EDIT: Maybe just for comments? Downvoats may still help with content quality control
There is some good in the concept of downvoating however in practice we've seen and continue to see the primary use a downvoat button will be an "I disagree with this person" button.
Removing downvoating entirely will not negatively impact the site. Misinformation will still be called out and not upvoated, spammers should be reported(hoping for that report button one day), ass holes will be called out, irrelevant posts and comments will be ignored/receive very few if any upvoats or get reported.
Removing the downvoat ability would also deal with any future issues with brigades, which was a big issue on that other place.
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[–] Xelios 0 points 3 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago
The main issue with this idea is this:
Let's say I post a news story. It's a hoax that I've made up, but currently there's no proof otherwise and it gains massive traction. 1000 upvoats in an hour. After the hour, it is later revealed that I lied as the manager of the person I made a story about denies it. What's the problem here? The only way people can know that is by viewing the comments (tags too by moderators). The problem with this is a lot of people only read headlines or the actual article itself and ignore the comments. This means it will still gain upvoats. The other problem is that people very rarely revisit threads they've already been to, unless a discussion crops up and they get constant inbox notifications. This means people will not retract their upvoats. Thus, my hoax will now continue to rise, albeit slower, but still substantially.
That's not the end though, this will also cause the rise of a subverse and multiple posts saying "Don't upvoat this/remove your upvaots from this/revealed to be a hoax" which will have all sorts of problems, particularly if they phrase it like the first two as that breaks vote manipulation rules. Reddit became popular because it was self regulating. Downvotes are apart of that. An upvoat system is not self regulating, it is only self promotion system (dunno if that's the right term or phrasing).
[–] forbidden_arts 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago (edited ago)
In addition to spreading misinformation, we're bound to have people who post malicious content (e.g. gore in an inappropriate sub), and it is useful to have a mechanism to suppress those links or comments.
The one drawback is that people can and do use the downvoats to express disagreement, which leads to echo-chambers and circlejerks. Perhaps we could allow the Mods for a particular sub to regulate whether downvoats are allowed instead of making it a site-wide issue?
[–] Xelios 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
Personally, my biggest gripe with the downvoat system is brigading against a user or subreddit or ideology, which sort of fits into disagreement. The problem I have with allowing Mods to regulate only is that it relies on having good mods. Some guy mgiht make a sub that becomes hugely popular but doesn't hire good mods or care to regulate it (we've seen it a lot over at reddit), which means that these sub's will have no effective regulation. It could also lead to suppression of content/censorship.
We'd see threads like "This mod has been suppresing users and censoring any time they try to speak up!" and even though the post would be well intention, you know what would happen because of it? Brigading.
This is why I'm not really for removing the power from the users entirely.
[–] 12_Years_A_Toucan [S] 1 point 0 points 1 point (+1|-1) ago
Thoughts on leaving it for posts but not comments? Comments are easier to simply call out
[–] 12_Years_A_Toucan [S] 1 point 0 points 1 point (+1|-1) ago
Thoughts on leaving it for post but not comments? Comments are easier to simply call out for being misinformation
[–] boater 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago (edited ago)
Downvoting is essential for comments in the instance that a comment contains spoilers in a no-spoiler comment thread in discussions about books, shows, or movies. Using comments to highlight something as spoilers without the ability for the post to become hidden would only make the spoiler worse. This is just one use case.
I think the ideal solution is to simply change the mechanic of the downvote button so that it requires the user to select the subverse specific rule which the comment has violated each time they press the button:
https://voat.co/v/ideasforvoat/comments/216460/656153
[–] Xelios 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
Hm. That's actually not a bad idea. I can't think of any negatives for that right now. Especially since comments have the report spam feature, which would act to regulate that stuff. Pretty good idea actually! :D