Can we talk about downvoting?

I had been considering making a similar post myself, so I'm sure my thoughts on this are very close to yours.

I personally refuse to down-vote anyone unless it is immediately obvious what my problem would be, e.g. they made an insulting comment with little to no substance to it. If I disagree, I'll instead reply explaining why I think they are wrong. Either I'm wrong, they are, or it is subjective enough that there is no wrong, but in any case someone learns something from the resulting discussion.

Likewise, I wish people did the same to me. I'd much rather know I'm wrong than have an empty down-vote that doesn't tell me anything other than that someone somewhere possibly disagrees with me but not enough to want to change my mind.

I personally only downvote in two cases:

1. I disagree on the post and want to express this; in this case I also reply and state my opinion
2. Unfriendly behavior (e.g. insults); this is pretty rare here though

That being said, down and upvoting is a legit function on this site and people are free to do it for no reason whatsoever. I am not bothered by downvotes and I think nobody should be. This in no way changes my interaction on the site. I also don't ask for reasons, people could have a ton or none at all. It is the internet after all :)

Maybe make the downvotes button with a reason review? Or do both.

What I mean is, when you up/down vote, force it to leave a short review, eg. Loved, Funny, Trolls, or Text emojis (like Discord).

EDIT, I know it's not easy, but I think it will give us a straight reason why it was up/downvoted. (and probably just hide the voter)

Or how about an option to deactivate seeable up- and downvotes? I have no real interest in seeing how "the majority" likes or dislikes certain posts. I want an "unrated" look on posts I read for the first time.

Quote From Maurice

Or how about an option to deactivate seeable up- and downvotes? I have no real interest in seeing how "the majority" likes or dislikes certain posts. I want an "unrated" look on posts I read for the first time.

I actually like this idea.  Hidden votes (for comments/posts).  Decks should still show the vote count to show popularity of them though.  

Quote From Fluxflashor

"Reactions"

yeah. that. I don't know how to call it. But I guess someone hates you and downvote you anyway. LOL.

I think this would be solved if you could click on the number and see who upvoted or downvoted your post. When i upvote myself in a thread i usually try to do it only once at the first time, because people are more likely to read my WALL OF TEXT if it looks like someone else has read it and agreed with my point. After that i don't really care. Fake internet points don't really matter. I upvote my own decks if i make descriptions and think people should see them and leave my ones i am testing or don't care about to die at 0 or below. But even then it's better to put a comment on them saying "Hope you like it" or something like that because they'll appear on the forum section(or at least they used to) on the front page.

I saw a specific user that when he appeared on a thread suddenly he had everyone downvoted and he upvoted himself so I know who it is and I already reported him, hopefully in future reveals it won't happen.

ye down vote only when it's an opinion you don't agree with or when someone is being mean.. that's how I do it, if it's something worth commenting on I will do just that just keep it social you know..

also don't get offended when you get downvoted specially when you said something you know might be unpopular, or an evaluation of a card/deck that just is probably not right it's opinion based after all...

at least there are no achievements on downvoting/upvoting so people just do it when they need to.

I’m pretty sure that the issue is just a single user downvoting comments for no reason, not the whole community being toxic. I’ve seen a few posts get random downvotes, but after I upvoted them to balance it out they stayed at “0” upvotes. It seems like in general people don’t upvote a post unless they really like it, so if someone downvotes a post it usually stays downvoted for a while.

BTW I think you shouldn't be able to upvote yourself.

Quote From DoubleSummon

also don't get offended when you get downvoted specially when you said something you know might be unpopular

For example when you express the opinion that a control deck should be nerfed, because all smart players know that only aggro decks have to be nerfed. Always. ^^

Quote From Maurice

Quote From DoubleSummon

also don't get offended when you get downvoted specially when you said something you know might be unpopular

For example when you express the opinion that a control deck should be nerfed, because all smart players know that only aggro decks have to be nerfed. Always. ^^

It's easier to win against a deck that wins after 20 turns than one that wins after 4 maybe that's why

Upvote for that :)

Quote From clawz161

Quote From Maurice

Quote From DoubleSummon

also don't get offended when you get downvoted specially when you said something you know might be unpopular

For example when you express the opinion that a control deck should be nerfed, because all smart players know that only aggro decks have to be nerfed. Always. ^^

It's easier to win against a deck that wins after 20 turns than one that wins after 4 maybe that's why

Name one deck in the current meta which (regulary) wins after 4 turns, please.

