Change Up- & Downvoting?
Hello Snapzites!
I had a thought come up today, I am aware that upvoting is for a post that you like, find interesting or helpful etc. and downvoting is for posts that are violating rules, in the wrong tribe, flamebaiting etc. I am aware where this comes from but I cannot help to think that it is probably confusing to members who never before had the experience of a Snapzu-esque site.
Now wouldn't it be better if we eliminated the "seemingly polar opposite but with different rules"-connection between up- and downvoting? Like why not make them "Snap" and "Crap" (I literally came up with that on the spot and it's not very PC... I believe that the amazing community can come up with much better names). That way (new) users don't get confused: "When one button is when I like something, the other must be for disliking something"
I understand that this would be breaking out of the reddit established system, but we are Snapzu! Also such a change would probably spark the next sitewide drama on a site like reddit but I think with the current userbase here it would be possible.
Anyone with me or am I completely of the rails and should get my coffee first? :) I'd really like to hear input and thoughts about that!
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I don't believe this can be fixed by a simple name change, this will only be fixed if there is something visibly different in the downvoting process, like making writing a reason for the downvote mandatory.
That is completely true, but I think that having polar opposite terms for two things that should follow a different ruleset is not helping.
In league of legends if you report someone it asks for a reason labeled in a drop down menu. Maybe clicking on the button and then one of say 5,6 reasons that drop down?
I was just thinking about this because I got a downvote twice - both with no reasons given - and content was not incorrect nor offensive - so no idea why. But perhaps making giving a reason mandatory would cut down on people arbitrarily downvoting. I'd only skimmed /u/jmcs comment and hadn't seen the end. I agree with them.
I really like the mandatory reason idea. I noticed /u/drunkenninja mentioned that this had already been considered (and they were still open to it if there was demand) in another thread. It would add a welcome inconvenience to downvoting, which would only really annoy potential abusers. I think that those who are using the site in the way that is intended would generally be happy to add their reason.
If that was the way Snapzu decided to go, I would think having a drop-down list of the main reasons would be enough (perhaps with 'other - specify' the only one that has a free text entry). That would at least stop casual users misinterpreting the downvote's purpose (as they essentially have to read a list of appropriate downvote reasons every time).
I'm a post-redditor who actively used the down/upvote feature as a disagree button. Nobody told me that this was how it was to be used because no one had to. It was a learned behavior. I followed the example set by others. Same situation when I joined Snapzu, I read how people reacted to the downvotes they got or saw others getting and realized that it was a different concept. I think others will pick up on the same vibe as long as we maintain its ideals.
Early reddit treated the downvote the same way snapzu does. When the mobile site called them "agree/disagree", people were mad. " This isn't what the downvote is for!"
But gradually the admins were seen less and less (most admins I know of are gone) and they stopped propagating that idea. I think that what finally killed it is the large digg influx that weren't told about it.
To make it sure everyone is told about it, I think an explanation pop-up on your first downvote would do nicely.
After I read my post again I probably focused this too much on confusing people, sorry. I don't think people will be not able to adapt to the culture and usage of the buttons on the site, but since it is not the same concept as "Like/Dislike" or "Helpful/Not helpful" why have it called up- and downvoting?
But I thought it through after a coffee now and as I was typing this up I realized that it is making sense as in "This is good content" and "This content does not belong here" so I guess your comments and some coffee have cleared my head enough to realize that I was probably just looking at the concept from the wrong angle. :)