We need a downvote button....

[Malifry97]

Here's my bottom line, and then I'll explain.....I think this is better handled by respectfully posting your opinion, with facts or explanations backing it up.

Now here's my reasoning....yes, there are some factual errors made, but so much is opinion. Here's some examples, and I'll purposely make them controversial:

1. Undergravel filters are the only way to set up a saltwater tank.

2. LED's don't grow corals, metal halide is the only way to go.

3. Quarantining fish is a waste of time.

My preference is to handle these kind of post with other opinions chiming in and hopefully convince that your way is the right way.

Fair point. There is two sides to every coin

 

[Sump Crab]

Can I downvote this suggestion?

 

[Malifry97]

I don't like the hiding posts part but agree with the rest. But I do see where Crabs and NS Mike D are coming from.

What I mean is when the post is hidden, it would show the user and how many downvotes. You could click on it and see what it said. Maybe add a setting to turn off that feature?

 

[Malifry97]

Can I downvote this suggestion?

Feel free to if thats how you feel thats what im pushing for. A better expression of opinion

 

[Malifry97]

What forum are you speaking of specifically? We have tested an upvote type system for the best answers.

Not sure I understand the question...im talking about R2R forum wide

 

[Crabs McJones]

What I mean is when the post is hidden, it would show the user and how many downvotes. You could click on it and see what it said. Maybe add a setting to turn off that feature?

Seems more like shaming to me. Again if someone gives bad or wrong advice, the best thing to do for the betterment of the community is to correct incorrect advice in a friendly and helpful manner.

 

[W1ngz]

I'm all for UP votes, but not down.

I don't know that we need anything special though, it's usually pretty clear when a solution to someone's problem comes along, it inevitably starts to pick up likes.

 

[Sump Crab]

Feel free to if thats how you feel thats what im pushing for. A better expression of opinion

Just because an opinion is popular doesn't make it right. Censorship of unpopular voices will always result in a much worse "expression of opinion".

That's my 2 cents, take it or leave it. Have a good one.

 

[NHgoalstop]

Yeah, let's not turn this into reddit please.

 

[Tahoe61]

The concept of a down button just feels wrong.

 

[Smarkow]

Fair point. There is two sides to every coin

False, most coins have two edges and three surfaces. I demand the chance to downvote you!!

That being said, I sort of agree with OP that a way to sort of soft flag something as suspicious might be useful - like not a flag for a moderator (R2R team seems busy enough!) but maybe something that politely signals skepticism?

Maybe expand the emoji options on the like button further? “Downvote” does seem like a harsh way of putting it. R2R is a nice safe space for newbies to get info and a sudden downvote option might stifle people’s questions..

How tough would it be to enable certain forums (like the “Tank Emergency” or “Reef Chemistry with RHF”) to have a ranked answer option like Quora
uses?

Just my 0.02

 

[Malifry97]

False, most coins have two edges and three surfaces. I demand the chance to downvote you!!

That being said, I sort of agree with OP that a way to sort of soft flag something as suspicious might be useful - like not a flag for a moderator (R2R team seems busy enough!) but maybe something that politely signals skepticism?

Maybe expand the emoji options on the like button further? “Downvote” does seem like a harsh way of putting it. R2R is a nice safe space for newbies to get info and a sudden downvote option might stifle people’s questions..

How tough would it be to enable certain forums (like the “Tank Emergency” or “Reef Chemistry with RHF”) to have a ranked answer option like Quora
uses?

Just my 0.02

Thats sounds like an amazing alternative to what I was saying. Maybe we could sort answers by relevance like this. If post 1 has 5 upvotes and 1 downvote thats 4 points and post two has 10 upvotes and 8 downvotes so 2 points, post 1 is higher up in comments than post 2

 

[Bxr126]

I have never been on a website where down votes were used productively. I WAS a member of a couple other sites where it just got too much to deal with. If you disagree with somebody have the nuts to do so respectfully and present a counter point. A down vote is not going to help

 

[Larry L]

In general I think downvoting with no explanation means no chance for learning or improvement. I'd rather see a response that explains what the disagreement is.

