I worry because upvote-only systems tend towards reinforcing already-biased opinions. We see it on other social media platforms like facebook where communities self-segregate and just feed into their own bias.
It’s also a lot easier to write a stupid opinion than it is to counter-argue it. The former requires no knowledge whatsoever. I feel like upvote-only puts the burden onto the responder… and are we really going to have time to point out the huge flaws in every poorly formed post or will they just end up running rampant over the forums, dragging down the quality immensely?
Either way - I’m sure we can only see half the picture. I’m hopeful that whatever tools Blizzard has on the backend will help you all sort through all the chaff and that forcing the community to post content to disagree will play into whatever reporting that you build to summarize the forums.
Since the option to downvote has been removed, I’ve noticed that a lot more people are engaging in discussions on things they disagree with, in a more mature manner. In comparison to the previous forums, I would say that it’s been an amazing improvement. What do you guys think?
Members are more inclined to share their thoughts without the fear of band-wagoning, bullying, or witch-hunts. And to that I say, great job devs! THIS is the types of improvements our community desperately needs. The approach towards making the community more positive-driven, not driven by hate and discord. Let’s hope that this community continues towards that path.
In the meantime, it’s good to see others spreading the good vibes, and those that are doing so, please keep up the awesome work!
~Sincerely Yours xoxo,
a Lover of True, Fair, and Fun Balance. #RevertMercy
Hi there, i’d like to kindly state that normally i’d downvote you and move on. As someone who actually cares about balance & fun reverting mercy is a horrible attitude to have. Maybe more changes are due, but her old kit was just as annoying to play against and with as the previous one.
Now that I cannot down vote you i’ll be forced to write a counterpoint everytime I see your signature as I cannot agree with your stance in the slightest.
Additionally using a signature in a forum that doesn’t support it is probably the tackiest thing ever.
//Regards.
A player with enough skill to actually have a valid opinion on balance.
Do you mean the mass Rez?
If you think back was it really that annoying to play against?
I never thought of it as annoying more of a Game changing ult that both teams can have but don’t need. Like Aimbot or DB.
(Edit:) Yes it was kinnde annoying when the Enemy Team did it after an Wipe but how often did you won a game do to mass rez?
For me as a Lucio, Zen Main Genji is annoying to play against too, but is he getting change now?
No ofc not he is Genji, but Jokes beside. We cant make nerfs on Personal Preferences. And Blizz should Learn that.
Just because some Player thinks its “Unfun” to play against doesn’t mean its either OP or Broken OP.
Get 2CP reworked and Bamm one big Problem solved.
But I guess its easier to say its Mercy Fault then the Map Desing or the Bad Gamesens of a Silver Genji Main.
//Regards
A support Main who use this becours evryone uses it in this Post
I disagree with no downvotes. Why? Because I can say something like “Mercy is fine but needed to be nerfed harder”, and you’ll only see upvotes from people who agree. You’re powerless to do anything except reply which I can/will ignore.
Okay, so It looks like this got merged into the mega from the previous thread it was in… unfortunately that broke my previous links to it through the tracker. Whoops!
If you get rid of the dislike button, you need to get rid of the like button. You could also just not hide highly downvoted posts and make the likes/dislikes less noticeable.
There’s a reason none of the major social media websites (twitter, facebook, Instagram) use downvotes/dislikes. Because they don’t foster discussion, only toxicity. That’s what the culture of the forums (and largely the internet as a whole) has become in recent times. Sticking your head in only to tell someone “I don’t like that”.
If you don’t like something, don’t interact with it. If you disagree with something, say that and explain why. Downvoting only promotes a bullying mob mentality. If you said something that went against the grain, you were almost literally silenced by the hordes of downvotes by having you post be concealed.
Without downvotes, we can make nerf genji threads, nerf moira threads, threads regarding hero backgrounds (race, religion, sexuality), shipping threads, and threads constructively critiquing the game without being shut down by people who probably didn’t read the first post. Every idea is heard equally. If an idea isn’t good, it won’t get m/any likes. That’s a clear enough gauge of things.
I say all this to say I really enjoy the new forums. You don’t have to be afraid of saying something that the masses don’t agree with anymore.
