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upvote/downvote is one-dimensional - Discussions and Comments would benefit from a second metric.

The All Tomato·2/8/2015, 8:06:21 AM·4 votes·879 views

Thoughtful discussion isn't one-dimensional. I think the current voting system works against discussion, where disagreement, sometimes by a single downvote, results in valuable posts being buried or never catching the attention they deserve.

Here's how I think this can be solved.

  1. Keep the current upvote/downvote system so users can sort things by value.

  2. Add a new 'agree/disagree' bar, displayed similarly to YouTube likes/dislikes, to gauge opinion. Polls can fill this role, but I think it needs to be a default feature for both Discussions and Comments.

Unpopular but insightful opinions spark good discussions. These shouldn't be buried by downvotes. Adding this feature would give users a visible, convenient way to show their opinion without stifling discussion through downvotes.

16 Comments

Hyrum Graff2/8/2015, 4:20:48 PM2 votes

So, this is a topic I've thought a lot about. A couple things:

  • There's a significant population of people who want to use upvotes/downvotes as an agree/disagree button. They're also intended as a way of surfacing community sentiment.
    • So I think they're fine as-is. What I think is actually missing, is a way to highlight those unpopular but thoughtful posts.
  • Any new mechanic needs to distinct from upvotes.
    • If you've got another up/down system, the majority of people will end up liking every post they upvote and disliking every post they downvote. Building off of this...
  • Any new mechanic needs to be intuitive.
    • If people don't know how it's supposed to be used just by looking at it, you're going to run into problems.

Currently, my best idea is a star vote, which is essentially a vote that says, "this post is thoughtful." (More discussion on that page.) It passes the "distinct mechanic" test with flying colors, and does ok on intuitiveness, but could definitely be a lot better.

MXXIV2/10/2015, 2:48:52 AM1 votes

People would just allways click both buttons based on their opinion. Nothing would change.