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Forums - Website Topics - What do you think of the upvote system?

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What do you think about the upvote/downvote system?

Like it 9 22.50%
 
Dislike it 23 57.50%
 
I'm neutral 8 20.00%
 
Total:40

Why I dislike the upvote system (and thank God that it isn't in the forums

*Note* I placed this in website feedback because I could not think of a better forum. I am not asking for anything to be added or removed from the site. In fact, I'm asking for it to remain the way it is ;)

So..... the negation of an upvote/downvote button in discussion-based areas. It can be polarizing a debate as the button itself. It is one of the many reasons I come here to discuss gaming instead of going to places like Reddit.

Here I will explain to you why I believe the lack of said button in the forums is so awesome. I acknowledge that upvotes never were a thing in most forums. Think of this as justification for that decision

  1. It dampens the hivemind: One feature of upvoting is giving a post more chances to be seen. More upvotes = more visibility. Thus, you will frequently only see the most popular opinions, while some equally weighted unpopular opinion may possibly get downvoted into oblivion; giving the impression that everyone thinks the same thing (thus the hivemind). Users may deliberately downvote other posts to give their post more visibility. Present the opinions on level grounds and it creates possibilities for better debate! (If you want an example of hivemind, check out r/finalfantasy)
  2. You don't enable the trolls: kekekekekek I am gonna downvote every post I see cos ima troll kekekekekek I have a collection of rare Pepes and enjoy viewing them on my Lenovo kekekekek mom bring me a hot pocket. Oh whoops did I offend you? Too bad there isn't a downvote button.
  3. It prevents quality loss: Popularity does not always equate to solid content. This is semi-relatable to the hivemind/circle-jerk principle. If you prevent the users from upvoting only what they agree with and downvoting what they disagree with, you will be presented with more sides of the story and avoid thread stagnation (the circle jerk/echo chamber). Variation in comments creates quality, or at least the illusion of it.
  4. You prevent karma-whoring: Might as well call this point 3 1/2. Upvotes are more motivation for users to appeal to a mass audience. Users may begin submission of circle-jerky or cheap posts that appeal to the lowest common denominator. Instead of incidentally getting upvotes based upon their submission, they start submitting stuff for the sole purpose of gaining upvotes. The quality plummets.
  5. Votes snowball: A post with a high number of upvotes is: a) more likely to be taken as fact, or to be considered reasonable, by the average person. b) as a result, that person upvotes said post. c) rinse and repeat. Same thing happens with downvotes too. Think of it like mob psychology. People are more likely to agree with something if other people do. It snowballs from there.
  6. You avoid the Unidan: Unidan was a popular Reddit user who consistently had hundreds of upvotes on his comments. People rarely stood a chance with him in an argument. Why? He had multiple accounts to quickly upvote his own posts while downvoting others. Thus, his posts were visibile and appeared more agreeable, while others appeared unreasonable and were frequently buried quickly.

Looking at the above posts, a few are ambiguous. You could allow quality content to be seen by upvoting it. You could downvote trolls to lessen their impact. You could downvote any hiveminders and..... and.... naah you'd just create an atomic wasteland of a thread.

I tried, but I cannot agree with an upvote system. Maybe you do though, or maybe you think a variation on the system like a one hour score delay would be great! Well then argue with me about it.



#1 Amb-ass-ador

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Agreed. Voting on which thread/reply is good would only cause more problems especially when it's abused..

Not everyone agrees with you so with a downvote, it could discourage people from posting or voicing their opinions.



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In theory upvote/downvote is a great idea. However once you put people with anonymity into the equation... (see Youtube)

I'm glad this site doesnt have it either.



Looks like I have 2 upvotes already ;)



#1 Amb-ass-ador

Yeaa I agree! Having an upvote/downvote system is a bit nonsense due to the reasons you have already stated. I do think however, having an upvote only system without a downvote wouldn't be such a bad idea since there have been quite a few occasions where I wanted to upvote a comment. But with that being said, I like the current method regardless



                  

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There is enough circle jerking already on the site with people posting just to agree with each other. The site doesn't really need more opportunities to do so since it's very easy to see the popular opinion within the first posts.
So actually there is another system already in place which I will call the Spam system. Posts so low on quality and content that they may as well be just upvotes.



If you demand respect or gratitude for your volunteer work, you're doing volunteering wrong.

upvotes only should be acceptable. no down votes because they can be trolled.



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vivster said:
There is enough circle jerking already on the site with people posting just to agree with each other. The site doesn't really need more opportunities to do so since it's very easy to see the popular opinion within the first posts.
So actually there is another system already in place which I will call the Spam system. Posts so low on quality and content that they may as well be just upvotes.

Yea I've seen plenty of poor threads as well as spam threads, but the good moments far outweigh the bad for me. There is good discussion that keeps me coming back



#1 Amb-ass-ador

I agree.

Another point is that it makes it almost useless to reply directly to OP if the post is more than an hour or two old. Essentially the same as being downvoted to oblivion, you are ignored to obscurity.



Just keep upvotes. Don't put in downvotes. Ends up in petty forum popularity contests and arguments. Keep just the positive ones and a like is just more like I agree with you instead of quoting them and saying something pointless like LOL or QFT. Thumbs Up/Likes are fine. It says you agree and you move on. Having both leads to problems.