. This would be understandable for Photography and touch ups but we're talking a design piece in this case.

I believe I've also seen the exact same if not a very very similar tutorial before on tutorial9: http://www.tutorial9...ighting-effect/

[macosxnerd101]

Don't worry about the downvotes. The reasons I help others isn't for the number under my name, but to help them and hopefully learn something along the way. When I came to DIC, I was more or less a newbie in Java. After sticking around, helping out, and discussing suggestions with those more knowledgeable than myself like pbl, g00se, Martyr2, and baavgai most commonly, I've really grown as a developer now working at my internship writing Java professionally, and I'm going into my senior year of high school. The research you may have done to answer those threads is more valuable than any number under your name, especially when that number doesn't have any consequence on DIC.

[Core]

Reputation is very subjective. Someone votes down a post - their right - probably the find the post:

a ) inappropriate
b ) providing information that is not really useful
c ) not providing any information
d ) without much value

And of course, as you can see - this list is very subjective. There could be hundreds of other reasons. What I'd want to say - don't take reputation too personal - it won't get you far. I can downvote whatever I want and the same way I can upvote whatever I want. Same applies to you, and you shouldn't get offended by some of the reputation changes.

[baavgai]

I'm personally not a good voter. It just doesn't usually occur to me to click the button. However, when I do:

If the question is answered and hits on the points I would have posted, they get a cookie. If it's something I wouldn't have thought of or seems particularly relevant, cookie. If its eloquent and clearly helpful, perhaps more than normal, cookie.

If the post annoys me, I still won't vote it down. If the post provides information that's simply wrong with the voice of authority I will give it the cold prickly. To me, the point of voting down is primarily to avoid disinformation. However, for something particularly grievous there are exceptions.

[PhunkRabbit]

If it had simply been a particually simple/basic tutorial I would have just moved on, however it has the possibility of rubbing off a very bad habbit to the people likely to use such a tutorial (novice to absolute beginner) that using other peoples photos is fine, when it is attually a mine field.

While tutorials for beginners should be an easy task, simple effects, simple methods and small ammounts of interaction to achieve a desired effect, the tutorial also has a responcibility to provide good practices for people who may not know about copyright, the correct use of other peoples work etc. The sort of things we know though experience.

So to be a little anal, you could look on it as disinformation since it suggests though actions included that going to a random website and taking an image is acceptable.

[rgfirefly24]

I agree with the others in saying that I'm not here to be patted on the back for every little thing i do. I know that if i help someone find the right answer then that is enough for me. I also find it irritating when people put something in there sig pointing to the was this post helpful. It especially gets to me when you demand it as you do in your sig. You should not expect or Demand that someone give you pat on the back every time you do something right.

[Elcric]

Hello Autocrat,

Please consider taking an objective look at the request for feedback you post at the bottom of your posts. I copied most of it in blue as follows:

If this helped you out, you are expected to pay me back by simply clicking the sign below.

Please consider trying different variations on different posts and see if that helps.

I bold printed expected.

If you strongly imply people have to do something they will rarely do it.

You are doing a fine job, keep up the good work.

[KYA]

Didn't notice that before. It comes off as rude.

[macosxnerd101]

baavgai, on 24 August 2010 - 09:09 AM, said:

I'm personally not a good voter. It just doesn't usually occur to me to click the button. However, when I do:

If the question is answered and hits on the points I would have posted, they get a cookie. If it's something I wouldn't have thought of or seems particularly relevant, cookie. If its eloquent and clearly helpful, perhaps more than normal, cookie.

If the post annoys me, I still won't vote it down. If the post provides information that's simply wrong with the voice of authority I will give it the cold prickly. To me, the point of voting down is primarily to avoid disinformation. However, for something particularly grievous there are exceptions.

I tend to agree with baavgai here. Overall, I try to + members who have gone the extra mile, taught me something, or posted something that I couldn't have added to. When I - members, it's usually for being rude, hindering the learning process, or saying something so grievous such as "the main() method in Java doesn't need to be defined to accept a String[]." People in general like seeing the positive number under their names, so if it encourages them to help and participate more in the community and they did a good job, that warrants a + in my opinion.

[dorknexus]

I really just think the whole reputation system is trash. It achieves nothing. I think it would be better to devote a development effort into creating a system that objectively grades your contributions.

[macosxnerd101]

, you do make a valid point. What sort of improvements would you like to see made to accomplish this?

[mostyfriedman]

I rarely vote down, and i only vote up when i see something that i agree with in a discussion like in the corner cubicle and student campus forums, since they aren't really programming related. I vote up in the programming forums when i see a cool answer that provides a tip I don't know about, or if i see a solution that is elegant, other than that, I don't vote. Also you shouldn't care about rep if you are really that good as you think you are, then you shouldn't care about it, its just a number that will not increase or decrease the knowledge you have about the thing you love, programming, and that's what matters afterall.