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Hey guys! As you can see, I’m back to using text. I’m not a huge fan of how my last blog turned out visually, and this way I can hyperlink things in the blog.
As I said in Scatterbrain, there are posts making it to the pop reel that actually are horrendously unpopular. This used to be combatted here on PMC by having downvotes. If only a minority liked a post, then the downvotes from the majority would keep it off the pop reel. Now, they were removed, and I think that was a good decision, as people would downvote a post without giving any feedback, leading to users who knew their content was bad but not how to fix it. This was incredibly frustrating for beginners like I was at the time, as I had no idea what about my posts people didn’t like. The Pinewood Hotel is a prime example; lots of downvotes but no reasons given. I can see now that it’s pretty low quality, but at the time I was absolutely bewildered. However, I think we need to consider bringing them back because now that PMC’s population is quite large, proportionally small minorities are large enough to boost unpopular posts to the pop reel.
The main pro for bringing back dowvotes, and the whole reason I’m writing this blog, is that it gives dissenters a voice. Right now, if you dislike something, you have no way of saying “no, I think this should not be on the pop reel,” other than of course putting it in a comment, but that has no real impact on whether or not the submission gets to the reel or not. There’s no real way to actually measure the popularity of posts anymore. This would also give users a more accurate picture of how much people like their content; while comments are good to a degree, having downvotes would allow for a more accurate measurement, which I think would also be useful for the poster. For example, my rant last qeek got a decent numbe of diamonds, but also a ton of hate in the comments section, and I garauntee if those people had had the option to downvote then it would have been a more accurate reprisentation of the popularity of the blog, insted of it getting on the pop reel n diamond counts but getting a ton of hates in the comments. If you want to see an example of downvotes working effectively, visit Reddit. They have upvotes and downvotes, and it allows for a more balanced rating system.
The main downside is in people downvoting a post without giving any feedback. Having been in that situation, it’s incredibly frustrating, as I still don’t know how to make the post better, only that people don’t like it. So there’s always the potential for a post to be downvoted into oblivion without the poster always knowing why. There’s also the potential for trolls, who might downvote all of a user’s posts or downvote everything they see or something like that. This would also contribute to the unhelpful downvotes problem. These are all the problems that I could see arising, but I may have missed some, so let me know in the comments section if you think there’s anything else to be metioned.
Personally, I think they should come back. No real surprise there, I wouldn’t have written the blog otherwise. But I do think that the old system isn’t quite right either, for the reasons listed in cons. So here’s my solution. Bring back downvotes, but make it so that they require a description, like reports. It only takes, like, 30 seconds, and it gives valuable feedback to the user. It also makes users think about their downvote, because it means that they can’t just click and forget, they actually have to say something intelligent. And to combat trolls, who of course would just write something trolly in the feedback box, there could be a way to report users for downvote trolling just like how you can report anything else a user does on PMC. I think this would lead to a balanced system, allowing the pros of downvoting to exist while combatting the cons. Sure, the plan has its flaws, but nothing is perfect. I mean, the whole reason I’m writing this blog is because I think our current system is breaking down, to a degree. So that’s my proposal.
Hop you enjoyed the blog! Diamond if you did. But what would be really great is if you visited this forum thread; I’ve put up a poll on whether or not downvotes should some back or not. If enough people see it, we might actually make some significant change here at PMC! Think about how cool that would be, saying you were part of the movement that ushered in the new downvotes system.
Anyway, that’ all for this week!
Enraric out.
Some Background
As I said in Scatterbrain, there are posts making it to the pop reel that actually are horrendously unpopular. This used to be combatted here on PMC by having downvotes. If only a minority liked a post, then the downvotes from the majority would keep it off the pop reel. Now, they were removed, and I think that was a good decision, as people would downvote a post without giving any feedback, leading to users who knew their content was bad but not how to fix it. This was incredibly frustrating for beginners like I was at the time, as I had no idea what about my posts people didn’t like. The Pinewood Hotel is a prime example; lots of downvotes but no reasons given. I can see now that it’s pretty low quality, but at the time I was absolutely bewildered. However, I think we need to consider bringing them back because now that PMC’s population is quite large, proportionally small minorities are large enough to boost unpopular posts to the pop reel.
Bringing back Downvotes: The Pros
The main pro for bringing back dowvotes, and the whole reason I’m writing this blog, is that it gives dissenters a voice. Right now, if you dislike something, you have no way of saying “no, I think this should not be on the pop reel,” other than of course putting it in a comment, but that has no real impact on whether or not the submission gets to the reel or not. There’s no real way to actually measure the popularity of posts anymore. This would also give users a more accurate picture of how much people like their content; while comments are good to a degree, having downvotes would allow for a more accurate measurement, which I think would also be useful for the poster. For example, my rant last qeek got a decent numbe of diamonds, but also a ton of hate in the comments section, and I garauntee if those people had had the option to downvote then it would have been a more accurate reprisentation of the popularity of the blog, insted of it getting on the pop reel n diamond counts but getting a ton of hates in the comments. If you want to see an example of downvotes working effectively, visit Reddit. They have upvotes and downvotes, and it allows for a more balanced rating system.
Bringing back Downvotes: The Cons
The main downside is in people downvoting a post without giving any feedback. Having been in that situation, it’s incredibly frustrating, as I still don’t know how to make the post better, only that people don’t like it. So there’s always the potential for a post to be downvoted into oblivion without the poster always knowing why. There’s also the potential for trolls, who might downvote all of a user’s posts or downvote everything they see or something like that. This would also contribute to the unhelpful downvotes problem. These are all the problems that I could see arising, but I may have missed some, so let me know in the comments section if you think there’s anything else to be metioned.
My verdict:
Personally, I think they should come back. No real surprise there, I wouldn’t have written the blog otherwise. But I do think that the old system isn’t quite right either, for the reasons listed in cons. So here’s my solution. Bring back downvotes, but make it so that they require a description, like reports. It only takes, like, 30 seconds, and it gives valuable feedback to the user. It also makes users think about their downvote, because it means that they can’t just click and forget, they actually have to say something intelligent. And to combat trolls, who of course would just write something trolly in the feedback box, there could be a way to report users for downvote trolling just like how you can report anything else a user does on PMC. I think this would lead to a balanced system, allowing the pros of downvoting to exist while combatting the cons. Sure, the plan has its flaws, but nothing is perfect. I mean, the whole reason I’m writing this blog is because I think our current system is breaking down, to a degree. So that’s my proposal.
Hop you enjoyed the blog! Diamond if you did. But what would be really great is if you visited this forum thread; I’ve put up a poll on whether or not downvotes should some back or not. If enough people see it, we might actually make some significant change here at PMC! Think about how cool that would be, saying you were part of the movement that ushered in the new downvotes system.
Anyway, that’ all for this week!
Enraric out.
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My reason for downvoting this post is____
(~) The post is not described or pictured sufficiently
(~) The post is irrelevent and is not necessary
(~) The post appears to not have work put into it
(~) The post is not appealing
If you don't like them, do not say anything. The people that likes it doesn't care about you dissing it. If you like it you can give diamond. But if you don't like it, ignore it.