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A common argument to say that one should take downvotes as judge of content quality, not character, but it seems apparent to me that to judge quality is to judge character. I explain my argument below.

Suppose some person does some unacceptable act, then it is not possible for us to punish the act in itself. The act is done and is in the past. We can only punish the person, for be an actor of the past. If we punish the person as an actor of the act, that seems indistinguishable from punishing the person for themself. Or, should such a distinction be made, if so, why?

tryst with freedom
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What if we look at it from the perspective of an English teacher at school?

When an English teacher marks your essays and points out errors, he's critiquing the work, not critiquing you as a person. His role is to evaluate how well the writing meets academic standards and provide feedback accordingly. He wants you to improve your writing skills, not feel bad about yourself.

The corrections he makes are about specific mistakes in spelling, grammar, style, and reasoning. He is judging the quality of what's on the page, not making assumptions about who you are.

  • idt it matters, but this is a weak analogy –  Aug 12 '23 at 21:48
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    It\s an Ok analogy for the downvoting, downvoting is like giving marks. When I downvote some answer on SE I don't even care what kind of person gave it, cause I have no idea –  Aug 12 '23 at 21:50
  • teachers have training in recognising "good writing", have a definite mark scheme, have the authority necessary to if you like "punish" (in no way should social media be a punishment) students, are not your teacher because they're popular people, will explain themselves if asked, etc –  Aug 12 '23 at 21:52
  • so no, it is not a good analogy. why not draw an analogy with lab rats. anyway, you're screwing up the site etc. just like everyone else involved –  Aug 12 '23 at 21:54
  • Well, that's how in my opinion that would be good. If we could teach and educate and maybe even change brains in the worst cases like in sci fi. Have you read this - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Demolished_Man –  Aug 12 '23 at 21:56
  • go punish someone else ffs –  Aug 12 '23 at 21:57
  • Looks you are having some issues, man. Instead of discussing the topic you swear, etc. Well, it's your problem, not mine. As they say time is money. Have a nice day. :) –  Aug 12 '23 at 21:58
  • "i don't care my opinion is different" how rigorous of you so speaks an influential person, i guess –  Aug 12 '23 at 21:58
  • Let us continue this discussion in chat. –  Aug 12 '23 at 22:00
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    "So raise your glass if you are wrong, in all the right ways..." - P!nk – Scott Rowe Aug 12 '23 at 23:19
  • they're a bot @ScottRowe nice example of it –  Aug 12 '23 at 23:47
  • Isn't this just kicking the can down the road? A teacher can point out errors without assigning a mark. I'm not convinced that a teacher assigning a mark helps with that (I'm not saying it doesn't, I just don't take that as a given). It wouldn't really be "punishing" the work or the student to point out an error without assigning a mark. – NotThatGuy Aug 14 '23 at 09:37
  • I don't mind marks –  Aug 14 '23 at 11:14