The argument for and against downvotes
Since "Discuss the Boards" largely remains inactive for things like this, largely talking about why posts get removed, I'm gonna post this here.
I know this is a "hot button" issue right now considering the release of "Gameplay+" as well as the post made earlier in the week about negativity via downvotes so I figured I'd share my thoughts. I personally hardly ever use the upvote/downvote system unless the player is spamming, being off topic, or using language/tone that's not appropriate for the situation (things like calling someone an asshole or something). Since I'm personally on the side against, I will start with that.
#AGAINST
One of the main issues is that we don't really know what we are. It's kinda weird to me how the boards are called "boards" yet when you make a post, it's called a discussion. These tend to go against eachother don't you think? You're not expecting to have a dialogue with players when your messaging forum is called "boards." And you're expecting a response when you make a post because it's called a "discussion." This idea of discussion is completely nullified when you have players just downvoting your post without reading it.
Going off that we don't know what we are, voting systems generally have some sort of rule set in place. Reddit has Reddiquette and other places like Stack Overflow have voting guidelines to help users vote things up that are correct/promote discussion and to downvote things that are off-topic or incorrect. Unfortunately, this policy is not really followed on websites like Reddit. Why? Most people think that the upvote/downvote means that they agree or disagree. This shouldn't be the case as it stifles player's opinions and thoughts they put on the boards.
Another problem is that player feedback is the only thing that tells you whether a post is good or not. Most of the time, players don't bother upvoting unless it is a very good post or they completely agree with it. Players are more likely to use the downvote button than they are to use the upvote button as players on the boards tend to interact (comment) with things that they agree with VS just downvote and move on with things they don't. People rarely want to get into an internet rage fight so they just ignore the user they disagree with. While this is good in theory, players don't know if their thoughts are wrong or information is inaccurate or some other reason to be rejected by the community.
Most of the time, the votes seen on the front page aren't a direct substitution for how well a post is doing. They're more representative of how well a post is agreed with in a short period of time that people saw it after it was originally put up. In addition, they can act as a precursor to how players feel about a certain post even before viewing it. For example, if someone posts something extremely popular (like a rage post about damage), it's more likely to get a lot of upvotes compared to something more controversial (buffing a certain champion) even if the rage post is nonsensical and the other is more organized with facts. The success of the post depends almost entirely on how the first people who see it vote. If the first few people that vote on it choose to downvote, the post will not be seen very well by most other players and the OP will largely have most of their post/comments ignored in the thread.
#FOR
I know that some users find the downvote button to be extremely useful in quickly sharing your opinion and moving on. This can be on posts, comments, etc. This allows players to quickly find what they disagree with and start a discussion (if they so choose to). However, the downside of this system is if they choose not to start a discussion, they're just suffocating a post for the rest of the player base to either ignore or look down upon, thus causing less discussion.
#POTENTIAL COUNTER(S)
You might be thinking that the downvote allows users to filter out content that isn't very well received and allows users to ignore low quality posts thus creating a "Tier" like system where the worst posts are in the red while the best posts are in the green. But for reasons discussed above as well as others, the votes don't really matter that much. Low quality content/spam would get ignored, thus leaving bad posts at ~0 votes and the better posts will rise.
#POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS
I'm running out of energy so these are gonna be a bit quicker than all of ^^^^ that jazz up there
Solution 1: Remove the downvote
It would increase the ability to tell how good a post is more directly through votes.
Solution 2: Establish a voting guide and rework the rating system entirely
Ratings should be based on activity on the post (comments/discussion) rather than the ratio of votes it receives.
Solution 3: Remove the voting system entirely
Do something like Facebook or Instagram where you can "like" a post. This keeps the "I agree with you" while making people that truly feel against an idea share their opinion and why they feel that way in the comments. Overwatch forums did this and it works well except for moderation banning players for next to no reason.
Solution 4: Combination/part of any of these ideas
I don't know what is best and my personal idealistic solution would be #3, but that's not going to be very popular.
Let me know what you guys think in the comments. Please, for the love of cheese, actually have a discussion and don't just downvote things on the boards. I mean, we are a "Discussion" board right??
Edit: Good to see that players are still downvoting something that's purely a discussion piece.
