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The one downside (as I see it) of Reddit that Facebook, G+, and HN all don't have is the ability to downvote. Downvoting makes it so larger subreddits will onl
by kyrra 12y ago
The one downside (as I see it) of Reddit that Facebook, G+, and HN all don't have is the ability to downvote. Downvoting makes it so larger subreddits will only have material on their front page that the majority of that group agrees with. This leads to certain subreddits (like /r/politics/) being heavily dominated by one side of the subject area.
But I still use reddit daily myself. Getting off some of the default subreddits and subscribing to ones focused on a specific topic (a video game, programming language, city, etc...) has replaced specialized/focused forums for me. It's definitely a great communication platform.
- windsurfer 12y agoHN has downvoting. I was able to downvote you, and your comment went lower on the page and turned grey. HN also has excellent moderation.
- nilkn 12y agoI believe he's referring to stories, not comments, as he explicitly refers to material on the front page. I don't know if there's a karma threshold after which one can downvote stories. If there is, I haven't hit it, at 2129 karma as of this writing.
- waterlesscloud 12y agoYou can Flag stories at a certain point, which has a downvote-like effect if enough flags are accumulated.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- giarc 12y agoWith HN, once a user reaches a certain level of "upvotes" they unlock the ability to downvote.
- kyrra 12y agoYa, I thought about after I wrote it. Though I believe you can only downvote comments not stories on HN.
- buckbova 12y agoYou flag posts and they'll drop in the rankings, sometimes right off the front page.
- hayksaakian 12y agoi think the distinction in UX is important downvote sounds like the opposite of upvote flagging sounds like a reporting mechanism they actually do the same thing, but they give totally different impressions to new users.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- ivanca 12y agoThere is another state: vote-banned, like me; basically you see the up/down arrows in every comment but they do nothing at all (upvoting submissions do works).
- silencio 12y agoHow is that any different from upvoting patterns? A lot of upvotes has a bigger impact than any downvotes, and given the mod mail for the default subreddit I mod... people are well aware of that but continue to complain like that's something we can change. For what it is worth, I see plenty of stories drop off the HN front page by being overcommented on. HN seems to go for a 'controversial' rank rather than straight up scores. I'm not sure how that's any better. At least on reddit, you can pick the way you want to sort your stories and comments.
- vlunkr 12y agoAs others have said, you can downvote here to, but I know what you are saying. The majority always rules on reddit, and on the default subs, there are so many comments that you will never see anything but posts that agree with the majority. It's a tough problem to solve with community that big.