If that is your reasoning, that is a blatant misuse of the down vote button. The down vote button is not a disagree button. The down vote button is intended to mark non-constructive, offensive or off-topic posts. This is Snapzu, not Reddit.
This situation is a clear example of why the voting system, as it currently functions, is not working in the way it was intended. It needs to change - I don't know how - but it needs to change. No amount of communication and convincing will change how people interpret this voting system. It needs to change.
Edit:
Added word in italics. I believe this whole situation regarding down votes and disagreement, offensiveness, etc. is a great example of why the voting system needs to be changed or at least improved upon.
I quite like how Facebook handles "reporting". There's an arrow that expands for more options and when you select "Hide Post", you can choose to see fewer posts from that particular page/user, or report that post.
I think a "Reason?" prompt like you suggested would help remedy the problem of down voting as a disagree button. It could have a selection of reasons:
- Off-topic / Not constructive
- Offensive
- Not in English
- I disagree with this post
When a user selects an option, they can give a short reason to why they thought it was off-topic, offensive or whatever.
If they select "I disagree with this post", the system could show a prompt:
You cannot down vote a post because you disagree. Hide post?
If a user clicks on "Hide post", that post will be collapsed and essentially hidden for the user, but a down vote will not be counted.
And I think a user who gets down voted deserves to see why they were down voted. A notification in their history could say:
Your comment has been down voted because it was considered offensive. Reason: "Derogatory comments toward author of article".
This way, if the poster feels necessary, they can edit their comment to remove or bring clarity to the reported content in their post.
What is offensive is subjective. You can slap that adjective on anything and say "well it was offensive to me" and then the word loses it's meaning and the system is broken.
You could say the same about whether something contributes to a discussion or not though. I feel like we should try and keep discussion as civil as possible though.
I'm not after internet points, I do fine here. And I'm not out to stop you from sharing your opinion. I'm after an influx of users who aren't using the sites tools the way they were meant to be implemented. You're the one who is turning it into something personal by making posts about internet popularity contests.
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