While we're on the topic, am I the only one who noticed that posts starting like "Am I the only one to think that..." or "I'll probably get downvoted for this but..." tend to get upvoted a lot?
I cringe whenever I see this. Usually, the poster's opinion is somewhat obvious and would definitely not get downvoted if it were just stated. But adding the "lone sane person" spin to it seems to get a lot more upvotes anyway.
I have a personal policy of always downvoting such comments when I see them, (1) to reduce the distortion caused by the effect you mentioned and (2) in the hope of slightly discouraging them.
Comments
While we're on the topic, am I the only one who noticed that posts starting like "Am I the only one to think that..." or "I'll probably get downvoted for this but..." tend to get upvoted a lot?
I cringe whenever I see this. Usually, the poster's opinion is somewhat obvious and would definitely not get downvoted if it were just stated. But adding the "lone sane person" spin to it seems to get a lot more upvotes anyway.
I have a personal policy of always downvoting such comments when I see them, (1) to reduce the distortion caused by the effect you mentioned and (2) in the hope of slightly discouraging them.
Couldn't be said better