Friday Q&A

Questionable Defenestration

Greetings, crickets and trolls. Welcome to another edition of the Friday Q&A. Thanks for joining me once again. Each week, I take a look at issues facing Fark's Photoshop community. 2012 has been a rough year for us so far, with the implementation on split voting. The unpopular new feature doesn't seem to be going anywhere, despite massive outcry. On the upside, it gives me something new to complain about.

Q: Is it worth complaining about?

A: I'm only complaining because it's retarded. This is something that no one asked for, and it fundamentally alters the structure of the contests. But why? That's the question I kept asking when this unpopular new feature was foisted upon us. It seems to be tied to the comment voting outside of the contests. Someone had the bright idea to turn every news thread into a sort of mini-contest. People can vote on what they feel is the smartest or funniest comment. It's a new craze that isn't sweeping the nation!

Q: How many people vote on comments?

A: Slim to none. Take this thread from last week. Over 300 comments, and the smartest thing that all of Fark can bring is a one sentence comment that ends in ellipses? They screwed up they way things had worked in our contests, for years, so that less than 20 people could vote on what sounds like something an angry person would mutter under his breath whilst waiting for public transit. Brilliant.

Q: Has the quality of comments fallen that far?

A: That's not really the point. Out of the hundreds of people who commented on that story, out of the thousands of lurkers, a grand total of 14 people took advantage of the comment voting feature. It would seem that the public has spoken, roundly rejecting what many see as a misguided attempt on Fark's part to keep pace with younger sites. I don't understand why they're forcing something so unpopular. Fark is not Reddit, just like it isn't Worth1000.

That's all for this time, gentle reader. Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed hearing me bitch for the hundredth time about something that Fark management obviously has no intention of changing. At this point I'm mostly curious about why. The new feature is about as popular as New Coke. Bring back Classic Voting!

Stay tuned for more dated references from the Doctor!