• MidasToren
    +4

    You're right, but the power is there, and whether through ignorance or malice, it will be used for that purpose. This is why I much prefer a system like Slashdot.org's where they have moderation points and modded posters that dictate from -1 to +5 the quality of comments. Trolls, hate comments, and shitposts that drop below a certain threshold are hidden, and posts above 0 are visible, and can be seen as to their quality. That kind of system is far less likely to be abused easily, Snapzu's system looks similar enough to Reddit/Digg's system that I fear it will be abused in the same way, I want to be wrong.

    • hallucigenia
      +4

      Unfortunately, I don't think you are wrong, and the problem stems from having the downvote as an anti-upvote. If you upvote posts you like, you're going to downvote ones that you don't. That's a natural association that takes effort to break. I would prefer no downvoting at all, but if you're really worried about shitposts, have an up button and a report button instead. If something gets "reported" enough, then it can be hidden. I've seen this system used on other sites, and it works great. Users don't "report" posts or comments just because they don't like them. It's taken a lot more seriously, because you know that somebody with authority (a mod or admin) will see it.