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I do not entirely get why my question is being downvoted so heavily. I looked in the most popular answer and by the looks of it, they're placing their opinions on top of mine instead of properly answering my question within the guidelines.

My question was how to prevent people from using physical looks as a source of income on a large scale as I believe it's not right for someone to have such a huge advantage over others. But they said that there's nothing wrong with doing that and then they come up with a seemingly joke response that doesn't solve my problem.

I believe in my described situation, it is immoral because my society keeps itself stable by the citizens working hard to support each other. But if one realises he doesn't have to do all that work in order to support themselves, then others will follow and the whole community will collapse.

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  • $\begingroup$ dislike ≠ downvote $\endgroup$
    – noɥʇʎԀʎzɐɹƆ
    Aug 16, 2016 at 21:14

6 Answers 6

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The primary problem that I have with that question is that I find it unreadable. You wander off talking about crime and then start talking about a young man getting paid to go places and be good looking. Which you've decided is unethical. Reading it again, perhaps you were saying that your protagonist found it unethical. But that's rather unclear as you repeatedly conflate yourself with the protagonist in the question.

This kind of question is problematic in that it is heavily plot-based. A character in your story is facing a problem with another character in your story. The character can't solve it. So you are asking us to fix your plot problem. But we don't do plot problems! We do world building. E.g.

Preventing the beauty advantage

In my world, people were concerned that some people were getting advantages because of their looks. So they came up with a system to make the ugly and beautiful equal. What would such a system be like?

That's an example of how a world building question looks (although it may be on the broad side; it could use more details). It asks about a characteristic of the world.

I still don't understand what he is doing. Apparently he goes places and people give him money for being good looking. Why? You describe them as addicted. You might spend more time explaining how this works, as it's not quite how humans work. Although it does have some parallels.

If these are aliens, explain how they are alien. If these are human (at least in behavior), then you may want to make the scenario more realistic. Instead of talking about a generic he, ask about someone specific like Elvis. As is, you have sort of human-like aliens. There may be differences, but we don't really know what they are.

How did this society get to the point of having social media without having media personalities? Why does everyone have to spend 100% of their time working? Those are implicit questions about your world that you don't really answer.

