Down voting comments.

Has the possibility of a system of down voting on comments been discussed? I have seen this feature in the comments sections of other sites and think it is actually a decent tool for weeding out trollz etc and allows the community to do some self policing freeing up mods to do their mod duties. We already have stars which have turned into some kind of ridiculous game why not allow the inverse? This could also make it more fluid in threads where you wont have to skip over the one line responses of people disagreeing with some off topic comment.

Just throwing this out there for discussion.

Oh yeah it'd be a great feature. Yet, folks are too petty for such a feature. Imagine the drama. It's been brought up before and been a no go.

reply to post by NihilistSanta


Problem with dowvoting it's that's SUPER easy for a few dedicated people to get together and down vote something so that it never sees the light of day.

Mind you abuse can happen in any system, but we at ATS have always wanted to focus on the quality content, and not the Cr@p content. Don't get me wrong, plenty of stuff here I scoff at and wish wasn't, but then again, if it wasn't, ATS would not be nearly as interesting as it is right?

So, I don't think that any kind of negative voting system would become something ATS would adopt.

But, that's just my opinion, I could be totally wrong. I have no idea what the cia,nsa etc bosses, have in store .

~Tenth

It's been suggested numerous times (I think I even did once). It will never happen for a number of reasons. First off, it's completely unnecessary, even on Reddit.

It would seriously screw up threads the way they are now. People reply in order more or less, so having a bunch of downvoted comments at the ass end of a thread would throw off the discussion flow.

An unpopular opinion does not make it invalid or less important. This is one thing I despise about Reddit. Ask a question or lay out a thoughtful disagreement and your comment gets buried, then people pile on because they are weirdly obsessed with Karma. It's a cluster**** they need to fix.

There would be a ridiculous amount of brigading on ATS.

The site would get even more clicky. Upvote my comments and I'll upvote yours nonsense.

It would discourage quite a few folks from participating. I don't give a rats ass about my Karma on Reddit or here, but many people take it as a personal insult. 'Really guize, downvotes?'

reply to post by tothetenthpower


I was thinking more along the lines of a soft censor where comments are just rated rather than deleted based on low votes. This way it is still there but when I see 40 red stars next to someones comment I will know the are claiming to be an ascended master or some other such nonsense and can disregard.

What I do is, I just take a screen shot, then I print it, and then I get down, to down rating!

reply to post by NihilistSanta


How does that differ in anyway from the current system? If you see a bunch of stars it means people either agreed with or enjoyed the comment...

Also don't you want to read it for yourself instead of relying on other people?

In some situations like an AMA thread I think a vote system makes sense. In most, it doesn't. It detracts from the dialogue and minority opinions are eliminated even though the whole point of a discussion site is discussion.

reply to post by NihilistSanta


See that's the problem.

I'd up vote those people

See how it can be gamed? lol

~Tenth

Domo1
reply to post by NihilistSanta

 

How does that differ in anyway from the current system? If you see a bunch of stars it means people either agreed with or enjoyed the comment...

Also don't you want to read it for yourself instead of relying on other people?

In some situations like an AMA thread I think a vote system makes sense. In most, it doesn't. It detracts from the dialogue and minority opinions are eliminated even though the whole point of a discussion site is discussion.

It isn't exactly the same as the current system and would allow for the comments to still be there without any infringement on the ability to discuss it its just after reading so many threads I get to the point where I don't want to read 4 paragraphs that are way off topic and had a mod noticed would be marked as so.

I am a member of another board which had a thumbs up/thumbs down option. After a few months the thumbs down option was removed as it simply proved too problematic for a large number of users.

reply to post by NihilistSanta


That makes sense. I think the biggest gripe would be if it were somehow attached to the account. If it were purely a thread thing I can kinda see it. Still, ATS members are weird and a lot seem to think that someone disagreeing with them is 'trolling' or a paid disinfo agent or shill. Especially in certain forums.

If something is off topic we have a means to correct it, just hit the ALERT button on the name. Granted that is more of a pain in the behind for the moderators, but it's still there.

I've been in threads where I wholly disagreed with a poster and they probably would have been downvoted like crazy, but ended up reading their reply anyway, and was pleasantly surprised too many times to count. I'll star people even if I disagree if they make a good point or clearly put some effort in. Problem is most people probably won't, and a lot would rather everyone else ignored the comment and would downvote so people would just skip it.

Everyone is going to groan, but I'm going to use Phage as an example. The guy is clearly highly intelligent, very good about pointing to his sources etc. and tends to debunk things. So if someone that doesn't know that starts reading and sees a bunch of people have downvoted his comment (because he is so often accused of being a shill), they may just gloss over it and be swept up in the Chemtrail/GMO/Probing believers circlejerk.

reply to post by tothetenthpower


I would never do such a thing. Especially on the weekends. Or at night. Or on Mondays when I'm bored. And I'd never do that to the people who aren't funny.

reply to post by NihilistSanta


This lack of features is what makes ATS, ATS and not that other site. The main reason I enjoy this format...it keeps you in check.

Battle with your wits, not your status.

Silent Minority

NihilistSanta
Has the possibility of a system of down voting on comments been discussed?

Many times over the years.

And it's always been downvoted.

No way, the star system itself is rubbish.

A opinion may not be popular but sometimes the truth hurts or certain facts are not popular yet they get pushed under the carpet for poplar views and mob chest beating.
At the momonet the only sorts of threads that seem to get anywere are:
Obama is bad threads
ACA is bad threads
Gun control is bad threads
Welfare is bad threads
ect

And although I agree with most the above there seems to be little debate or disscusion, just popular view point chest beating and anyone with a counter viewpoint just gets lynched by the mob or ignored. I would even go as far to say there is mod bias.

And people get stared for such idiotic posts too. I remeber agreeing to something about gun control being bad in one thread and some dumb skull decided to twist my post and make it out so I disagreed cause Im British and he ended up with a dozen or so stars, yet his whole post was based on a lie.

NihilistSanta
Has the possibility of a system of down voting on comments been discussed? I have seen this feature in the comments sections of other sites and think it is actually a decent tool for weeding out trollz etc and allows the community to do some self policing freeing up mods to do their mod duties. We already have stars which have turned into some kind of ridiculous game why not allow the inverse? This could also make it more fluid in threads where you wont have to skip over the one line responses of people disagreeing with some off topic comment.

Just throwing this out there for discussion.

down post down that is a mod dutie, dont need your egotistical minimodding

Down voting comments.

I think ATS has it right by not having an avenue to cast negative strikes on other members. Taking into consideration the subjects discussed here (politics especially) and the heat that already so often builds in threads, having down strikes/votes (whatever) would seem entirely unhealthy.

NihilistSanta
reply to post by tothetenthpower

 

I was thinking more along the lines of a soft censor where comments are just rated rather than deleted based on low votes. This way it is still there but when I see 40 red stars next to someones comment I will know the are claiming to be an ascended master or some other such nonsense and can disregard.

geez...there wouldn't be a liberal or moderate left here on ATS, they would simply shrug their shoulders and quietly leave, like so many have already.

reply to post by jimmyx


Or moderate Right like I am.


It would just be Extreme right wingers beating there chests and acting all rar rar crazy and lynching anyone that disagrees even in the slighest.

UNBELIEVABLE, you guys have to throw in party politics here??