What happen if everyone downvote every topic in new reddit for no reason ?

7thHeaven·Oct 8, 2014·3 votes·785 views

Will new reddit be screw ????

8 Comments

Hyrum GraffOct 8, 20141 votes

What would happen if you downvoted every thread in GD for no reason?

PryotraOct 8, 20143 votes

Not much actually. Votes in GD only did anything after -20, where they locked a thread. If you went through a thread, your downvotes would only say "1 person disagrees with this topic and everyone discussing it." Which meant nothing.

Here, that would have a surprising large effect. Votes are too powerful here, and that would mess with a large amount of sorts, both on the front page and inside the threads themselves. While it wouldn't kill the boards, if used correctly 1 person with 5 accounts could dictate what everyone using Hot sort saw.

That's the power of votes, baby. ;)

Hyrum GraffOct 8, 20141 votes

Here, that would have a surprising large effect. Votes are too powerful here, and that would mess with a large amount of sorts, both on the front page and inside the threads themselves. While it wouldn't kill the boards, if used correctly 1 person with 5 accounts could dictate what everyone using Hot sort saw.

I think this has more to do with the issue of early votes having the power to kill a thread's visibility, than the voting system as a whole.

PryotraOct 8, 20143 votes

It's hard to make that an argument, especially when it comes to the comment section. I rarely see comments get more than 5 upvotes total, so yes, with 5 accounts I could drown out a good 90%+ of what I didn't like there.

As far as threads are concerned it's harder for 1 single entity to rule, but Circlejerks easily squash the concept that this voting system is based on. Have an unpopular opinion? Might as well not speak, because the circlejerk won't let it see the light of day anyways. Wanna host a controversial topic? Good Luck! Hope you catch the right circle jerk first!

Back on GD, this wasn't as big a problem. Now, 1 circlejerk against your view of things mutes you, no matter how good a topic it might be. Why do you think people are complaining about reddit here? It's because this is Reddits #1 problem, and we "borrowed" (see: copied) their voting system, the one part of the system that makes the circle jerk unstoppable. Back on 4chan, the term was hivemind, or some variation of it, but it was the same issue. If you build a system that caters to it, then it will be unstoppable in said system.

Hyrum GraffOct 8, 20141 votes

It's hard to make that an argument, especially when it comes to the comment section. I rarely see comments get more than 5 upvotes total, so yes, with 5 accounts I could drown out a good 90%+ of what I didn't like there.

Fair enough. I sort comments by 'New' for threads that I plan on participating in, as long as they're not mega-threads, though, so this doesn't really affect me.

As far as threads are concerned it's harder for 1 single entity to rule, but Circlejerks easily squash the concept that this voting system is based on. Have an unpopular opinion? Might as well not speak, because the circlejerk won't let it see the light of day anyways. Wanna host a controversial topic? Good Luck! Hope you catch the right circle jerk first!

Maybe that's true, if the only option were 'Hot' sorting, but I'm not sure. Just before they closed GD, I was able to keep this thread on the front page for 14 hours, despite its negative vote count, by being super active and encouraging conversation.

Back on GD, this wasn't as big a problem. Now, 1 circlejerk against your view of things mutes you, no matter how good a topic it might be.

But you can make the same argument in reverse against GD - where an active minority can overwhelm the majority.

PryotraOct 8, 20142 votes

Fair enough. I sort comments by 'New' for threads that I plan on participating in, as long as they're not mega-threads, though, so this doesn't really affect me.

While it may not effect you, I would be willing to bet that the majority on the forums doesn't change how they sort, and just sticks with the defaults. For better or for worse, those 5 accounts controlling what is seen by the majority. OP, and needs a nerf.

Maybe that's true, if the only option were 'Hot' sorting, but I'm not sure. Just before they closed GD, I was able to keep this thread on the front page for 14 hours, despite its negative vote count, by being super active and encouraging conversation.

While that may be the case, if the majority uses the default sorts and doesn't change them, then yes, this is how powerful they are. OP, and needs a nerf.

As far as what happened before it was closed, I don't think we can count those samples anymore. If we could, my 5 accounts could easily convert a solid 70% of the hot sort. Which would be broken, except that the boards would be nearly empty compared to the population nowadays.

But you can make the same argument in reverse against GD - where an active minority can overwhelm the majority.

Not hardly. An active minority would need far more than 20 accounts combined to compete against the majority. GD moved so quickly that even a solo bump effort to keep something "stickied" took a huge undertaking unless you got help. The majority still ruled, but it was also possible to have a controversial or unpopular thread on the front page for a while, if people were interested in talking about it.

GD, while not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, still never specifically catered to anything. It was pretty even across the board.

Hyrum GraffOct 9, 20141 votes

While it may not effect you, I would be willing to bet that the majority on the forums doesn't change how they sort, and just sticks with the defaults. For better or for worse, those 5 accounts controlling what is seen by the majority. OP, and needs a nerf.

For the comments section, I agree with you.

While that may be the case, if the majority uses the default sorts and doesn't change them, then yes, this is how powerful they are. OP, and needs a nerf.

I think you kind of overlooked my point here. My thread was downvoted, but by being active getting other people to keep up a conversation, I was able to keep it shown highly.

>Activity was as powerful as votes

As far as what happened before it was closed, I don't think we can count those samples anymore. If we could, my 5 accounts could easily convert a solid 70% of the hot sort. Which would be broken, except that the boards would be nearly empty compared to the population nowadays.

It would take more activity in a thread to keep it shown prominently, now, but there's also more users to engage with now. I think the example remains relevant.

Not hardly. An active minority would need far more than 20 accounts combined to compete against the majority. GD moved so quickly that even a solo bump effort to keep something "stickied" took a huge undertaking unless you got help. The majority still ruled, but it was also possible to have a controversial or unpopular thread on the front page for a while, if people were interested in talking about it.

GD, while not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, still never specifically catered to anything. It was pretty even across the board.

I'm going to disagree with you here. The number of spam/troll threads that ended up on the front page for too long is evidence that a minority could keep bad content visible for too long.

I would be OK with bumping if it became less effective over time, but in its GD implementation, I'm not OK with it.