Honestly every place on the internet has elements of toxicity, not just gaming forums. Reddit for instance is just packed with some sadistic hateful people on almost every subreddit.
I would just down vote EVERY post I saw with the word āMercyā in it just because Iām completely over it now. So I do see your point about not articulating a response though, I hope you also understand where I am coming from
You couldnāt criticize D.Va or Mercy on the old forums without the downvote brigade coming to bury your post.
These forums are a breath of fresh air that brings about more discussion for a lot more topics.
I rather that the dislike button stays out of the forums, too many people hide behind and not express why they disagree in the posts.
I donāt.
Even now, thereās still posters feeling a twang in their bwang because they got downvoted for an ignorant or missunderstood comment that one time.
The petulant whining about unjustly getting the thumbs down was the worst and iām glad itās gone.
The purpose of downvoting is not to express disagreement. Disagreement requires words.
Downvoting was solely as a means to sort posts. Youād downvote non-constructive threads not worth reading, and upvote good ones. You still have this sorting featureābut instead of downvoting, you simply choose not to upvote (ālikeā) posts you donāt think are interesting.
Unfortunately, downvoting was not used constructively. People did in fact use it as an easy disagree button, which created a platform where only mainstream opinions were allowed.
And itās incredibly easy to think that because an opinion is popular, itās right. But you would be blown away by how many popular opinions that are completely wrong (this goes for everywhere in life as well). For example, imagine how many of your parents that thought video games were unhealthy and made you violent.
If you want a platform where you only see things you agree with and like, you can go to Facebook. Disagreement is what creates discussion, and challenges your opinion intellectually.
On a side note, the forum was designed by Blizzardās web design team, and they already said that all the other Blizzard gaming forums would eventually be updated to use the same forum structure as the Overwatch forum. Downvotes simply donāt belong on a constructive discussion forum. (Even the good discussion forums on Reddit also implemented a ānot a dislikeā tooltip on their downvote button as they canāt actually remove the button.)
Itās more a case that the new forum they implemented, called Discourse, doesnāt actually have such a function (to dislike). I donāt imagine they have the option of adding the function even if they wanted to, but Iāve never used Discourse so Iām not sure if thatās possible.
Wow forums donāt anymore Iām pretty sure
The removal of the dislike button has caused more harm than good because post replies are even more toxic than ever.
I donāt see how itās a big deal. What do you actually do in life?
If you disagree with something, you either vocalize why, or ignore it and walk away.
It didnāt get āremovedā
Companies rarely make the forum-software their forums are built on. Thereās a billion companies out there who have done that for you, ready to go and be āskinnedā in whatever your theme is.
Here is no different.
They simply migrated over to a different, and to be frank, WAY better forum software- known as discourse (which is easily one of the best out there), which they then skinned in overwatch.
Discourse doesnāt have a dislike button because they feel itās a worthless thing to have. All said and done, this is a discussion forum- and they want people discussing things.
Downvote button do little to promote discussion, and at the end of the day just give an easy way to be negative.
So they donāt have one.
You dislike something? Use your grown up words and explain why or say so.
Too many posts on the old forums were buried and removed because someone simply said something unpopular (Which WASNT the point of the button in the first place- and exactly why theyāre useless)
I do not miss the downvote button. Good riddance to a worthless feature.
The forums were designed by discourse.
Blizzard simply adopted it and reskinned it.
I read a post yesterday that stated at the very beginning āI donāt care about your opinionā and then proceeded to argue their point about what ever trash they were on about. Is that a discussion topic?
I know it was designed by Discourse and they simply altered it.
Donāt ask me to look it up because I honestly donāt remember the thread title, but it was posted on another Blizzard forum that the web design team would eventually update all the other forums to use this forum structure as well.
EVERY post got spammed with dislikes. I couldnāt post much because it just discourages it.
In an effort to foster a more positive community and a constructive environment for discussion, the Dislike button was a mechanic we didnāt carry over from the old forums.
Thank you.