As long as the button is there you're going to get the odd downvote once in awhile. Sometimes posts can irk people that otherwise look fine to others and they'll hit that downvote button without putting much thought into why they're doing it. That's the downside to a voting system like this. It's based on kneejerk feelings and requires no effort. It's the reason why we're seeing trending snaps with no comments on them. I've made a personal rule here that if I'm upvoting a snap I'll try to make a comment on it just to try and get some discussion going.
As for your other text topic. I can see why people choose to downvote it. It just comes across as whining over nothing. The author's assessment you linked to is fair. Snapzu is a bit short on the debate side and can look rather dull as a result. But that easy going atmosphere is why I hanged my hat here. If this was a typical site that used the up arrow to promote content and the down arrow to push it down. Then I likely would have downvoted it as well. Snapzu is unique in how we treat the downvote button. We'll have to beat it into users that it needs to be used for very specific purposes and that they have to think before clicking it, and curbing basic impulses is a difficult thing to do.
There's a couple of possible solutions that I have in mind in order to help train our users. First is to take away the voting abilities of new users during the first few experience levels. This forces them to get used to the site and see how it works. Hopefully they'll shed the old vote button habits by the time they gain the ability. Second is to limit the amount of upvotes and downvotes spent per day. Knowing that votes are a finite resource will make users rethink whether that post or snap is really worth voting on. Maybe increase the number of votes permitted as a user gains experience levels to tie it into that system.
Thanks for link. I heard about the downvote limit but never looked into the actual numbers.
But I'm also advocating for a limit on upvotes as well. Ideally it would prevent users from simply using it as an agree button to push opinions they happen to like to the top. Instead it would force them to save their votes for better quality content.
As for your other text topic. I can see why people choose to downvote it. It just comes across as whining over nothing.
This is your opinion, which I respect, and yet I upvote you even though it's disagreeing with my thoughts on why I posted that which I won't get into here. They're valid feelings submitted by a real person. It's not that hard to come to that conclusion, and I feel like we are making too many excuses for new users.
As for your last paragraph while I do think that would be a positive step forward, users will not learn if they aren't told they are doing something wrong at the time they're doing it. Sending a link to an FAQ or Rule List will never be taken seriously if there aren't repercussions for seeing a snap, downvoting it because you don't like it, and going on with your day. If you're going to damage the reputation of another user because you don't like their content they deserve to seek you out and ask you face to face why you did it, maybe you have a valid opinion, maybe you don't.
This system of 'downvotes with no names or faces' is highly conducive to the hive minding that make other places terrible to participate in. In those senarios you're just being down voted by the "system" or the "group" or the "members at hand" and not downvoted by user X for reason Y. I don't think that cuts it for a lot of people. We need some accountability.
As long as the button is there you're going to get the odd downvote once in awhile. Sometimes posts can irk people that otherwise look fine to others and they'll hit that downvote button without putting much thought into why they're doing it. That's the downside to a voting system like this. It's based on kneejerk feelings and requires no effort. It's the reason why we're seeing trending snaps with no comments on them. I've made a personal rule here that if I'm upvoting a snap I'll try to make a comment on it just to try and get some discussion going.
As for your other text topic. I can see why people choose to downvote it. It just comes across as whining over nothing. The author's assessment you linked to is fair. Snapzu is a bit short on the debate side and can look rather dull as a result. But that easy going atmosphere is why I hanged my hat here. If this was a typical site that used the up arrow to promote content and the down arrow to push it down. Then I likely would have downvoted it as well. Snapzu is unique in how we treat the downvote button. We'll have to beat it into users that it needs to be used for very specific purposes and that they have to think before clicking it, and curbing basic impulses is a difficult thing to do.
There's a couple of possible solutions that I have in mind in order to help train our users. First is to take away the voting abilities of new users during the first few experience levels. This forces them to get used to the site and see how it works. Hopefully they'll shed the old vote button habits by the time they gain the ability. Second is to limit the amount of upvotes and downvotes spent per day. Knowing that votes are a finite resource will make users rethink whether that post or snap is really worth voting on. Maybe increase the number of votes permitted as a user gains experience levels to tie it into that system.
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As per your example:
This is your opinion, which I respect, and yet I upvote you even though it's disagreeing with my thoughts on why I posted that which I won't get into here. They're valid feelings submitted by a real person. It's not that hard to come to that conclusion, and I feel like we are making too many excuses for new users.
As for your last paragraph while I do think that would be a positive step forward, users will not learn if they aren't told they are doing something wrong at the time they're doing it. Sending a link to an FAQ or Rule List will never be taken seriously if there aren't repercussions for seeing a snap, downvoting it because you don't like it, and going on with your day. If you're going to damage the reputation of another user because you don't like their content they deserve to seek you out and ask you face to face why you did it, maybe you have a valid opinion, maybe you don't.
This system of 'downvotes with no names or faces' is highly conducive to the hive minding that make other places terrible to participate in. In those senarios you're just being down voted by the "system" or the "group" or the "members at hand" and not downvoted by user X for reason Y. I don't think that cuts it for a lot of people. We need some accountability.