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Is the downvote really necessary in the General Support forum?


Lemona
Message added by LaFleur

The downvote has been removed from General Support.

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20 hours ago, Lemona said:

Recently I've noticed that the downvote button is back in the General Support forum. I understand where there can be cases where this button would be useful (ex: getting 8 of your friends to up vote your answer when you weren't adding anything really useful). However, I feel like the button isn't exactly there for ALL the right reasons. The General Support forum is open to all of the community meaning anyone from the community can assist others. Sure, I get it if someone adds something that was already there isn't quite useful since it's already there, but atleast they're still helping. Someone shouldn't have a -3 type answer if all they were doing was trying to help. 

 

Now, in comes the point of "their answer wasn't correct" or "what they said wasn't really that helpful". Well, if their answer isn't exactly correct or is leading in a wrong direction, could it not be deleted from the thread and where the volunteer explains why it got removed so they know for next time? Or even just simply not marked as the "best answer"? If their answer wasn't really that helpful, then I guess it just won't be marked as the "best answer". 

 

Personally, it just wouldn't look right to see a bunch of negative answers on the forum for someone who is just trying to help or even attempt to help someone to gain experience/knowledge. Although it is just the beginning of the downvote button, I wouldn't like to see it be abused for reasons that don't seem ideal. Either way, I think the forum was just fine with the upvote button and leave it up to a volunteer to decide what answer to mark/not mark.  I feel like we should be open to multiple users helping others out even if it isn't necessarily the "best answer" without the reason to just downvote them because their answer wasn't the best or didn't add anything or said something that was somewhat wrong etc. 

 

What are your thoughts? 

i agree because of some haters can ruin nice post just because they hate that person.

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Being downvoted is not a punishment. It simply shows you were wrong or your post could have been much better. Think of it as criticism, not an insult.

 

If it appears that certain users are downvoting specific people because of who they are, we'll handle it.

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5 minutes ago, Elie said:

Being downvoted is not a punishment. It simply shows you were wrong or your post could have been much better. Think of it as criticism, not an insult.

 

If it appears that certain users are downvoting specific people because of who they are, we'll handle it.

I agree with you. 
But
if I always vote you down, even if it is correct, you have to have votes down. I do not think this is right.......
be answered correctly or not, you can get down vote, is not nice.


I respect any decision here. :p

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17 minutes ago, Bau said:

But
if I always vote you down, even if it is correct, you have to have votes down. I do not think this is right.......
be answered correctly or not, you can get down vote, is not nice.

 

27 minutes ago, Elie said:

If it appears that certain users are downvoting specific people because of who they are, we'll handle it.

 

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The question or questions in this topic have been answered and an answer has been marked. Users I don't know or like have been down-voted and this topic is now closed.

 

If you have any other questions, please open a new topic.

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12 hours ago, Daniel said:

Why is removing the answers any better? Instead of complaining about being downvoted people will (and did) complain about their answers being deleted.

 

I certainly don't have macros or forum answers. I think that phase is over. All answers should be tailored to the case at hand.

 

Test powers are hardly given out on the forum, so it's not downvoting for that either.

 

Nothing should motivate you more than trying to improve. Downvotes show you that you need to improve. If you're embarrassed, hide your reply. 

The funny thing is, is that no one is embarrassed by getting a downvote. We just don't expect it.

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6 hours ago, Flake said:

why does there need to be an official guideline? it's not hard to see if a post is irrelevant/has unnecessary information

Without targeting that single thread alone, nothing is wrong with adding extra('not unnecessary') information, even if it's not directly to what op asked of in his or her thread. If whatever they posted is irrelevant and off-topic, then fine.

1 hour ago, Elie said:

Being downvoted is not a punishment. It simply shows you were wrong or your post could have been much better. Think of it as criticism, not an insult.

It isn't a punishment, but it sure feels like it. It's not constructive criticism at all, what you're effectively saying is, "you're wrong" with no other explanation, it would be fine in cases where you told the user what he did was wrong, or inform of them of the mis-hap of information. You may not think much of it, but you have to be more sensitive and think from the perspective of the users, do you really think they wont take it as an insult?

 

I honestly don't agree with downvoting, if a user is giving wrong information, then tell him, you select the best and most accurate answer anyway, so it shouldn't confuse the user asking the question. This isn't like xat help chatroom, where you are expected to give an answer then move onto the next person who needs help, threads opened in the General Support section stays open a prologue time, it enables many users to share and contribute to the discussion in a longer period of time. It's not clear cut as just having the correct answer and only the correct answer, anything else is downvoted.

 

And also, try and keep the replies somehow serious, should've put a [serious] tag on this thread title beforehand. I'll be replying tomorrow morning if necessary.

