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comment by b_b
b_b  ·  3845 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Downvotes *are* bad for the community.

    By contrast, positive feedback does not appear to influence authors much at all.

I don't think this is probably a good interpretation of the data. What do they mean by "doesn't influence"? I suppose it probably actually means, "doesn't alter their observed behavior," which is totally different from "doesn't affect." Positive reinforcement affects all of us, but if everyone seems to appreciate what I'm doing, then why change? If someone tells me I'm an idiot, then maybe I'm going to do something different the next time (e.g. try harder, strike back, etc).