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Voting on Boards Content

Tamat·1/14/2015, 5:32:13 AM·41 votes·10,013 views

Hello Boards dwellers!

A few months ago, Pendragon posted a public service announcement about voting. We've come a long way since then, and we thank you for that, but I wanted bump the topic and expand on a few things.

To begin, hopefully you've noticed that every discussion and comment has a small number and a up and down arrow next to it. You can vote on every discussion and comment. We'd like to encourage you to vote on every discussion you comment on or read. There's no science to it. Use your heart! It might be because you agree, or disagree. Maybe it made you laugh, or gave you a good dose of the feels. It doesn't really matter why you vote, only that you do.

You might be asking, "why should I vote and what does it do?" Good question!

As you may have discovered there are several ways to sort content. This includes: Best, Hot, New, Recent. Each of these alter your experience by changing what content is displayed.

http://i.imgur.com/P3XelGZ.jpg

Here's what each one does:

  1. Best: Sorts all discussions with the most engagement (votes, views, comments, etc

  2. Hot: Sorts newer discussions with the most engagement (votes, views, comments, etc

  3. New: Sorts discussions by creation date

  4. Recent: Sorts discussions by most recent comment

So by voting on content you can influence what others see first, depending on which sort option is used. Please help us by voting with different content you view. As more of you vote, the algorithm we've created to sort content will get better. It doesn't matter how you vote, only that you do!

49 Comments

Vacus1/14/2015, 7:25:07 AM18 votes

Downvoting things because you disagree with them is one of the worst possible things you can do.

That is directly the path to making only posts that the hivemind agrees with show up, instead of posts with good points or good discussion.

EMOFRATPARTY1/14/2015, 3:50:48 PM3 votes

I still believe that "Best" should be a highlight of the best content on the Boards, not necessarily the posts with the most engagement, and it should be hand-curated by the Boards team.

There are a lot of "Lyte Smite" threads with a ton of engagement, but that doesn't necessarily make them good posts.

Chaotic Reks1/14/2015, 2:50:10 PM3 votes

quick question: WHERE ARE THE ITEM SUGGESTION BOARDS?!

Byrnes1/14/2015, 5:36:33 AM3 votes

Like!!! +1. Will there eventually be an imgur style voting counter @ profiles?

Daen1/15/2015, 12:58:35 AM2 votes

It seems to me that there are more reasons not to vote than reasons to vote, and no amount of begging us to utilize the functionality will change that.

Here are the reasons I see to vote on a piece of content:

  1. It is exceptionally well-written
  2. It is a viewpoint I agree with particularly strongly
  3. It is exceptionally poorly written
  4. It is a viewpoint I disagree with particularly strongly

Here are the reasons I see not to vote on a piece of content:

  1. It is somewhat well-written
  2. I agree with it somewhat
  3. It is somewhat poorly-written
  4. I disagree with it somewhat
  5. It is mediocre
  6. Voting on it would change the order of surrounding content
  7. My opinion of the person differs from my opinion of the content
  8. I want my content to stand out more than someone else's
  9. There are too many factors at play at once for me to make a decision on my vote

Without advertising the platform more or changing how people interact with the voting system, I have trouble seeing a future where people vote significantly more per capita like you seem to want.

Jesus is Savior1/14/2015, 8:57:20 AM2 votes

Are you aware that Reddit (the thing you are trying to copy) has rules against downvoting things "because you don't like it"?

On Reddit you are only supposed to downvote if it is "off topic or does not contribute to discussion".

Lord Imrhial1/14/2015, 1:20:59 PM2 votes

Yo Tamat!

So, I was wondering about the Search feature here. Would it be possible to implement some sort of "()" to indicate a phrase that MUST be contained in the search? Generally key words are used all over the place here, and since we can only search with the options of time and board category, I think it would be nice to be able to specify multi-word specific phrases, rather than having the search grab everything that contains one of the words that was searched for.

Side thought, add a top five list of searches going on daily (within the site)?

Random Side: Till this very day, your suggestion is still my favorite skin! :) http://imgur.com/x3JyBun

Eskimofo1/14/2015, 2:15:45 PM1 votes

I'm gonna guess the next implement "Rate* to show more" on every comments.

Eskimofo1/14/2015, 2:12:46 PM1 votes

is that why I can't see polls anymore? You're forcing us to vote to know what the public thinks? I'm not allowed having privacy or knowledge of what the forums think because I choose not to vote your contents? bow low knee. give us the old forums

Zantheus1/14/2015, 3:43:12 PM1 votes

farts

Elphrihaim1/14/2015, 9:51:27 AM1 votes

:V

I downvote every post like this because it's pinned.

Jokes aren't allowed? I downvote pinned threads because they're pinned and thus their visibility isn't impacted by the vote system anyway.

iainB851/14/2015, 9:04:30 PM1 votes

I wish there was something inbetween "Hot" and "Recent/New" -- I like the concept of "Hot" and finding good discussions, but too often I click on one of these excited to participate in the conversation, only to see the OP was 18 hours ago and nobody is actively responding to it anymore.

There needs to be a "Hot/Recent" combination, or you guys need to adjust the refresh rate of "Hot" topics -- posting in old, dead topics feels like a waste of my time... even more so than the time I already waste on these forums.

Saevum1/14/2015, 7:14:37 AM1 votes

Ryze: We want you!