 

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34 minutes ago, Mom said:

Without targeting that single thread alone, nothing is wrong with adding extra('not unnecessary') information, even if it's not directly to what op asked of in his or her thread. If whatever they posted is irrelevant and off-topic, then fine.

 

Ok (?) but my question still remains... why would there need to be an official guideline

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18 hours ago, Kyle said:

You could say down voting is the same as getting 0 votes - if you don't get any up votes, you might put more thought into future posts.

 

However, I understand both sides of the debate. There are pros and cons that come with what each side thinks.

 

with down vote

pros:

may encourage the user to put more thought into future responses

user could hide the post instead of getting deleted if the question has already been answered

cons:

may discourage the user from helping in the future

doesn't look visually pleasing (to me at least)

 

without down vote

pros:

users won't feel belittled when their answer isn't the best

people can still up vote the more informative answers

cons:

users may not hide their post causing a volunteer to delete it & give a warning

 

However, instead of giving warnings, you can provide sufficient information to the user regarding the topic of what the question was about/how they could've helped better.

(obviously warnings will be given out at a volunteers descretion when necessary)

 

To be quite honest, it doesn't matter which way the tree falls. At the end of the day the user will get the help they needed which is the main point all in all, right? Volunteers brought it back for a reason and we may have to see how it goes. We're all just looking to make a better community.

To be honest when people use the downvote it's your word against theirs. That's not really fair is it?

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"Haters" can't downvote posts because they don't like someone, or don't know someone because everyone else is there to counteract this. 

 

If you see a -1 where unnecessary, then just upvote it and vice versa. 

 

This is really a non issue. There's literally been one support thread where people were downvoted and they're just complaining even though it's been explained 100 times why they were downvoted. 

 

As for helping instead of downvoting, I've told Tanner specifically why is reply is wrong and he's just in complete denial and thinks he's some sort of victim of abuse. What now? Gold star of participation?

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1 hour ago, Daniel said:

There's literally been one support thread where people were downvoted and they're just complaining even though it's been explained 100 times why they were downvoted. 

Exactly. They should give it time. As with new features on other sites, you always give it time to see if it fits or sits on the shelf.

1 hour ago, Daniel said:

As for helping instead of downvoting, I've told Tanner specifically why is reply is wrong and he's just in complete denial and thinks he's some sort of victim of abuse.

Like this:

7 hours ago, tan said:

The question or questions in this topic have been answered and an answer has been marked. Users I don't know or like have been down-voted and this topic is now closed.

 

If you have any other questions, please open a new topic.

 

1 hour ago, Daniel said:

What now? Gold star of participation?

 

23 hours ago, Elie said:

060.png

 

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2 hours ago, Bau said:

I have to vote down all, to see if you change your opinion. I will call all my friends to vote down all of you. (smirk)

That's stupid, and anyone thinking of doing this, you'll simply get a warning/punishment.

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6 hours ago, Bau said:

I gave an example, many people can do this. (scn)

 

Uh, no they can't. If there's 3+ downvotes on a post that is actually helpful it would be looked in to, and the people who unfairly downvoted would be given a warning or whatever. If there's less than 3, they will likely be countered with multiple upvotes. And this is if it DOES happen (which i'm 99% sure it won't unless you're really sad).

 

Think you are all caring way 2 much about this, does it even matter lul

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Such a huge discussion, for such a small thing. I am surprised.

 

Downvotes are a good idea, Its basically critic you are taking. If your "help" isn't good, you'll get downvoted, no need to be butthurt if you can't give qualitative/correct/helpful support and get criticized for it.

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1 hour ago, LaFleur said:

Such a huge discussion, for such a small thing. I am surprised.

 

Downvotes are a good idea, Its basically critic you are taking. If your "help" isn't good, you'll get downvoted, no need to be butthurt if you can't give qualitative/correct/helpful support and get criticized for it.

Who is butthurt by it? :s

 

We just don't expect a downvote. That's all it is.

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7 hours ago, Flake said:

Uh, no they can't. If there's 3+ downvotes on a post that is actually helpful it would be looked in to, and the people who unfairly downvoted would be given a warning or whatever. If there's less than 3, they will likely be countered with multiple upvotes. And this is if it DOES happen (which i'm 99% sure it won't unless you're really sad).

Here's something to throw into the conversation: We can't see who votes.. at all, and it can't be changed.

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We're only human guys. We make mistakes. No one's answer is going to always be perfect.

 

But if their answer is downvoted you should private message the user on the forum and explain to them why their answer was downvoted.

 

If you're going to be a critic towards their answers you should give constructive criticism on their answer as others on this topic have suggested.

 

Don't just downvote an answer because it doesn't appeal to you. It might appeal to others you never know. Then again we all make mistakes...

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