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  • $\begingroup$ Ok I will rephrase my question over there. But the damage is already done. And some people are even looking into my other questions and downvoting them as well. Honestly I never had this problem in any other SE sites. $\endgroup$
    – Bradman175
    Aug 7, 2016 at 1:43
  • $\begingroup$ It looks like people are generating hate towards me, and if that's how this site works then I'm out. $\endgroup$
    – Bradman175
    Aug 7, 2016 at 1:47
  • $\begingroup$ Should I just delete that question? $\endgroup$
    – Bradman175
    Aug 7, 2016 at 1:55
  • $\begingroup$ @Bradman175 that would not be acceptable behaviour. I believe the mods can check if someone is going through your posts and downvoting them $\endgroup$
    – Separatrix
    Aug 7, 2016 at 15:56
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    $\begingroup$ @Bradman175 A script runs daily which reverse serial downvoting. If someone is going to your stuff and downvoting, it will get reversed. $\endgroup$
    – Insane
    Aug 7, 2016 at 17:57
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    $\begingroup$ @Insane downvoting on 2 posts is not enough to be considered serial downvoting. $\endgroup$
    – Vincent
    Aug 8, 2016 at 3:58
  • $\begingroup$ @Vincent Where did anyone mention 2 posts? $\endgroup$
    – Insane
    Aug 8, 2016 at 4:01
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    $\begingroup$ @Bradman175 It's not that people hate you, there is nothing personal, some just find the question bad. The reasons to downvote are many and not all are legitimate. But there is not much we can do about it. By the way, go check our most upvoted answer. That's a bit depressing. $\endgroup$
    – Vincent
    Aug 8, 2016 at 4:01
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    $\begingroup$ @Insane His profile says he has 2 posts : worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/23811/bradman175 $\endgroup$
    – Vincent
    Aug 8, 2016 at 4:02
  • $\begingroup$ I'm deleting that question. Guys I get the point it's bad, but down voting it even more is just unnecessary. $\endgroup$
    – Bradman175
    Aug 8, 2016 at 4:25
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    $\begingroup$ @Bradman175 Each person only has one downvote. So its not as if a couple people are downvoting you over and over again, its simply different users seeing the question and voting. I would also not qualify it as hate . This is how the site is designed to work. Good questions (and answers) get voted up based on their quality and usefulness while questions that are poorly constructed or not a fit for the site get down voted. When you ask a question that question becomes reference material for other users down the line and votes are one way to validate how useful it is. $\endgroup$
    – James
    Aug 8, 2016 at 13:09
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    $\begingroup$ @Bradman175 Additionally I would like to let you know that I had the same issues when I first came to the network. The rules around here take some getting used to and it can be difficult not to take the down voting of your own question personally. Its not personal, just the way things are designed. If you take the time to get used to the way things work I assure you that it ends up being worthwhile. $\endgroup$
    – James
    Aug 8, 2016 at 13:11
  • $\begingroup$ Frantically, A post I made that originally had 2 plus votes has now been deducted to -1 votes. I highly doubt that it's unsuspicious and not coincidental. Seems legit @James. $\endgroup$
    – Bradman175
    Aug 10, 2016 at 12:06
  • $\begingroup$ @Bradman175 If this site works the same way as Stack Overflow, then deleting a question does not prevent you from being penalized for asking a bad question. The generally recommended course of action is to somehow convert your bad question into a good one and undelete it. $\endgroup$
    – user253751
    Aug 11, 2016 at 8:25
  • $\begingroup$ @immibis and how might one do that? If it's downvoted, then clearly they dont want that kind of question here. $\endgroup$
    – Bradman175
    Aug 11, 2016 at 8:52
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This hit too close to our actual world and seemed to be some sort of sly remark on some current celebrity rather than an actual World-building question. While I don't love the implications, and I answered as to why I didn't like them when you specifically asked why people might not like the question, the basic reason and the reason why I downvoted this particular question was because it didn't feel like you were worldbuilding, but making a moral statement about THIS world, whatever that statement might be.

Fixes I recommend:

  • If these people are really different from humans, make that clear, like crystal clear. I saw absolutely no difference as I was reading. People do weird things like stealing and it's heavily policed--could just as easily describe our world, as could most of it. Under the heading THE ISSUE, I found myself saying, "Yeah, we've pretty much got the same kind of inequity here--how is this different than our world?"
  • Make the breakdown in society more clear. Right now it just sounds like you've got a problem with how handsome Chris Hemsworth is and how much girls like looking at him. As it was written, how it was going to break society when literally every animal on this planet uses attractiveness as a measurement for breeding fitness, was not clear.
  • Clarity in the question itself. Simplify, simplify, simplify. Be clear and use and few words as possible to get your point across. The new version is better.
  • Quite seriously, if you were not thinking of a specific celebrity in the real world, I will eat a raw egg. I believe that you were, and it shows. Again, it comes across more as a moral statement, and the question was asked in the interests of wish-fulfillment than it does an actual, honest-to-goodness world building question.

As to hate, I don't hate you. I down-voted the question for the above reasons. That doesn't mean I hate you. No clue what constitutes hate for you, but I haven't delved into your comments, so I don't know if other people have. Also haven't been question stalking and downvoting you as far as I know, because I just click on questions as they come up and don't look at the user name. Chill. Don't take it personally. Learn the ways of the site. I asked some crappy ones to begin with. Did not take me long to learn, and I haven't been on here a full month yet. I've been downvoted, have a closed question, and I'm still here.

Edit: Here's how I would have asked it, in a very simplified manner: In an alien world where physical attractiveness is highly addictive, how would one go about stopping an attractive person that has figured out how to exploit that addiction for personal gain?

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  • $\begingroup$ When you wrote "inequity" in your first bullet point, did you mean to write "inequality"? $\endgroup$
    – user
    Aug 13, 2016 at 21:48
  • $\begingroup$ Nope. Meant inequity. in·eq·ui·ty inˈekwədē/ noun lack of fairness or justice. $\endgroup$
    – Erin Thursby
    Aug 27, 2016 at 18:54
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As you're aware from my comments I disagree with a lot of where you're coming from with the initial problem, largely being that I don't see a problem. Judging by response to those comments, I'm not alone, however you also have supporters for your point of view.

