Let's Talk About the Boards...

TheSlogs·Jul 4, 2015·2 votes·889 views

The Boards is a great place in general. It has a lot to offer and it allows people to share their League ideas. However there is one problem that has plagued this place for far too long, and it has been ignored by Riot. This problem has made thousands of posts go unnoticed, when they are truly genius.

I am talking about the liking system. Specifically, the disliking part of it. So many posts are flamed with dislikes the moment they hit the Boards. I have yet to understand why people feel so generous handing out dislikes, yet rarely give out likes. It's truly ridiculous, and there is no one to blame but us the community itself.

As it is now I have three ideas that I have come up with to fix this problem.

Riot flat out removes dislikes. This is the easiest solution, however the most extreme.
Riot limits the amount of times people can dislike. So you can say dislike 3 posts in an hour that you truly disagree with. This one seems reasonable to me.
WE as a community get better at not doing this nonsense. This is by far the most difficult one because there are people so stuck up with whatever it is they accomplish by disliking that they wont stop. This one seems impossible to me, but it can only be proven by the community.

I just want everyone's opinions to be heard by as many people as possible. So can we please agree that this disliking crap has to stop?

5 Comments

Deep Terror NamiJul 4, 20151 votes

Trolls and shit posts deserve downvotes, so the downvotes do have their place imo.

I think a better solution than changing how the system works, is for people to simply be more generous with their upvotes; if you see a post that you like, give it your upvote before you move on. Downvotes don't have to go away for that to happen. It is how the Boards are self-moderated.

Hyrum GraffJul 5, 20151 votes

[{quoted}](name=Valkyrie Witch,realm=NA,application-id=bzRrPGQO,discussion-id=rElfkZ1q,comment-id=0000,timestamp=2015-07-04T20:38:19.686+0000)

Trolls and shit posts deserve downvotes, so the downvotes do have their place imo.

Can't we just report trolls and the shittiest of shitposts? And, isn't lack of upvotes pretty functionally the same as getting downvotes?

Deep Terror NamiJul 5, 20151 votes

I don't think a post I'm indifferent about is the same as a troll post (I wouldn't upvote either), and the mark of a good troll is that they attempt to be as annoying as possible without breaking any rules that result in their post getting deleted. Reports only get rid of the ones that want to be forum banned so spam all-caps racism and shit.

DaenJul 6, 20151 votes

I think a better solution than changing how the system works, is for people to simply be more generous with their upvotes; if you see a post that you like, give it your upvote before you move on.

This is something Pendragon has said a lot, and to me it's hopelessly idealistic without considering the realism. Here's the important question (assuming upvote frequency is indeed a big issue): Why aren't people generous with their upvotes? I think that if people aren't using functionality the way you want it to be used, maybe you didn't design it properly. I very rarely upvote for two main reasons:

I feel like my vote has way too much influence on what other people see
If I upvote some comments, others can become less visible as a result

The second one is particularly important, especially when considered from a purely systematic perspective. Why is it that the sole method of showing appreciation can actually end up devaluing other content? This (amusingly) also takes shape in that by upvoting someone else's comment you can be directly devaluing your own in the heirarchy.

For example, all the comments on this thread (as of me writing this) have a net zero of votes on them. If any one comment is upvoted, regardless of its current positioning, it immediately moves to the top of the thread. If there were more strings to use as an example, me upvoting a different string could make this one appear lower than the one I just upvoted.

This is really counterintuitive, and I'm amazed that no one has apparently looked into this from a functional standpoint. If people aren't using something the way the designer intended, maybe something needs to change.

DaenJul 6, 20151 votes

Do you have any data to support the suggestion that improper downvotes are indeed happening at a significantly higher rate than improper upvotes, to the extent that it dramatically affects the platform? This seems like a bit of a reach to me.

Overall, I have to disagree with the general premise here. An upvote system can't really work without the ability to counteract vote inflation (downvotes), it just becomes an even bigger circlejerk than it already is. Removing downvotes doesn't actually do anything to address any root concerns, it just stifles that form of expression.