Quote From Maurice

Quote From clawz161

Quote From Maurice

Quote From DoubleSummon

also don't get offended when you get downvoted specially when you said something you know might be unpopular

For example when you express the opinion that a control deck should be nerfed, because all smart players know that only aggro decks have to be nerfed. Always. ^^

It's easier to win against a deck that wins after 20 turns than one that wins after 4 maybe that's why

Name one deck in the current meta which (regulary) wins after 4 turns, please.

token druid totem shaman demon hunte

I can't really speak to the Hearthstone side, but on the Runeterra side I will downvote a deck if I think there's something wrong with it: i.e. if it's a clearly inferior version of a meta deck, or a meme deck that just took things too far and isn't viable. There's nothing malicious about this act; it's just that the OoC lists are based on numbers and I want the more competitive and/or novel decks towards the top because it makes the site more useful to other readers.

Don't get me wrong -- I only use downvotes sparingly and focus more on upvotes, constructive comments, etc; I also think blanket downvoting is just trolling behavior that shouldn't be encouraged. But yeah: I think overall having a downvote function is pretty important.

Its just easier to downvote something than to spend 10 minutes writing up a disagreement. That's unfortunately how our society works after years of training from internet usage.

I usually just ignore the upvotes and downvotes. I'll read through the other comments on the site to understand what is happening and that's about it. I do note however, that the upvotes/downvotes on decks are a different thing altogether since there's only limited slots available for the few chosen decks to get displayed on the front page, so much so that by not upvoting your own deck you face a distinct disadvantage in terms of views.

Yes I agree voting on decks is different than voting on comments.

I usually find myself upvoting dapperdog because I almost agree with what you said and the way you expressed it.

There do seem to be waves of downvoting mass comments in a news item - often without much obvious reasoning behind them.  Perhaps that's just the way it seems and not reflected in the database behind the site.

The system is good and I simply try not to take it personally.  Automated measures to detect and deter abuse in the future sounds good.

Quote From Maurice

Quote From clawz161

Quote From Maurice

Quote From DoubleSummon

also don't get offended when you get downvoted specially when you said something you know might be unpopular

For example when you express the opinion that a control deck should be nerfed, because all smart players know that only aggro decks have to be nerfed. Always. ^^

It's easier to win against a deck that wins after 20 turns than one that wins after 4 maybe that's why

Name one deck in the current meta which (regulary) wins after 4 turns, please.

Pre-nerf DH aggro

Quote From clawz161

Quote From Maurice

Quote From clawz161

Quote From Maurice

Quote From DoubleSummon

also don't get offended when you get downvoted specially when you said something you know might be unpopular

For example when you express the opinion that a control deck should be nerfed, because all smart players know that only aggro decks have to be nerfed. Always. ^^

It's easier to win against a deck that wins after 20 turns than one that wins after 4 maybe that's why

Name one deck in the current meta which (regulary) wins after 4 turns, please.

token druid totem shaman demon hunte

Demon Hunter on turn 4? Never seen before. And yes the other two decks can kill you with a perfect draw, when the enemy does nothing for 3 turns. But my question was: "Name one deck in the current meta which (regulary) wins after 4 turns". I played Aggro Druid more than once to get Legend and I can tell you that you not regulary kill your opponent in 4 turns with this deck. 5, 6, 7 turns sure thats the norm - but in 4 turns is an exception and not the rule.

And Totem Shaman is so weak at the moment, on turn 4 is often the time they surrender, because I kept their board constantly low so there is no "turn 4 wombo combo" with the axe and no real way to come back for them on the board.

EDIT: About the real topic: Maybe it could make sense that there is not in every part of this site and up- and downvote feature. As several users stated this feature can be useful to identify troll comments in the news section faster. But in some parts of the site I think this feature is "kind of useless", because it just shows how popular an opinion is, which says little to nothing about the quality of the rated post.

Personally i only downvote when someone is REALLY trolling hard or acting very toxic. And during the card reveal discussion I've seen my comments and those of many other downvoted as well (With mostly just 1 vote), My guess is that me and most others didn't up-vote their own comment and just a single person/troll downvoted every comment in those threats. 

I have also experienced some cases where me and someone else were having a civil discussion about [Hearthstone Card (Sir Finley of the sand) Not Found]s viability, but then "suddenly" most of the decks i posted at the time got disliked. It's unfortunate but these kinda things just happen sometimes.

Personally i kinda ignore up- and down votes most of the time. There are plenty of times i got downvoted and luckely most of the time people tell my why they disliked my comment. If those people are right and are correcting me, i thank them for it and upvote their comment. The only time i care a super tiny amount about downvotes is when my brand new decks are downvoted without people telling me why they did it. (mainly because I always ask for suggestions for improving the deck) Luckely this community for the most part is very civil and it is a very nice place, and i'm really happy to be part of it :)

Quote From Brandon

Luckely this community for the most part is very civil and it is a very nice place, and i'm really happy to be part of it :)

-1 !!!!!  You mispelt luckily you **$#**'!

