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I honestly don't know why there's a downvote function to begin with. I cannot downvote (yet?), but I wouldn't use it if I could. In the case that I disagree wit
by Funes- 7y ago
I honestly don't know why there's a downvote function to begin with. I cannot downvote (yet?), but I wouldn't use it if I could. In the case that I disagree with someone and I happen to be knowledgeable on the subject at hand, I'll write them a reply if I have the time to do it. What downvoting does, instead, is fostering polarization and bias, on top of silencing controversial comments that could very well be absolutely sensible and truthful.
- simias 7y agoI sort of agree, there's already a semi-hidden "flag" feature for guideline-breaking content. Still, the mindset of "I downvote good comments I disagree with" also generally leads to "I upvote bad comments I agree with" and that's not much better.
- ISL 7y agoI think the reason for the two mechanisms for signaling is to differentiate between "this person is being a jerk/is misinformed", and "Nuke this comment from orbit with extreme prejudice". That way, the flag function's significance for spam/malevolence/badness doesn't get diluted by people who would be content to downvote.
- KerrickStaley 7y agoI downvote things that seem poorly thought out, poorly argued, incendiary, or in general seem to be adding noise to the conversation without adding anything meaningful. It seems like there has been a rise in this sort of low-effort posting in the past few years, and I think downvoting is helpful to combat it. When I downvote something, I usually write a comment explaining why I think it's not useful, although I don't always have time to do so.