I don't understand why there is a "down vote" option at all, to be honest.

If I don't like (or feel indifferent to) something someone else said, I just don't "up vote" them. I can't think of a single positive result from down voting. I might have down voted a really ignorant comment once, but I'd feel better if down voting was gone completely.

Conversely, I don't mind up voting as a thank you to a thoughtful or useful response. Oddly enough, there is a "thanks" and a "like" option that I have no idea why they are there either. How many ways do we need to show that we appreciated someone's comment?

25 minutes ago, Guy Fleegman said:

I don't understand why there is a "down vote" option at all, to be honest.

If I don't like (or feel indifferent to) something someone else said, I just don't "up vote" them. I can't think of a single positive result from down voting. I might have down voted a really ignorant comment once, but I'd feel better if down voting was gone completely.

I don't like down-voting either as a relational analogy to constructive criticism. Which member of the forum down-voted? Why did they down-vote? Constructive criticism is textual. And you can't criticize a whole post by clicking a down-vote button.

A down-vote could be of many reasons, way beyond what one can just guess; it could be a lack of:

• facts
• resource links
• research
• politeness
• being on-topic
• avoiding insulting someone based on racial/cultural differences
• avoiding instilling personal beliefs on others
• style of writing
• best writing practices in general

And constructive criticism goes way beyond just a up-voted/down-vote based reputation score add.

A down-vote could be translated as: this is not good. And what, Mr. Einstein, exactly is not good then?

6 minutes ago, Acosix said:

How many ways do we need to show that we appreciated someone's comment?

It is important, as in terms of appreciation, if you like something about someone, to show him/her in multiple ways. This strengthens the connection, as appreciation means being thankful for something someone has done for you.

I suppose this is a good time to mention that downvotes are going away in the new system. In its place will be a likes-style system or what I just consider a constructive feedback system. Below is a screenshot of this thread on the new platform where you can see the upvote/like, bookmark (you can easily save content for future reference), and a content menu on each post.

And here's the same after liking the post. Of course, this is on a replicated database so you don't see it on the live site, but you get the idea.

We've run the downvote experiment for a good 10+ years after using an upvote only system, and while I think downvoting does have some benefits, I can't say it's valuable for GameDev.net.

Anyway, point being this will be changing soon. I do appreciate the conversation though - it informs and possibly affirms the decision to go upvote only. 

5 hours ago, Guy Fleegman said:

I don't understand why there is a "down vote" option at all, to be honest.

There is a difference between a post that is "nothing special" (i.e. it has no upvotes) and a post that is downright harmful (one that gets downvotes)

In my opinion, the entire reputation summary system is flawed. The numbers are supposed to mean "this person writes quality content", but, partly because downvotes are as controversial as they are, in practice in boils down to "this person was here for a long time". But it we're gonna have it anyway, the option to downvote posts should stay.

If there were no downvotes OP might have never got a hint to reconsider. My feeling was he didn't answer questions of people who wanted to help and instead tried to lecture them backing it up with irrelevant quotes.

1 hour ago, wintertime said:

If there were no downvotes OP might have never got a hint to reconsider. My feeling was he didn't answer questions of people who wanted to help and instead tried to lecture them backing it up with irrelevant quotes.

Thanks man, I agree. When I was down-voted 6 times in the same day, I got better at writing posts. Which is important if you have a goal to have some day 1000+ reputation points(like I do), down-voting can get you there faster than if the forum had no down-votes.

12 minutes ago, Acosix said:

...

Which is important if you have a goal to have some day 1000+ reputation points(like I do)

...

1

Why? This is not a reputation point grinding contest. What's the benefit of having that many reputation points?

Maybe you should focus more on the social and learning aspects of this forum instead of collecting trophies.

Greetings

15 minutes ago, DerTroll said:

Why? This is not a reputation point grinding contest. What's the benefit of having that many reputation points?

Maybe you should focus more on the social and learning aspects of this forum instead of collecting trophies.

Greetings

I have personal reasons, but I could summarize it this way: it wouldn't exactly "mean" I am a good writer, but could be a identifier I have at least decent quality writings.

Well I like to socialize, even on the technical/programming/development aspects, and I love to learn. However, let me give you a good analogy:

When it comes to the U.S army, you don't acquire medals or advance in ranks to have a trophy(what regards medals) or to only have a promotional higher pay(army ranks). You do it to demonstrate leadership, bravery and selfless service.

So let's take this analogy back to the reputation points: you acquire reputation points not for as in terms of having a trophy, but to demonstrate quality writing, demonstratively teaching others how to write.

13 hours ago, khawk said:

I suppose this is a good time to mention that downvotes are going away in the new system.

It's never a good time to mention that you are removing features.

16 hours ago, khawk said:

I suppose this is a good time to mention that downvotes are going away in the new system.

How should we mark wrong and misleading content then?

It seems there is no misuse of downvotes here, climate is good and so there is no need for a like only system like facebook.

On the other hand there surely are some people with way too much downvotes, although that's a rare exception. Maybe a limit would do, like -10 but never below that.