A more Thorough and actually Argument-supported Thread on why Voting is Negative
First of all, typical Disclaimers.
This post is mainly created for 2 reasons, such being:
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Voting has always been a difficult topic to discuss because it is possibly THE core about the current feedback system. People have been complaining and/or discussing on and on and on over how to improve the Feedback system as it stands without completely destroying the Current Build up as it stands.
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Most Posts about votings happen over more personal reasons, and while yes i also have my own personal reasons to make this, i took it upon myself to also include some actually constructive points explained to the Detail.
Edit 1: Judging by how fast this gets downvoted i can see people didn't read past the first 5 or so paragraphs. Having said that, it only proves the point addressed even more. So come at me early downvotes, prove me right.
Votings are always something simple yet difficult. It gives you the free option of giving a Person your Like or dislike to what they wrote. However, such Comes at many negative costs which often bother first party or second party, sometimes even third party. Most issues come with how they leave an impression on the Masses view on your post aswell as the majorities opinion.
To put it into more Detail:
- Votes offer no insight on Improvement.
Pretty short and self explanatory. While voting in itself offers you to directly deliver a Yes and a No to someone's Context as a whole, you also proactively refuse to give any constructive feedback if you vote without commenting. Simply from a thumbs up and down nearly noone can tell what they made wrong and why they did. (unless it is obvious like biast complains over an "assumptively op broken champ needing nerf ecks dee").
- Strongly contradicts the Idea of Feedbacking in itself
Votes are majorly here to express your approval or disapproval to a post, however as Things stand they are considered a part of the feedback system which is, as far as rationality is concerned, beyond wrong. Why? Well:
Giving a feedback means that you give someone a very critical and neutral but also an accurate analyzis of their context, offering both Pro's and Contras and suggest valid advices and/or arguments so the Person you address can grow on those and do better next time...
...Which is exactly what doesn't happen if the majority of people see the Arrow pointing downwards as a no-cost "go fuck yourself" button to press simply because they cannot have Things their way.
- As Hinted in Point before, It supports Bias
Just as it Comes with the lack of Critizism it Comes with a lack of neutrality. Liking and Disliking something is something that is of pure personal opinion and such everyone i think can respect. However, if it is to serve as a form of Counter Opinion that should invoke a Discussion with (Hopefully) no escalation, then such pure personality is misguided on where it belongs. People, althoe not always or by norm, majorly don't Dislike something because they Rationally disagree with it. They dislike something because they Personally disagree with it.
- Votings come at No requirements compared to what it offers
This is pretty self explanatory. As mentioned. Votings give you the power of contributing if any Post created is either desired or loathed by the current community. However, for something that invokes such power over a Decision such as "Should this post exist?" and "Do we want this post?" it has far too Little cost to come with. As mentioned before, You can literally (Althoe hopefully not literally) tell someone that they can quot on Quot "go fuck themselves" with the click of a one-button arrow. Anonymously. At no required commenting as for the "Why" as mentioned in the 2nd Point addressed.
- Community is somewhat divided on Approving or neglecting the Vote system
Next to all the reasons as for why it is negative on a Constructive basis there is also the personal basis, what the community thinks of it. I myself have been more and more bothered recently by this aswell, people seem to strongly disagree with each others on how to use votings aswell as what to think of it. Some people are good with it, others want upgrades on it, some want it to be removed entirely, others want it to come at the requirement to comment to enable voting on a post. Hell, some people think of it as a free means to express your dislike for not the post, but the Person behind it.
- Inflations and Sabotage Possible (And sometimes secretly promoted)
Something the Mods always look out for. Inflations of Votes. Be it by using Bots or (Which sadly is not forbidden) By promoting it to your friends via other social media or through the Ingame chats. Be it for Upvotes or downvotes, The System as of right now does not directly forbid Inflation so long as it is not caused over a 3rd party program of any sorts. You can legit abuse this Button to actually, non verbally bully a specific Person or a specific post and Just because there were no bots involved, noone can say anything.
There was this one Gameplay Balance post about Akali W stealth being too long for a Full on stealth and not camouflage, and that post was temporarily locked due to suspicion of Bot-supported Upvoting. Later it came out the Person just heavily advertized their Posts to their friends, and it got unlocked again, but such only underlines this point, that people actually do this. This causes an artificial Opinion to be created on People's Viewing of a topic and can make a Bullshit biast hate thread get tons and tons of approvals, and on the other hand, have something that is truly neutral and constructive get downarrowed into nothingness.
