Bad Question OP Archived Instead of whining about downvoats, why not post better content and work on your discussion skills? (AskVoat)
submitted ago by big_fat_dangus
Posted by: big_fat_dangus
Posting time: 5.5 years ago on
Last edit time: never edited.
Archived on: 2/12/2017 1:51:00 AM
Views: 5430
SCP: 231
244 upvotes, 13 downvotes (95% upvoted it)
Bad Question OP Archived Instead of whining about downvoats, why not post better content and work on your discussion skills? (AskVoat)
submitted ago by big_fat_dangus
view the rest of the comments →
[–] DjangoRed 6 points 59 points 65 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.
[–] big_fat_dangus [S] 2 points 23 points 25 points (+25|-2) ago
Sounds like you care more about what people think of what you have to say, than what you have to say.
[–] [deleted] 0 points 20 points 20 points (+20|-0) ago (edited ago)
[–] Reow 0 points 10 points 10 points (+10|-0) ago
I'm with DjangoRed on this one, but it's not because I care what other people think. Downvotes on Reddit were frequently used to silence/hide any dissenting opinions. Rather than the most constructive and best comments being at the top of threads, it was those comments that agreed with whatever circlejerk was currently possible. Aside from this discouraging people from participating in discussions (I mean, what's the point when your thoughts will be buried), it also sucked as someone coming to the comments looking for discussion (half the time sorting by Controversial provided better discussion than sorting by Top, but then you had to read through all the crap as well).
[–] AthleticSharts 0 points 5 points 5 points (+5|-0) ago
I somewhat agree because I say what I'm going to say and it doesn't really bother me if the internet points are positive or negative. What does bother me is when a well thought out and reasoned post is buried (mine or anyone else's) because a few shitheads are "offended" but don't even bother with a reply to refute or disagree. I don't care if you downvote someone, but at least say why (if someone else hasn't already made your point).
[–] whynotanon1 0 points 4 points 4 points (+4|-0) ago
downvotes are a ware to censor unpopular opinions by removing them from the public eye. they should exist only to curate content
[–] Tawm 0 points 13 points 13 points (+13|-0) ago
Exactly, the whole 'downvote = disagree' attitude is a big part of why Reddit became such an echo chamber. People want Voat to be different, but they don't realize that how the community acts has a major influence on how the site works. If people want Voat to be more discussion based than Reddit has been lately, they have to actually discuss things instead of downvoting people for being 'stupid'.
Nobody wants to put effort into writing a comment if they are just going to get downvoated for having an unpopular opinion. As people get discouraged from downvotes, they might start giving up on commenting. This leads to the discussion being dominated by people supporting the popular opinion, and once the only people left are the people who agree on everything, there's not even anything to discuss anymore.
[–] davydaggers 8 points -4 points 4 points (+4|-8) ago
downvotes are how keyboard warrior faggots like you censor dissenting views. this is what we have to fight against.
you hit the nail right on the head. this is why reddit produces fucking morons who fancy themselves to be intellectuals.
[–] toomuchcode 0 points 4 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.
[–] coinslists 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago
What if I told you that you must add valuable content prior to casting your vote?
[–] immibis 0 points 1 point 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.
[–] 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.
[–] 123_456 0 points 4 points 4 points (+4|-0) ago
I actively fight giving downvoats, but I sort of have to remind myself each time that I do not want to create the community that is reddit. So, I don't use downvoats as a disagree button.
[–] coinslists 0 points 4 points 4 points (+4|-0) ago
Downvotes should be a "that's useless" button. Dissenting opinions should be welcomed. Minds that don't change belong to dead souls.