Please Bring Back Our Downvotes: Society Desperately Needs It

A comment disputing the post with its own upvotes seems a better representation.

So original post states x (it can gather up votes that mean relevance). Then responses are posted, positive, negative, adding nuance - doesnt matter.. then those responses get up votes.

Seems to me that everything can be done with positive re-inforcement.

I would like to be able to filter out out votes though, maybe within a scope. So if you post x, someone disputes it with a comment that i disagree with that gets lots of upvotes.. i would like to be able to flag all those users as incompetent within that domain (this would just be my opinion and no one else would see it) then i can have two upvote scores: the masses, and the "competent in my eyes" masses.

I know this isnt a full solution.. just putting ideas out there

> Reddit moderators who run subreddits are given the choice to allow the function. When it’s enabled, it’s used as a filter to sort out divisive posts from the rest but also leads to problems like abuse based on opinions and introducing a feeling of negativity into the communities.

Just want to clarify this: reddit inc. doesn't really offer communities a way to "disable" downvoting. The subreddits referenced at the link in this article are using the custom CSS to hide the downvote button. Notably this does not impact users who are browsing 1) via the mobile app, a substantial to majority percentage of traffic based on the community in question 2) with custom CSS disabled [which can be done via a global reddit setting or via popular extensions like RES 3) via the reddit desktop redesign ['r3']. In the desktop redesign, some communities try to continue hiding downvotes by using the customization tools to set the button to a transparent png - but this is blatantly ineffective - the downvote hitbox remains accessible and feedback is offered to the user on a successful click when they see the score change.

I have some experience with this, having helped researcher Nate Matias test the impact of downvote behavior in a community I'm involved with. You can see the summary of the resulting paper Do Downvote Buttons Cause Unruly Online Behavior? here https://citizensandtech.org/2018/01/do-downvote-buttons-caus...

I've been thinking how to counter this effect. How to give power to the silent majority.

I've been slowly writing a version of Reddit with an added level of moderation via direct democracy but made efficient by using proxy votes and statistical sampling. People with time and interest provide most is the content but moderation incentivizes behavior beneficial to the majority.

It's a fools errand as it's a double-sided market but I feel the need.

Down-votes are, plain and simple, mob rule.

There's ample historical evidence that the fact that many people believe in something absolutely does not make it correct. I'd even venture to go to the other extreme: if many people believe something to be correct there's IMO 50% chance of it being severely and hilariously wrong.

Watch a few National Geographic documentaries on monkeys and how their tribes are constantly at war with each other. It's eye-opening. They fling poop at whomever they don't like, not only in the other tribe, but inside their own as well.

Like @crazy_horse said, I have zero problems being wrong or engaging in a discussion from which I might emerge with my mind changed.

But I don't like turning myself into target practice for poop flinging masters.

Negative feedback from your peer group is normal, and provides conformity pressures, which is important when forming and maintaining a community bound together by a common culture.