I think there isn't much to be done with the downvote system for topics, despite the possibility for abuse, it's a necessary part of the system.
However, I would love to see a rethink of how comments are displayed:
Imagine instead of one comment column that is ordered by "most upvoted" or "highest upvote to downvote ratio" (what I assume is the current "best" filter) , there are two columns of comments. One column will be the popular/best column, using the ordering similar to the current filter, and the other column would be dissenting opinions ordered by upvotes but not downvotes.
Let me give an example with some possible upvotes/downvotes.
Here is a list of comments with upvotes/downvotes:
You can think of this new column as a dissenting opinion column, the truly inane comments still get pushed to the bottom like the 1/20, but the controversial 32/74 comment is quite as it should be, displaying prominently.
The best way I can describe the benefit of this is a reduction in the "echo chamber" effect, that being the propensity for these sites to bury dissenting opinions.
I think there isn't much to be done with the downvote system for topics, despite the possibility for abuse, it's a necessary part of the system.
However, I would love to see a rethink of how comments are displayed:
Imagine instead of one comment column that is ordered by "most upvoted" or "highest upvote to downvote ratio" (what I assume is the current "best" filter) , there are two columns of comments. One column will be the popular/best column, using the ordering similar to the current filter, and the other column would be dissenting opinions ordered by upvotes but not downvotes.
Let me give an example with some possible upvotes/downvotes.
Here is a list of comments with upvotes/downvotes:
15/6, 32/74, 6/9, 54/32, 10/15, 12/12, 1/20, 5/7, 16/5, 20/30
The current filter would order them like by the best ratio:
16/5, 15/6, 54/32, 12/12, 5/7, 20/30, 10/15, 6/9, 32/74, 1/20
The new system would display like this:
Column 1: 16/5, 15/6, 54/32, 12/12, 5/7
Column 2: 32/74, 20/30, 10/15, 6/9, 1/20
You can think of this new column as a dissenting opinion column, the truly inane comments still get pushed to the bottom like the 1/20, but the controversial 32/74 comment is quite as it should be, displaying prominently.
The best way I can describe the benefit of this is a reduction in the "echo chamber" effect, that being the propensity for these sites to bury dissenting opinions.