2 ms·

I don't mind having the option to click one of a small number of specific tiny phrases describing my downvote: "spam", "offtopic", "bad title", "dupe". But free

I don't mind having the option to click one of a small number of specific tiny phrases describing my downvote: "spam", "offtopic", "bad title", "dupe". But free-form responses? I want to subtly (or unsubtly) correct people, not start up a relationship with them. Indeed, given that a lot of bad posts are made by trolls, a relationship longer than one mouse click is the one thing you don't want to start. I don't want to waste valuable time figuring out exactly how sure I am that a particular title is bad, or how polite I should be, or whether or not I should take advantage of this high-bandwidth feedback mechanism to start some kind of conversation. Learn the design lesson of Twitter: More degrees of freedom doesn't necessarily help.

graphene 17y ago
But there wouldn't be a relationship, since the flags would be anonymous, and I presume filling in a comment would not be necessary for flagging. Given those two prerequisites, I think it's a great idea.
BRadmin 17y ago
I think free-form response might be a bad idea as well. One of the main problems is people being mean-spirited - now we're going to give these same people the option to anonymously write whatever they want to someone, without even the (modest) fear of being down-voted for their comment? I think this is a GREAT idea if it uses pre-selected phrases to convey specific / useful info to the author.