Not really j/k :P  +1

Quote From Fluxflashor

that troll now knows who "got their jimmies rustled"

All I know is, I’m definitely going to start using this Fluxism in everyday conversation. Let’s rustle some jimmies!

Quote From Fluxflashor

There is zero chance we'll ever let anyone see who is upvoting and downvoting content. In my experience, it just leads to harassment when people go after those that downvoted them. It creates a toxic atmosphere, especially when you downvote someone trolling and that troll now knows who "got their jimmies rustled" so they can go after them. Preventing that scenario from even happening is A+ in my book.

Upvoting yourself is an odd one, I will agree. The reason behind it though, which I know I've mentioned in the past somewhere but since we have a fresh thread on it let me repeat it, is because it gives us more flexibility. If you go through the deck database, not many people upvote their own decks. I'm willing to wager if a person doesn't upvote their own deck initially, there is a higher chance it isn't a deck worth looking at. Maybe someone is using the site to catalog decks they like. It's sort of a power-user feature so people that know it exists and are writing good deck content can make use of it to get themselves higher in the initial rankings.

Now, upvoting your own comments just comes from the silliness that is us using the same voting system for everything on the site. It might be a bit strange, but honestly, we'd just be starting everyone at +1 anyway without it so its another opportunity for people to signal boost themselves if they think they wrote something worth seeing.

Ultimately though, the points don't matter much and its just something fun. It's super easy feedback to give since it is low effort and if people really need to upvote themselves, I'm okay with it =D

I mean is there a possible realm where we move away from the current internet meta of "liking/upvoting/reacting" to everything?  Can we possibly go back to a "good ole days" era where there were no likes/upvotes on comments.  People make comments, and people respond.  If people don't like the comment, they can reply and say "you are wrong and here's why".  If people troll, we just use the report button to report the people who troll.  

The problem inherent with "liking/voting/etc" systems is that it panders to , frankly speaking, the Facebook type of crowd that can't be bothered to respond to a picture of a family member, so they just like it instead.

Maybe if the downvoting is the problem, we just get rid of "liking or disliking" comments altogether.  After all, comments are opinions:  sometimes they are wrong, sometimes they are right, but they are opinions.  And people are allowed to make their opinions heard if they so wish, correct?  As someone mentioned earlier, there was a problem with someone or some people mass downvoting news thread comments.  And they most likely didn't contribute to the thread themselves.  If we removed the ability to like/dislike a comment, wouldn't that solve the issue? It would force the people who don't want to contribute, and instead just want to downvote people they disagree with to actually formulate an opposing opinion and write it down...

And if the mass downvoters/trolls/whatever they are get pushed away by a new environment that doesn't have like/dislike buttons, then that's better overall for the community anyhow isn't it?

Just a thought.

Quote From sinti

Quote From clawz161

I think this would be solved if you could click on the number and see who upvoted or downvoted your post. When i upvote myself in a thread i usually try to do it only once at the first time, because people are more likely to read my WALL OF TEXT if it looks like someone else has read it and agreed with my point. After that i don't really care. Fake internet points don't really matter. I upvote my own decks if i make descriptions and think people should see them and leave my ones i am testing or don't care about to die at 0 or below. But even then it's better to put a comment on them saying "Hope you like it" or something like that because they'll appear on the forum section(or at least they used to) on the front page.

It could be used in some cases to harass the users by the person who was the target of the downvote. Also it could create a feeling to "trade upvotes", or "being mentally pressured into upvoting a comment for the same person who upvoted you so they dont take offense", we've had that before. There are reasons both to display and not display it.

I would agree if upvoted mattered, which they don't. I have been the subject of many, MANY downvote mobs even when i was making obvious jokes(i made a joke about an otk using 2 cards from 2 different classes, i proceeded to be downvoted into oblivion because people didn't understand that the fact it was impossible to generate both cards was the joke.) and it doesn't matter. It did not discourage me from stating my opinion on the subjects i was downvoted in. I still say aggro needs to be toned down and control doesn't need to be deleted. And whether the system is implemented or not where people know who EXACTLY downvoted you. The person being downvoted knows who it is most of the time. There are about 3 people i see regularly on this site that downvote me no matter what i say. And unlike someone above i don't report them for doing so i just think they're pathetic.

