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[–] cuntbert 0 points 5 points (+5|-0) ago 

People: Stop trying to make this Reddit. It's not Reddit. Although with the current censorship happening it may end up being Reddit's gooch in no time at all.

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[–] SwimmingInAFishbowl ago 

Fuck yes this. Lazy people shouldn't be rewarded with unlimited down voats.

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[–] Skwerley ago 

People are experiencing waves of brigading. Small, albeit, but telling.

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[–] JayTea 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

Hey! What do you think you're fucking doing?! You can't just make tell people to try to improve themselves instead of complaining about it! Thats not this works! UHG!

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[–] DjangoRed 6 points 59 points (+65|-6) ago 

Downvotes should be used for spam or shitty effort. It's disingenuous to say that the community's wisdom shines through the dispensing of upvotes and downvotes. Downvotes are the lazy fucks way of expressing disagreement and are almost always used as such, moreso as voat has grown.

The reddit hivemind is just plain wrong about so many things. I had to write literal five paragraph essays if I went against the reddit hivemind and I wanted to have the "community" on my side. Fuck that. As voat grows, the same thing will happen.

I shouldn't have to continuously apologize for possibly offending people, so people don't shutdown when reading my comment and going into autodownvote mode. I shouldn't have to explicitly state if I'm playing devil's advocate or if something is not my personal views.

I stopped commenting on the majority of reddit because the noise was so bad. If I did feel so compelled to leave a comment, I stuck to a stream of thought style of commenting. I just wrote whatever came to mind and posted. No proofreads. No rewrites. Any more effort was not worth the time spent.

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[–] Nerded ago  (edited ago)

I agree. Especially because of this websites infancy, up and down votes mean a lot to Voaters. If people are putting in thoughtful content and you like it, upvote them. Or if you don't? Ignore it. Downvotes should be saved purely for half assed content and for plain ignorance.

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[–] Boltbeam ago  (edited ago)

Downvotes should be used for spam or shitty effort. It's disingenuous to say that the community's wisdom shines through the dispensing of upvotes and downvotes. Downvotes are the lazy fucks way of expressing disagreement and are almost always used as such, moreso as voat has grown.

This. Don't know about you guys, but I don't want to be delayed in my ability to downvote because someone got butthurt and downvoted quite a few comments of mine.

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[–] toomuchcode 0 points 4 points (+4|-0) ago  (edited ago)

This is a (crazy?) idea I have been toying with: When you click the downvote button, a prompt comes up, where you must type the reason why you are downvoting - and if the reason isn't spam or something very nasty (personal attacks?), you risk losing your downvote privs.

People with disagreements should engage in the comments rather than seek an easy way out via internet points.

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[–] immibis 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago  (edited ago)

I have to wonder if you should also need a reason for upvotes. Majority opinions being heavily upvoted is just as bad as dissenting opinions being heavily downvoted.

I never used Slashdot, but apparently it has some kind of system like that, with a handful of reasons something can be up/downvoted.

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[–] coinslists 0 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago 

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[–] weeeasles ago 

We should also be able to specify that the content was low quality, a shit post, or otherwise poorly executed.

For example, when some racist makes a part about blacks being naturally more violent, and uses statistics of incarceration rates to make their point. We know that in all actuality, income level has more of a meaningful correlation to violence etc. However the racists post wouldn't be a spam post, but it certainly wouldn't be fostering discussion in any honest or fair way.

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[–] Reow 0 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago 

I completely agree with you, but the problem is how to enforce this. Even if it should be part of the community spirit, there will always be those who misuse downvotes, and it would be nearly impossible to prove they downvoted because they disagreed instead of because they thought the comment had no value.

If downvotes are simply supposed to be about enforcing the rules of the sub, I think we should do away with them and replace them with a Report button instead. Alternatively, if we simply want people to think before downvoting, then perhaps whenever a person downvotes, they should lose a point of karma (or whatever we're calling it) as well (StackExchange does something similar to this). Honestly, though, I don't know if there is a good solution.

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[–] weeeasles 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

Limiting the ability to down vote sounds like a good idea to me, so long as we stop have a system in place to prevent mass spam from exploiting said measures.

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[–] twavisdegwet 2 points 9 points (+11|-2) ago 

I just want to lurk and silently shame my peers. Is that too much to ask!?

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[–] TwilightShadow1 0 points 7 points (+7|-0) ago 

Yes. *Pushes under the spotlight*

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[–] CowboyXero 0 points 8 points (+8|-0) ago 

Problem with that is, no matter what the rules are, no one is ever asked to defend their reasons for downvoating. It's a disagree button one way or the other and many others feel the same. Next Confederate Flag Walmart Removal post I see I'll reply and watch...

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[–] coinslists 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

What if downvotes required intelligent comments relevant to the post title? http://imgur.com/c62wx9Q

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[–] CowboyXero ago 

I would actually have no problem with that but, again, it's unenforceable due largely to the fact that there are people out there who will downvote and post something like, "this was just stupid" as their "intelligent" response.

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[–] immibis 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

BTW, that image is not valuable content.

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[–] flamero 0 points 4 points (+4|-0) ago 

Problem with people using downvoat as a disagree button is that it stifles real discussion by hiding opinions that go against the grain. What you're left with is just a circlejerking echochamber where the hivemind keeps patting themselves on the back.

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[–] Piranha 0 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago 

But removal of the downvote button wouldn't solve this issue. If we would just ignore the opinions we don't agree with they will just disappear down at the site as do downvoted now.

As much as a downvote should be used to mark useless comments an upvote should be rewarded to useful comments. Both buttons are misused as disagree or agree buttons.

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[–] CowboyXero 0 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago 

You're absolutely right but there are people in this world who are just jerks who can't handle fact when it hits them in the face. Their only act of defiance is that downvote because they know it will hurt you. I see a ton of stuff on Voat and Criticl that I vehemently disagree with but my take on it is the same as with dealing with people in general. Take a deep breath, remind myself I don't look good in prison orange, smile at that dumb fuck and walk the hell away with my headphones on.

Some do not share that philosophy and their lives are so empty they must hit that button. If I ever downvote something, I will say exactly why I did it and it will be in plain English.

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[–] Marine 0 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago 

Is this question directed for everyone or specific people? Why not just address the specific people that made you write this post?

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[–] tiecuando ago 

This was in the back of my head as well. Who is this topic addressing?

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