(no subject)

[dear-prudence.livejournal.com]

I'd just like to open a friendly discussion about commenting on other people's voting.
I know people are not allowed to comment on their own applications, but what's the chop with voters commenting on each other's votes?
Do people think its fair/reasonable/problematic for people to make comments along the lines of "I can't believe person 'X' thinks that this person should be in house 'Y' - they are blatantly a 'Z', what were they thinking?"
It seems to me that comments like that are only going to start arguments.
Also, it's not very nice when people have read the app. and made a reasonable assesment based on their own understanding of the houses and their own opinions, and are then told that what they think is essentially stupid/wrong. I'm sure people don't mean it to come across like that, but it could easily be interprited that way.
What do people think?

Comments

[marciamarcia.livejournal.com]

I tend to agree with what's been said above.

Frequently, in order to explain why you're voting a certain way, you need to explain why you disagree with someone else's vote. To a certain extent, you're making an arguement for why other people should vote the same way you did. If you can't comment (to agree or refute) what's been said before then voting becomes more of a personal snap judgement than a dialouge-based decision process.

Also, occasionally, you'll see a quote in someone else's vote that makes you think of a certain point about the applicant...quoting them makes your arguement more coherent.

These type of references aren't meant to be insulting and shouldn't be taken that way. However, when the comments get catty or insulting to other voters, then yeah...mods should put a stop to it. But there's no need to remove the element of discussion from voting alltogether. When those exceptions happen I think it's pretty obvious and steps can be taken.

In the meantime, if you think something another voter has written is particularly offensive/wrong-headed/mean and you want to talk to them about it; email them, send a reply from their journal, or otherwise take it off the voting board. That way, we avoid arguements in front of newbies, but keep the discussion.

Maggie//Slytherin