There's a special type of troll that frequents PMC, and many of us have met him: the Downvote Troll. This troll picks a member, then systematically goes through and downvotes all their skins, projects, mods, blogs and texturepacks. If the troll is dedicated, he also makes multiple accounts and downvotes with each of them. The downvoting pulls the member's projects off the popular reel.

The amazing thing is that the majority of downvote trolls do this to some of the BEST designers, modders and skinners. Do they do this out of jealousy? I'm assuming this is sometimes the case. I know I've been hit by downvote trolls because the troll in question has been a subject of moderation by me... in other words, I hurt their itty-bitty feelings, and they're slapping me back. I think all the PMC moderators have had that happen once or twice.

Downvotes are so easy and anonymous. You don't have to comment to downvote, you just have to go "click." Hell, I'd appreciate it if I even got a comment saying "I'm downvoting because you deleted my blog, you wench!" Actually, that would probably make me laugh. I'm like that.

The problem is that downvoting rarely seems to be given because someone dislikes the WORK, but because someone dislikes the PERSON (or his/her actions.) This makes the downvotes more of a personal attack, which is why it's trolling. But this is the ultimate trolling, because you can't fight back! You don't know who downvoted you, or why... just that someone, somewhere, is irritated by you.

There have been a few suggestions to counter the downvote troll:

• Force the troll to post a comment to downvote
  

The reason this won't work is that the comment will likely be something like "a;lkhjajkdfd" or possibly swearing. It will, however, remove the anonymity of the downvote, which might slow down the trolling a bit.

• Force people to pay experience points to downvote
  

The reason this would work nicely is that a person couldn't create a million puppet accounts to downvote troll, as they would have to earn experience to do it. However, this would make people who want to legitimately downvote be penalized for doing it.

• Use a CAPTCHA to downvote each time
  

If nothing else, this would slow down the trolls, and irritate them at the same time. Yay!

• Remove the downvoting entirely
  

The issue with this is the whole "life is sunshine and roses and nobody fails" syndrome. Some people contribute crappy work, simply for the experience points boost. Heck, they might contribute a hundred lousy skins just to downvote if we start charging experience points to do it! PMC doesn't need to be flooded with bad work, we want to be the premiere website for excellent skins, projects, mods and texture packs.

In the end, there is no real perfect system to deal with the downvote troll at this time. It's just important to remember that downvotes don't really mean anything. Upvotes are great for bragging rights, but let your work stand on its own. Nobody needs to praise excellent work, it speaks for itself. And when excellent work is downvoted, it just shows that the work is good enough to raise jealousy in those people without the talents to match it.