I find since there's less chance for moderation in the articles, people go crazier and are more rash.

Someone find Truck.

There is a report button!

He's probably busy making a list of the dozens of bugs he needs to fix!

I knew this was a Nintendo related thread, just from the recent outcries from the nintendo youtube programs and recent Splatoon news.

OT: I can't say for sure, I don't read over that many comments once it passes a certain threshold of pages.

I honestly don't know why thumb down let alone thumb up buttons were invented, all they do is cause mob mentality for both, especially when you can't see the results of either.

The old system Disqus had originally showed you who up and down voted you, the more that downvoted you the more you knew about those users and how they acted, you could even easily point them out to mods to sort out but even then that caused more bad blood.

What should happen is most sites/forums should either totally do away with both thumb ups and downs or start showing the people doing them, either one solves the same issue since not having them means people actually have to talk and the other would show who it was and cause the effect to be spoken to, I'd have the thumb up/down removed imo since it primarily feeds mob mentality and gang ups.

The one thing I don't think you could stop in terms of mob mentality on here are when 3-6 people verbally gang up on you, like people that don't read quote trees to see an argument has clearly ended but another 3 more people decide to jump in and carry it on when they weren't even a part of the debate.

Yeah pretty much any gaming site I see this kind of outbursts, that's why I just pass by and look for other news.

He's a witch... GET HIM!!

In fairness, It is a pretty dreadful deal :p In exchange for a slightly above average revenue cut (assuming you didn't negotiate with your network properly; most will have no problem matching 70%), you get to dramatically limit your content options and aren't likely to receive the same advantages provided by normal networks like Polaris (the gaming sub-network of Maker Studios). Woohoo!

On the matter of mob mentality though, it's not really something that can be avoided. Our social structure is based on the idea of in/out groups, which has the often negative effect of encouraging mob mentality (though i agree that the thumbs up/down feature encourages this further). If one opinion (group) is more popular than the other, it's much easier for said group to simply drown the latter out rather than directly debating the issue on an individual level.

No one is immune to this either. Everyone, no matter how reasonable or open minded, will frequently feel to the effects of the aforementioned in/out structure. It is quite literally engraved into every facet of out lives. The only real question is how good are you at holding those feelings back, and looking at the situation objectivity rather than through your "groups" tinted goggles. Forum fanboys are a delightfully effective example of those who can't ^^; (I'm not implying anyone present is a fanboy, it's just an easy example).

Edit: I should probably note that my line of "it's not really something that can be avoided" isn't entirely true, it's just obscenely difficult. Outside of spending the next few generations bringing up kids to be ruthlessly objective and void of emotion, it won't happen. I'd argue that would actually be worse than how things are now.

We should definitely start teaching kids to think more for themselves though...

95% of people are stupid. easily influenced.

You tell them X they believe X without questioning it.


You know like in some islamic countries some guy that understands english takes the NewYork Times picks an article about how nice the new McDonalds hamburger tastes and then tells everyone surrounding him that it reads. "USA poisoning food in arabic countries"

And the people believe it.

This is just 1 example the same works in every society/community and almost every group of people.
US citizens believing nonsense.
Germans believing nonsense.
Greeks believing nonsense.
Also applies to gamers or audiophiles.


95% of people are just easily influenced and if you dont question  what people tell you then you usually end up as part of a pitchfork gorup sooner or later.

When I hear something (rumour or alleged reason etc.) I automatically try to see it from the exact opposite perspective. To get the full picture.  This way I keep learning new things every day.

Like I found out that owning a discrete soundcard does not make any sense when you use its optical output since it completely circumvents the soundcard. Its gives you 99.9% the same sound as if you would simply use the onboard soundchips  optical output.