We are ALL guilty of it. I won't get on the soapbox until I admit to it as well. Blind voting. I'm Brian, and I'm a blind voter, but I'm cutting back. *** HI BRIAN!! *** We just don't have enough time in the day to read EVERYTHING everyone , even our friends, have submitted so we just give them a courtesy up vote and move along. If only one or two people did it the problem wouldn't be so bad, but one or two people don't do it. Scenario One goes something like this: A new submission is posted with the title "Watch out for Explosions!" and a description that goes something like "Since 9/11, airport security has been tightened and regulated with iron fists all over the world. I have given up many a dangerous item before I boarded a plane, hair gel and nail clippers both. I don’t know if I feel any safer, …' So you go by the title and description alone and think that this is something people should see, but you didn't bother looking at the actual article. Had you looked at the article you may have traded that up vote for a down ...

Over that last week or so this question has popped up on the MB. Should I vote a story down? What's the protocol for voting stories down For me this is interesting since many social news sites don't allow the voting down of stories. Further if they do, they don't allow others to see who dished out the negative vote. Even though that little red down arrow has been given to us, it would seem that we're scared to press it because it may end the world or something. While there are no hard and fast rules here are a few things to consider before you vote something down. Don't like the submission? We all have our opinions, but did you vote that submission down just because YOU didn't like it? Well cGt2099 posted a thread in the Bowl about this Voting is pretty much a personal choice as to how you do it. It could be you voting it down because you disagree or whatever. Sometimes however, there may be stories about something you venomously disagree with (content wise) that really should be voted up to spread the word. For example, Bush vetos Child Health Bill. You might disagree with it; but ...