Reminder: Please Downvote Only to Flag Inappropriate Content
Hey Gang,
I'm seeing an uptick in downvoting to, I presume, express displeasure. Please don't. If a topic doesn't speak or appeal to you, move along, please don't downvote it. Please use the downvote button for content that doesn't belong here because it is inappropriate.
Seems there should be a new voting system. Up and down for agree/disagree, and flags for inappropriate content that doesn't require explanation and submitting a report. Submitting too many flags that turn out to be nothing mutes the user.
If you disagree, I think that's what the reply button is for-- state your disagreement and have a discussion (keeping it civil, of course). Just driving by and downvoting does not add anything, in my opinion.
That's a nice thought but you know already, from the post you created being downvoted, that system does not work. The basis of your argument is that people will follow the rules, which as a mod you know doesn't happen. I offered a solution, and you offered to just carry on the same way. The real issue is we do not have separate "agree/disagree" and "relevant/not relevant" distinctions.
You don't have to take my solution, but you must accept that your solution is already not working.
I'm totally with you on this one - downvote is not meant as a "I disagree" button, but it is used that way which created the famous Reddit "hive mind" problem. So this has been a pretty peeve of mine for years. It is already creating the same problem here.
But unfortunately, we're tilting at windmills on this case, so I think we will just have to accept that this is the way it's going to be.
Some people tend to downvote anything they don't explicitly want to upvote because of app settings using votes to take it out of their feed later. I was definitely guilty of doing this with Reddit is Fun, and it's especially bad when your communities are updating/contributing at a much slower rate than late-stage Reddit.