This essay contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors pertaining to deletion. Essays may represent widespread norms or minority viewpoints. Consider these views with discretion.

Shortcut: WP:ADJ

When voting in any form of vote on Wikipedia, the principle words are: Keep, Delete, Support, Oppose, Neutral and Comment (or Respond). However, many users find it necessary to add needless adjectives to their vote, such as Strong or Weak. I cannot understand why; it has no effect whatsoever. This is a bad practice; one that users should be dissuaded from.

[edit] Inspiration

The inspiration for my essay comes from Dev920, who, on the subpage User:Dev920/Absolutely and completely, totally and utterly devestating says:

Looks stupid, don't it? It also does every time you add a fucking stupid and worthless adjective to your votes. There are four words that should be in bold:

Keep Delete Neutral Comment

It doesn't matter whatever else you want to add, be it strong, weak, very strong, extremely strong, or absolutely and completely, totally and utterly devastating: your vote will still only count as one vote. So stop it. Thank you.

I'm adopting the same basic idea, just in a longer and more explained way.

[edit] Why do users do this?

That is an interesting question. I, myself, can find no policy or phrase in a policy that encourages or even suggests this practice. So why is it done? The most obvious reason is that users feel that their comments will gain a different level of support. By saying "Strong" for instance, maybe they believe that their vote will contribute more to the consensus; by saying "Weak" maybe they feel that they're vote will count for less.

Another idea is that a lot of users put the terms in their vote simply to express the opinion. Again, not the place for it. Saying "Strong" or "Weak" in your actual vote is not good because it makes it appear like your vote is different; it's not. Your opinion is different. And, because it's your opinion, it goes in the opinion area of your vote, not in the voting area.

[edit] So what is he saying?

I'm saying: Don't put adjectives in your vote. It has absolutely, utterly, no effect whatsoever on the vote and is just an annoying drain on my (and others) eyes to look at. If you think it'll make your vote count for anything different, the point is; it doesn't. No matter what adjective you add, it will not affect your vote. 2 "Strong Supports" counts the same as 2 "Supports". If you want to make an opinion, your opinion is different from your vote. And, because it's your opinion, it goes in the opinion area of your vote, not in the voting area.

[edit] Summary

OK, so, if you haven't gotten the point by now, my point is; stop putting adjectives in your vote. If you do so, you:

A) Aggravate other users.

B) Make yourself seem foolish and unaware of policy.

C) Give others the impression that you think you have some kind of special power different from them. You don't.

And that, as they say, is that.

Cheers, DoomsDay349 02:38, 19 November 2006 (UTC)