What Is Desphinn?

Logged in users with accounts over 7 days old will see an icon and link between the "Save" and "Report As Spam" buttons under each story summary, called "Desphinn". The Desphinn link enables a user to give a thumbs down to stories submitted at Sphinn. Any user that desphinns an article is required to leave a comment explaining the down vote in the comment box that pops up.

More detailed thoughts and community feedback of providing this type of feature can be found here.

How Does Desphinn Work?

On The What's New Page..

A Desphinn does not equal a full Sphinn. At launch, we have it set up so that 2 Desphinns will take away 1 Sphinn for all items on the "What's New" page. In some cases, you may see negative numbers displayed, if an item is getting significantly more Desphinns than it is Sphinns. When the net number of Sphinns for any story hits -10, the story will be discarded and removed from the What's New page.

On The Hot Topics Page...

Once an item has gone Hot, the threshold is raised so that it will take 5 Desphinns to remove 1 Sphinn. If the number of Desphinns on a Hot item reduces the net Sphinns to below the threshold required to go Hot (currently, 22 Sphinns are required) - the item will be moved back to the What's New page. If enough Sphinns are regained, it will go back to the Hot Topics page.

Important To Note:

• New users (accounts less than 7 days old) do not have access to the Desphinn feature.
• An appropriate comment between 50 and 200 characters is required for a Desphinn to be looged. If 200 characaters is not enough, consider joining the discussion of the article instead, and leave comments there.
• Moderators can edit comments. But let's keep their jobs easy. The same guidelines apply for these comments as regular story comments.
• Moderators can delete Desphinns. We will regularly be reviewing the items that have been Desphunn, and the comments for each Desphinn. But do the right thing, as abuse of this new feature will result in your account being removed.
• Desphinn does not equal Spam. Please use the Spam button to report actual spam on the site. Please use Desphinn to express a "thumbs down" for an article.
• The Desphinns to Sphinns ratios mentioned above (2 to 1 for What's New, 5 to 1 for Hot Topics) can change at any time. We will be monitoring usage of the feedback, as well as community feedback, and adjust as needed.

As always, thank you for your contributions to our community. If you have any questions or require assistance, please contact us.