What you ultimately seem to have created is not a question that people can answer based on facts and figures, but a discussion on the morality of the sex and entertainment industries. It appears the majority opinion here is that we have no problem with them.

As AndreiROM said in the comments:

Morals: a person's standards of behavior or beliefs concerning what is and is not acceptable for them to do.

This makes them personal, and opinion based, which is potentially why it was ultimately closed.

Spare the lightning, spoilt the congregation

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  • $\begingroup$ It looks like people are mainly concentrating that I said looks-for-money is immoral instead of producing an answer to my question. And because they have a different view to me, doesn't mean they can just smash me down. $\endgroup$
    – Bradman175
    Aug 6, 2016 at 9:51
  • $\begingroup$ @Bradman175, but they can. People will upvote things they like and downvote things they don't like. They'll only close if they feel that you're actually off topic, but if they don't like a fundamental premise then you can expect downvotes. Morality is a personal thing, your question is asking us how to impose your moral code onto other people. I personally, really don't like that idea. $\endgroup$
    – Separatrix
    Aug 6, 2016 at 9:58
  • $\begingroup$ @Separatrix If they're simply downvoting things that they don't like then they're not following the rules: worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/help/privileges/vote-down If downvoting simply on what you did not like was valid practice, it would be perfectly valid for people to downvote historical questions en masse simply because they didn't like historic questions. You might be describing what people are doing in your answer/comment, but if so they're breaking the rules. $\endgroup$
    – Ranger
    Aug 6, 2016 at 16:05
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I didn't post an answer largely because you're unclear about the situation, not because of the question itself or moral judgement.

I do not know whether you are talking about a program, a story, or you're just role playing for some reson.

I however did not downvote and hoped that you would clarify once you read the other answers as to what the heck you're talking about.

Regardless, my comments to other answers and the question does answer the question simplified. The behavior that you're describing is expected and not only is it expected it's the foundation of almost all mating rituals in one form or another for all life so... what type of answer are you expecting?

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  • $\begingroup$ Someone rephrased my whole question, Does it make more sense now? $\endgroup$
    – Bradman175
    Aug 7, 2016 at 3:21
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    $\begingroup$ It's better but I still have no idea what you're asking about, because you haven't clarified the main problem with the question. What type of solution are you looking for. As a god you can just will it not to be the case. Problem solved. As a Programmer that a different issue. As a government, again, a different issue. $\endgroup$
    – Durakken
    Aug 7, 2016 at 3:31
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If your core structure is about a society where its members support each other and the situation where, at least, one member of that society breaks away from that social norm. Where an individual can exploit a natural advantage he or she possesses so he or she is no longer working to support others or needs to be supported by the rest of their society.

If by so, doing this individual sets a precedent for other individuals doing the same thing. The risk to the society is that if this behaviour spreads it will lead to social collapse.

Often the enforcement of social norms like this is expressed as morality. Of course, people who do not belong this society will have their own opinions, rightly or wrongly, about wherever this behaviour is good or bad.

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  • $\begingroup$ So you want me to add that into my question? The last bit doesn't relate though. $\endgroup$
    – Bradman175
    Aug 7, 2016 at 13:12
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    $\begingroup$ I am suggesting you distill your question down to its core issue. See paragraphs 1 & 2. There was too much superfluous waffle before you got to your question proper. Good questions are concise. What I want you to do is rewrite the question, concentrating on its main issue. Para. 3 is a comment. Ignore it for the question. Asking questions the right way isn't easy. The rules here can be hard to follow. Just hang in there. $\endgroup$
    – a4android
    Aug 8, 2016 at 4:27
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If you do mean this to be an alegory or reflection on society (a fine tradition in SF), make them unlike us in some fundamental way. You want people to be able to engage logicly, not emotionally, until after they have considered the story and reflect on it.

This has advantages too in that you can exagerate characteristics that affect the story. Like, they have active pheromones and a mating cycle.

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