Quote From Pezman

Example #1: I posted a deck a few weeks ago, and upvoted myself. Someone else came along and downvoted it. No comment or anything. What's the point? If you don't like the deck, offer some constructive criticism. Why was it worth someone's time to just randomly downvote a deck?

In general, when voting on forums was first introduced it was to prevent spammy posts. Would you rather have a downvote or the village idiot going around saying THIS SUCKS or a posting a poop emoji on a deck. I'd rather have the downvote.

That's not to cover sincere voting yea or nay on a deck and why someone may feel it's important to contribute or not. 

Quote From guivre

Quote From Pezman

Example #1: I posted a deck a few weeks ago, and upvoted myself. Someone else came along and downvoted it. No comment or anything. What's the point? If you don't like the deck, offer some constructive criticism. Why was it worth someone's time to just randomly downvote a deck?

In general, when voting on forums was first introduced it was to prevent spammy posts. Would you rather have a downvote or the village idiot going around saying THIS SUCKS or a posting a poop emoji on a deck. I'd rather have the downvote.

That's not to cover sincere voting yea or nay on a deck and why someone may feel it's important to contribute or not. 

People do that anyway though? Make a thread talking about anything and one of the first comments will be someone saying "salt thread

Just my two cents. How I do upvote/downwote

Most of the comments I just read.

If I like the comment, I upvote. 

If I think the comment is aggresive or offtopic I downvote. 

EDIT: I just realized I downvote when I strongly disagree with a comment if someone already responded with my thoughts. Basically to me these are Agree - Disagree buttons.

For me it´s quite simple. I upvote when I agree with the comment, support it or just like it, I downvote when I disagree or don´t like it (mostly troll or mean posts). When I have something to add/say to the post, I reply to it directly, if I don´t I just express my feelings by up/downvoting if I feel that way (f.e. there is no point on replying "I agree", when I can just upvote the comment, which means the same).

By downvoting I don´t mean to hurt someone´s feelings, and when someone downvotes me, I don´t take it as assault towards me, I take it as they simply don´t agree with me and that´s okay.

Quote From clawz161

 

 I have been the subject of many, MANY downvote mobs even when i was making obvious jokes(i made a joke about an otk using 2 cards from 2 different classes, i proceeded to be downvoted into oblivion because people didn't understand that the fact it was impossible to generate both cards was the joke.) and it doesn't matter. 

On the topic of downvoting people when they are making a joke, sometimes the joke isn't funny, sometimes the joke is inappropriate, maybe it is too obscure and people don't get it, maybe people don't appreciate the sarcasm. There are many reasons someone would want to downvote a joke, and just because you made a joke doesn't mean people have to like it. I am not talking about you specifically, this is just something I have seen people complain about before and I just want to get my opinion out there.

On the topic of up-votes and down-votes in general, I think SykoMyke is on to something. It would be interesting to just remove the voting system on comments altogether and just have people express their opinions verbally. We would keep it for decks so that we could sort them by popularity and show the hottest decks on the front page, but for comments a voting system simply isn't necessary.

Hate to bring this up again, but I think we should respect each other thought and comments and not downvote everything that you don't agree with. Unless of course they're rude or offensive from the start.

Everyone has their own thoughts. People try to find some fun in their little community, and maybe some friend to discuss things with, maybe to get better understanding of something. If you find it false or missleading, go ahead and help, or just read it and skip it.

Honest opinion is basically the start of discussions, if you people start off downvoting every opinion you don't aggree with, there would be no more left to discuss. Or would be very short one because no one respect yours.

What good will it be?
No one wants that.

So please. Start respecting every little opinion and keep the downvotes for the offensive one. Thanks and have a great day.

Personnaly I'd prefer no voting system at all. I almost never use it. It makes sens for decks or for cards but for posts frankly that's bullshit. The only place where it may be justified is in the Fan Creations section, though then you can have only one counter for the whole thread.

*boomer mode on* Back in MY days from pre-social-media internet young people weren't so thirsty for attention and weren't constantly judging each other!

Quote From Cheese

Personnaly I'd prefer no voting system at all. I almost never use it. It makes sens for decks or for cards but for posts frankly that's bullshit. The only place where it may be justified is in the Fan Creations section, though then you can have only one counter for the whole thread.

*boomer mode on* Back in MY days from pre-social-media internet young people weren't so thirsty for attention and weren't constantly judging each other!

Aggred. Petition to remove voting in the comment section and just use it to vote cards design. Use votes where it serves a greater purpose. Building a community is not about likes or dislikes, it's about the discussions itself.

Totally good idea man. It feels like no one gonna start commenting at things when they know it will get downvoted if others don't agree with it.