@Riot can we talk about the upvote/downvote system

HateDaddy·Jun 10, 2015·4 votes·787 views

More specifically, upvoting and downvoting the original post. It's extremely frustrating to make a post only to have it upvoted or downvoted without a single response, especially if you put any amount of time into it. Can we make it so that the only way you can upvote or downvote a thread is if you ACTUALLY post in it. I don't mind replies/posts being an exception to this but the thread itself shouldn't be subject to the whim of people who aren't even participating in the discussion. And the votes a thread get determine if it gets activity since anything that goes below 0 is basically dead, which is pretty lame.

7 Comments

LintheJun 10, 20154 votes

{quoted}

but the thread itself shouldn't be subject to the whim of people who aren't even participating in the discussion. And the votes a thread get determine if it gets activity since anything that goes below 0 is basically dead, which is pretty lame.

They ARE participating in the thread (by voting). Otherwise you will get a bunch of people having to say agree or disagree just to upvote or downvote.

HateDaddyJun 10, 20151 votes

{quoted}

but the thread itself shouldn't be subject to the whim of people who aren't even participating in the discussion. And the votes a thread get determine if it gets activity since anything that goes below 0 is basically dead, which is pretty lame.

They ARE participating in the thread (by voting). Otherwise you will get a bunch of people having to say agree or disagree just to upvote or downvote.

No, they aren't participating. They're having an impact on it and it's direction without providing anything.

They don't have to say anything, hell you could just make it apply to Downvoting only for all I care. If you don't want to take part in a discussion by actively being a part of it, then you shouldn't be able to dictate where it goes and how much attention it gets. This is what allows very hive mind like thinking to run rampant and anything thy expresses an opinion to the contrary - no matter how well thought out - gets buried. And that's terrible for discussion.

DaenJun 15, 20151 votes

To add to this, I would be willing to bet that the change from the OP would essentially kill that interaction entirely. People that participate with just a vote are likely specifically doing so because they are either not interested in commenting or don't have the time, and requiring a comment is far more likely to dissuade action rather than changing it.

Deep Terror NamiJun 10, 20151 votes

Disagree

Can I downvote now?

RoaranorJun 13, 20151 votes

I'd rather someone be able to simply upvote/downvote (a sort of "me too") as opposed being forced into making a redundant post just to be able to add/subtract to/from its visibility.

I think a more proper issue to address is that people tend to misinterpret when they should upvote and downvote. The idea is to upvote quality, meaningful content while downvoting toxic, meaningless 2 cents. Instead, you see people upvoting only when they agree and downvoting when they disagree. Whether or not the content was appropriate and legitimate is usually irrelevant (Ex. You can get downvoted to oblivion just for giving your reasoning for why you think a champ is in an ok spot not matter how well-thought out it is just because the downvoter didnt agree).

Loc J LenoJun 14, 20151 votes

>caring about upvotes and downvotes

LOL

DaenJun 15, 20151 votes

To me, voting is just a flawed system in general. It's really difficult to turn a nuanced opinion of a topic into a binary yes/no vote; in coding terms it would be like trying to turn multiple integers into a boolean. You might be able to figure out a system that can make that conversion happen, but you lose a lot of information in the process.

I wish we had more opportunity to show feeling about threads than up/down/report, personally. A tagging system, while potentially distracting, has the benefit of allowing participants to show what they like/dislike far more accurately than a simple up/down mechanism, and that's the direction I'd be interested in seeing.