RANT Da heck with downvotes!?

Discussion in 'All Things LitRPG' started by Herko Kerghans, Jul 11, 2018.

  1. Herko Kerghans

    Herko Kerghans Biased Survivor LitRPG Author Citizen

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    /BeginRant

    Alright, I get it: the future has arrive, and it ain't what we thought it would be. I mean, how were we to guess that "able to freely exchange your ideas with literally any frikkin' body in the whole friggin' world" would also bring us trolls, sea lions, groupthink bubbles and internet mobs??

    But, alright, I get it; it was not gonna be all good; even if nobody could precisely predict how the ugly part was gonna look like, there was gonna be some ugly part; that's just life.

    Alright.

    But, da heck!?? Downvoting the LitRPG's reddit [Wednesday] Writer's thread?!?!?

    DaHeck.jpg



    I mean, really: why would anybody hanging around that subreddit would ever downvote a regular thread like that??



    Sheeesshhh...

    ... humans...

    /EndRant
     
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  2. Jay

    Jay Hiatus. LitRPG Author Beta Reader Citizen Aspiring Writer

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    I always wondered stuff like that. Like what kind of weird pleasure do people get from like...giving random 1 stars to books? Or just crapping on other people having fun? Like if you have nothing to add but "I don't like it!" or "this is STUPID" than...go do something else?
     
  3. Windfall

    Windfall Level 18 (Magician) LitRPG Author Citizen

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    I gotta admit I don't understand reddit at all. And I kinda think the upvote downvote thing is kinda silly? I mean, I want to get to this 'forum view' where things that get replied to get bumped up to the top and I've been trying to get that for... forever, but apparently it doesn't work that way?
     
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  4. Herko Kerghans

    Herko Kerghans Biased Survivor LitRPG Author Citizen

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    Yeah, I dunno.

    I get it that, as William Gibson put it, "the street find its own uses": tech is gonna be used in any way the users want (and can), not necessarily how the designers thought it was gonna be used. As such, even if reddit's downvote button is clearly labelled as "For content that does not contribute to any discussion" (there's a friggin' pop-up that says exactly that, for Stats' sake!!!), folks are gonna use it as "I disagree".

    (On the topic of pop-up, it's telling that the upvote button has none; but I digress, and this is a rant, not a digression!)

    Yet how on friggin' Earth, Mars and Beyond can anybody find a suitable definition for the downvote button that applies to threads like those is just...

    ... NNNGGNGHHH!!!

    Sheessh... I mean, really!
     
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  5. Windfall

    Windfall Level 18 (Magician) LitRPG Author Citizen

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    Maybe they just have it against the mods or something?
     
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  6. Herko Kerghans

    Herko Kerghans Biased Survivor LitRPG Author Citizen

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    Your guess is as good as mine, mate. =/

    More level-headed, though! =)
     
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  7. Kidlike101

    Kidlike101 Level 18 (Magician) Citizen

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    Dude it's reddit.

    There is no rhyme or reason for anything that goes on over there.

    I once got a -50 downvote for cracking a trump joke... ON A TRUMP MEME POST!

    Like serious you'd think my post would vanish at that point but nope, someone manually opened it just to argue with me how dumb it is to still bring up Trump... in a trump joke post... sure...
     
  8. Yuli Ban

    Yuli Ban Level 18 (Magician) LitRPG Author Citizen Aspiring Writer

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    TLDR: It's a mystery.
     
  9. Paul Bellow

    Paul Bellow Forum Game Master Staff Member LitRPG Author Shop Owner Citizen Aspiring Writer

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    Username checks out!

    (Not really... haha)
     
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  10. Alexis Keane

    Alexis Keane Level 14 (Defender) Roleplaying Beta Reader Citizen Aspiring Writer

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    The reddit upvote/downvote system is a little odd in that it purposefully obscures upvotes and downvotes from time to time, so number of votes tend to jump up and down usually between 2-4 for small posts... if you keep track of some of the votes on comments and such the like you will notice that they fluctuate slightly (even if the averages remain the same)... it's not maliciousness, it's just the reddit vote algorithm, which was designed to be misleading, being misleading...
     
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  11. Herko Kerghans

    Herko Kerghans Biased Survivor LitRPG Author Citizen

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    /Joking!

    Your patently obvious attempts at trying to add a bit or rational though into this rant are completely anti-rantic. Here, have downvote!!

    :p
     
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  12. Muffassa

    Muffassa Moderator LitRPG Author Citizen Aspiring Writer

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    Wow, I have been redditing for years and I never knew the downvote button was for things that didn't contribute to discussion. ""

    I guess I just it assumed that it was for content that people didn't like to see - that way by the time it gets to the front page it is almost guaranteed to be popular. Maybe a lot of other people held that assumption and downvote the writers thread since they are not writers? For some reason I doubt it. Seems more like a algorithm thing.
     
  13. Herko Kerghans

    Herko Kerghans Biased Survivor LitRPG Author Citizen

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    From what I've read, the original idea was to provide redditors with three options (there's always the "don't press any button" option when buttons are presented, of course!). So an upvote would be for things we find interesting, no push for discussions that we find are relevant but that not interest us, and a downvote for low-effort posts.

    I have a hunch, which I certainly cannot prove, that the underlying assumption was that redditors would be so open minded so as to upvote a solid argument against a position they hold, and also so open minded so as to downvote a really low-effort post supporting their own position.

    As it seems to have turned out, an important percentage of redditors (% varies a lot between subreddits, of course) seems to see the downvote as "I dislike what you've said, even if it's wonderfully said" (sometimes even "I dislike what you've said in the title, without even reading the whole post").

    In other words, more to punish opposing views (and to reward similar views), rather than punish lack of effort (or complete irrelevancy to the subreddit in question).

    Then again, the above is just my interpretation based on what I've seen & read. The only undisputable fact is the pop-up when you hover over the downvote button, so take the above rant/comments with a pinch of salt. =)
     




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