Also, comparing counts of upvotes vs downvotes seems to me like the often-misleading star rating system like you see on Amazon. Looking just at the average star rating can be misleading unless you dig in and realize that e.g. the one-star reviews weren't because of low product quality but because somebody bought the wrong size or misread the item description or has a beef with the company or whatever, and downvoting posts doesn't allow someone to later do that kind of examination.

 

[Malifry97]

In general I think downvoting with no explanation means no chance for learning or improvement. I'd rather see a response that explains what the disagreement is.

Also, comparing counts of upvotes vs downvotes seems to me like the often-misleading star rating system like you see on Amazon. Looking just at the average star rating can be misleading unless you dig in and realize that e.g. the one-star reviews weren't because of low product quality but because somebody bought the wrong size or misread the item description or has a beef with the company or whatever, and downvoting posts doesn't allow someone to later do that kind of examination.

Im saying to make downvotes and upvotes similar to reddit where they cancel out

 

[Larry L]

Im saying to make downvotes and upvotes similar to reddit where they cancel out

I understand, and I'm arguing that can be misleading. Using the Amazon example, it would be like if all the 5-star votes are cancelled out by the same number of 1-star votes, but all the 1-star votes are for totally irrelevant reasons and there no way to find that out.

 

[Tuffyyyyy]

Here's my bottom line, and then I'll explain.....I think this is better handled by respectfully posting your opinion, with facts or explanations backing it up.

Now here's my reasoning....yes, there are some factual errors made, but so much is opinion. Here's some examples, and I'll purposely make them controversial:

1. Undergravel filters are the only way to set up a saltwater tank.

2. LED's don't grow corals, metal halide is the only way to go.

3. Quarantining fish is a waste of time.

My preference is to handle these kind of post with other opinions chiming in and hopefully convince that your way is the right way.

I get what you're saying here but I can't tell you how many times I've seen threads on here where a member will ask a question and then will comb through the responses received until they find the answer they were looking for the entire time. Adding an upvote/downvote or dislike system would add another layer to that person having to make the incorrect choice.

Another reason why downvotes are a bad idea, say you get a member that for whatever reason doesnt like you. They can go through and downvote all your comments. Even if you're giving the best advice in the world, theyll downvote you. Not a very positive thing for R2R in my opinion

When would this actually happen here though? This seems like something that would happen very rarely on this forum. The only way I even see it happening is someone unhappy with their order starts to follow people around when they try to sell something and downvote them, but that already happens where you'll get phantom "KNOWN SCAMMER" posts on someone's sale thread.

 

[Shep]

Im saying to make downvotes and upvotes similar to reddit where they cancel out

.....have you ever been on reddit? lol the system is kind of broken. oh and Reddit is a toxic hellscape

 

[Daniel@R2R]

I'll also add that sometimes statements can be partially true and partially incorrect. For example: LEDs grow corals just fine, and they're actually preferable to other types of lighting.

In the above example, part of it is true, and part of it is very much debatable and a matter of opinion and depends on WHY someone thinks it might be preferable.

Additionally, some things simply aren't a matter of good or bad advice. There are 1001 ways to do something in this hobby. How about this: Should I change my water once a week, twice a month, monthly, never, or should I do it daily with an AWC? Honestly, there are successful tanks run on ALL of those systems, so any of them COULD be solid advice depending on the other variables in the system.

Ultimately, an up vote, down vote system is simply to black and white to be beneficial IMO.

 

[ScottR]

I like how people here will correct you when you’re wrong and a consensus is usually formed. I can’t honestly say that I’ve ever seen someone post that they took advice that was wrong and it didn’t work. Perhaps there are examples but I can’t recall ever seeing one.