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What is the policy on "+1" in comments? Should they be flagged?

I think that "+1" should not be included in any comment because +1 is what you do with an upvote. It is meaningful to state what you think of an answer but to also include "+1" is not meaningful. Every post would be cluttered with "+1" comments if everyone stated how they voted and that is partly what the voting function is for.

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    They are not that often used here to be annoying, aren't they? Adding +1 to a comment below an answer shows that you up-voted the question, mostly followed by the reason why the answer was thought to be so good that a comment had been added. Also I like to add +1 if I point out an error in it but want to show that I like the answer anyway and up-voted it.
    – Martin Scharrer Mod
    Commented Jun 14, 2011 at 8:09
  • Once one has done an upvote/downvote for a question/answer, that belongs to others, +1/-1 should be automatically added by the server script whenever she/he makes a comment or subsequent comments. This way can also prevent bad people from making a lie. It is just a suggestion.
    – Display Name
    Commented Jun 14, 2011 at 17:16
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    @xport people shouldn't feel watched and framed for their opinions or assessment -- the same reason you use the handle "xport" instead of your real name. Besides, this avoids a lot of social friction: "why did you -1 my answer to this question when I have +1'ed you a few times before?!". SE network definitely doesn't need this kind of interaction, hence the anonymity of voting.
    – Martin Tapankov
    Commented Jun 16, 2011 at 7:12

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It's not the +1 that is (potentially) problematic, but the content of the comment. Comments should constructively add to the post in some way, so

+1 awesome post dude you rock!

.. doesn't, whereas

+1 but I have also noticed that when you frimboz the frazbot, sometimes the minmoz alignment can get out of sync.

.. does.

In other words it can be OK to have the +1 in a comment, so long as the rest of the comment is meaningfully constructive and not a mindless "thumbs up".

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    As long as we don't get the youtube style "thumbs up if you agree" comments, I'm happy. =)
    – TH.
    Commented Jun 14, 2011 at 13:05
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    +1 for answering. ;-)
    – Caramdir
    Commented Jun 14, 2011 at 16:10
  • plus one for answering too.
    – Display Name
    Commented Jun 14, 2011 at 19:53

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