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An idea for upvotes/downvotes

Electro522·12/4/2017, 6:36:27 AM·1 votes·1,682 views

Just recently, a change was implemented to the boards that forces you to click on a thread, and go into it before you can vote on it. While I do like the change, I think we could take it even one step further.

You have to type a comment before you can vote.

See, while the change does slow down people from mass downvoting a bunch of threads in order for theirs to get more visibility (which doesn't really work anyway.......I am guilty of doing this), it doesn't stop them completely. It just adds in one other step for people to take.

It also doesn't stop people from just downvoting the thread for no real reason at all. They come in, take one look, and probably don't even read through the entire thread before upvoting or downvoting. This would force people to explain why they agree and are upvoting, or why they disagree and are downvoting.

Now, some of you may say "Well....what will stop people from just saying 'downvoting' or '+/-1'?" Honestly....nothing. However, it would expose them to the overall community, and if they persist on doing it, despite people coming in and saying "But...why?", then, the mods could possibly step in.

Now, this wouldn't be implemented on every board.....in fact, the only board I can see where this shouldn't be implemented is M&G. That board isn't really meant for discussion, and, I don't think it has this kind of problem anyway. Everyone who spends most of their time there are just looking for laughs.

That said, the rest of the boards are meant for discussion, are they not? It's a little disheartening when you put some work into a thread.......only for it to get randomly downvoted right after you post it. You would at least like to know why you're being downvoted. Did you disagree with the post? Was it too long for you to read? Do you just despise my guts, and want me to get no recognition whatsoever?

Also, since this would likely lower the amount of upvotes/downvotes a thread gets on average, it would actually give more power to each vote. A thread now-a-days can get to the home page if it gets around 8 upvotes in an hour or so. With this change, that could possibly go down to around 3 or 4.

Just an idea. Thoughts?

2 Comments

Chermorg12/4/2017, 1:18:52 PM4 votes

The reason I can not support this is that sometimes there is nothing more you can add to the conversation, but you still think it deserves more or less visibility. This would lead to people spamming "yes", "no", "I agree", "comment to downvote", things like that.

ModThe Djinn12/4/2017, 9:27:36 PM2 votes

Going to expand on Chermorg's comment here, since it's an opinion that many of us share.

We're talked about this a lot before pushing out the new changes, and this particular suggestion was brought up. After some serious discussion, the general consensus is that we'd end up with a lot of meaningless posts saying things like "I agree," which just feels like forced busywork and doesn't contribute constructively to the discussion.

Also, ultimately, the point of upvotes/downvotes is to show that you value a thread (or not, as the case may be), and it's totally possible to value a thread and/or a discussion without feeling that you have anything to personally add to it. We don't want to take the power of expression away from people by forcing them to engage in order to show their appreciation of a topic or discussion. At that point we may as well remove upvotes/downvotes entirely and replacing them purely with a discussion-driven boards.