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by prawn 4653 days ago
Can someone explain how the sage thing works as a downvote? I'm aware of 4chan, its style and run a forum (with anonymous posting too) myself, but I'm not familiar with any karma/scoring 4chan might have. Keen to stay aware of options to keep my forum on track.
3 comments
pyre 4653 days ago
When you add a comment to a thread, it bumps the thread to the top of the list for that board. If you add 'sage' into the email (?) field, it will add the comment without bumping the thread. Each thread has an image post limit that will max out the thread and prevent the thread from bumping anymore (letting it slowly fall down the listing and eventually die).

So, using sage as a way to 'downvote' is just a way of adding towards the thread limit without bumping the thread. It's a round-about way to do it though (vs. direct downvoting).

"sage" originates from 2chan (aka Futaba Channel), which was the inspiration for 4chan. 'sage' is short for sageru.

http://www.4chan.org/faq#sage

http://www.eudict.com/?lang=japeng&word=sageru

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diydsp 4653 days ago
iiuc sage comes from sageru which is a Japanese word meaning "lower." Its use is a polite way of saying "my comment is not important enough to bump the thread to the top of the page."

If this is true, sage can not be used to downvote at all, EXCEPT if there are enough sages to make the thread expire. However, that limit is something in the 100s. No one has the time and dedication to "sage a thread into non-existence," even though they sometimes call for it.

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pyre 4653 days ago
As was alluded to with "SAGE GOES IN EVERY FIELD," people hope to cause a snowball effect where others join in an sage the thread (by announcing loudly that they are sage-ing). In general, the idea of using sage as a downvote has been around for a while, even though it's anything but.
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selectstar 4653 days ago
SAGE GOES IN EVERY FIELD

Ahhh, memories.

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hrkristian 4653 days ago
Threads rely on posts/images to get bumped to the front page. Not bumping a thread is therefore a passive downvote because other threads are being bumped while the saged thread isn't. Technically it isn't a downvote though, there is an actual way to do so (called 'hiding the thread').
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ivarious 4653 days ago
When you sage your post (adding "sage" into your e-mail field), your name will turn blue. This is very visible especilly in a barebone software like Yotsuba is.
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