I actually agree with you. So many times I went into a topic looking forward to see the reason behind the tittle, but then I couldnt cause they were downvoted to oblivion
Dear Sir/Madam,
I have made this announcement to verify the fact that I do not agree with your statement/statements. You may take this as a personal offense or ignore it and move on with your life(s) and further actions.
This is a very good reason. Despite the topic limit, this was being spammed in the first few hours. Honestly, I think this deserves to be pinned for awhile, however even pinned posts get spammed in the forum in new topics
Exactly what discussion does a like button foster? None at all. Not having a balance to the likes means that dissenting opinions are not going to be counted as only likes are. That to me is a very bad thing.
When looking at the main page, the only indicators of how a post is perceived by the community is in the likes to replies ratio, and without a counterbalance those numbers will be heavily skewed in favor of one click likes.
I dislike being told I have to interact with a post because I dislike it, were I able to do so I would have downvoted this post and moved on. Anyone that feels deeply enough about a given post is going to reply to it, both in positive and negative fashion(god I hate shipping posts they are irrelevant and pointless).
I am in favor of balance, either remove the like button so that true interactive conversation is possible or bring back the downvote and have it separately counted and displayed so that the community is able to see both sides of opinions. There is no reason to have downvotes continue to bury posts, but not having the downvote button does not foster more communication, it simply means that one voice is silenced from using a single click to express themselves.
Two reasons imo why likes are good but dislikes aren’t.
You can still get a general feel for how popular an opinion is with just likes. Given the choice to use negativity or positivity to display an idea’s popularity, I think positivity is healthier overall for a community.
Because in actuality, the forums are such a small portion of the overall community of the game, blizzard don’t really use our opinions to change the game drastically anyway. It’s not like the only thing stopping them from nerfing moira is the fourm downvotes on all the nerf moira threads. It’s first and foremost a place to discuss things amongst ourselves.
Your first point is a fallacy, there isn’t any way to differentiate how a post is perceived when the only opinions that are counted are positive. Both positive and negative need to be counted to give a true perception of a post.
Keeping the old downvote system is definitely a bad thing as it allowed for burying a post with downvote brigades. I have been advocating for having dislikes be counted separately from likes and not being able to hide or bury a post simply by reaching a threshold number. By the same token the way things are now we will have like brigades doing the exact same thing, making posts that shouldn’t be, highly rated.
As for how the Dev’s veiw our opinions, we all know they don’t make changes based on nerf or buff threads.
Discussion is great, but right now it will only be negative discussion as those that choose to do so can simply like and move on without contributing to the conversation at all. While anyone that disagrees has to make a post stating that they dislike it. And those won’t count towards how the overall post is perceived by the community.
A “like brigade” can still be indicative of what ideas are shared by a lot of people. Eventually we’ll come to get an idea of what ‘a lot’ of likes is and what isn’t.
And again, it doesn’t matter how many people agree or disagree as it has no overall bearing on the game itself. It’s a discussion forum, not a voting forum to see what the most popular ideas are. So really they could get rid of likes just as easily but I’d see no point in doing away with something that’s only positive.
Not liking something has the same effect of a dislike.
Personally I think taking away the dislike button but leaving the like button is a horrible idea. When I see likes it wont give a good idea on how well a idea is recieved or not. It might be a very polarizing thread that may get alot of likes and dislikes in the past, but now were just left with the like buttons. It feels like only getting half the picture. If something is wildly unpopular we wont get the same idea because of this new system. They could alter the system of posts getting buried due to dislikes without just removing the dislike button.
Secondly as far as making me comment when I dislike something is a bit faulty, in the old system I could see people who already shared my point of veiw and just hit the dislike button since im adding nothing new to the conversation that someone else hasnt said. Now if we want the same feedback we’d end up with a bunch of people stating the same things over and over.
It makes me sad, I used to really enjoying going through threads and upvoting all the -1 posts that some salty guy made. I was the scales of justice… now I am just a dude.
‘Toxicity’ is that the buzzword for disagreement these days?
If you can’t take well thought out criticisms or in the case of downvotes a quick way to voice disagreement and proclaim it as ‘toxicity’ well the problem lies with you not everybody else.
It’s better to hear opposing views and come to the conclusion of forming your own opinion on the matter. Removal of downvotes stops those who disagree with a matter in favour of trying to sit on the fence and that is wrong in my opinion.