There is a good reason why on reddit Vote inflation leads to indefinite suspentions on first strikes.
This is it from me about some ACTUAL points on why the Voting system is flawed or why people have an Issue with it. However, Problems without Solutions are just complains, or as this particular community has come to favor calling it "Crying" and "being mad".
So it Comes without surprise that there Needs to be something done to reduce this lists' Flaws, but it has to be possibly done without completely reworking or shattering the Build up the boards currently have and arguably enjoy.
- Downvoting should come at an required Commenting.
While some people, first Things first, will tell me "Why not also upvotes?". While you may say or not say that you Need to explain why someone did a GOOD job, you don't necessarily have to unless that something is required as a Comparison to something else. or someone else. However, when it Comes to having done a Bad job, you certainly do Need to have some constructive basis you can work with. If you made something that is very positive and appealing, people are gonna discuss over it almost naturally, however, if you fail to Appeal to people they are just gonna think "don't like it, next please" and give you a thumbs down. Having said that, Downvotes certainly should require you to comment on exactly why you downvote something. Even if that something is utterly obvious to the dislike. Even if it is something of pure biast, it should still be treaten as any other post would, and therefore your dislike should come with some form of offering on why the Person is wrong and what they can do to solve the issue themselves.
- Should maybe be readdressed or entirely Renamed to Like/Dislike
Because at this point and age of the Boards it basically is just that. People in many cases (Not all, but too many) vote for something not because they approve to the content, but because they agree to it from their own experience ALONE. Most of the time on positive Posts you are gonna see at least one Person say stuff like "Preach" and "agree" and These people typically give their opinion as a means to say "i think and feel the same over myself, this applies to me personally so i think this is right". And most of the time it is just a Note on the side for people to know you're one of the upvoters.
Saying "Agree" to a post you upvoted is like leaving the house and leaving a sticky note that says "i'm not home". Yeah we know you aren't, we wanna know why you aren't.
- Use and Point of it's existence Needs more clarification
While some people are just gonna skip this point entirely so they can Keep on haunting a specific Person with downvotes and hate, for the most part people use Votes, be it up or down, simply when they do not know what else to do. If it isn't for a personal like and dislike, it is a disposable means to say you have no idea how to Approach this so you're just gonna hit the button that seems more Fitting. If someone had an excessive amount of curses in it, showed strong hints of bias or addresses a point that by know everyone knows and has seen multiple times a day, people are likelier to hit dislike button. If the context is something more unique, possesses careful choice of words or addresses a point that is either low-key or in dire Need of a proper discussion, people are likelier to hit upvote without even thinking of what the text contains.
Sometimes the positive and negative points cross, as you could see in this very post you read right now. Yes, i cursed too many times for anyone's liking, but i give sweatdropping effort to Keep my bias away from this text. This very post as just one example would apply to this very addressed point. People would just weight out positivity and negativity without caring for the actual message then decide to upvote/Downvote based on whether positivity or negativity outweights the respective other.
If you are not gonna change what it stands for, at least clarify why it is here to begin with. Why exactly voting actually exists. Not only would it greatly help, people are likelier to listen to the professionals who created it to begin with.
- Generally prohibit promotion and inflation
While in many cases it is really hard to tell, sometimes vote inflation becomes actually visible based on how many votes came in by which span of time, as the Akali post was exampled. Generally forbidding it would certainly tone it down, besides, calling out for hate on the boards itself is not allowed, but if you on Instagram post a Boards thread and tell others to dislike it, it isnt forbidden?
If not for the point, do it for Fairness to your own rules, Riot.
I can tell i am gonna be swarmed with disapproval, but i want to drop this Final wording to just say, Whatever people have to say regarding this, noone can really tell me convincingly that ths Vote system is absolutely flawless and should be left as it is. And even if you do actually think this whole thread was pointless and the votings should be left as they are, at least leave an Explanation as to WHY, otherwise i cannot differ opinion from fact and althoe i will not downvote your comment, i am forced to just blatantly ignore whatever you had to give me.
Got any Questions? Ask away. Everyone's saying is certainly gonna be respected by me, even if unapproved or left in the dust.
#ETERNAL TORMENT CHECKS OUT
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