A thought about thumbs down option

Simply put ... please, remove thumbs down option.I am afraid this forumwill turn into reddit version with such an option. And reddit is nothing more but a cesspool for

1. Who's got more friends
2. Who's opinion is more popular at certain time and placeJust imagine someone saying they didn't like new Star wars movie. They will get downvoted so fast and for nothing more but their opinion. It doesn't matter if they were civil and constructive. They will be drowned by the "how dare you" folk. And do we really want people that are having a problem controlling their emotions to, basically, run this forum?It happened in ESO forums and it got removed exactly because trolls were abusing it.Show me one forum user who is going to troll someone by giving them thumbs up? It's not going to happen. While showing their contemp, disagreement or simply having a bad day will make many use it whithout regards to anything else. After all, we are all sucsessfully hiding behind our usernames.

Give us an option to reward someone with thumbs up, and moderate trolls by means of reports and forum moderators. Don't give us the power to be judge and jury.

I understand the functionality and philosophy behind both the Thumbs Down voting tool and the limited post editing. However, it would seem to me that the Thumbs Down voting tool has a higher potential for abuse. I'm curious as to why that was incorporated into the new forum. Similar to the reasoning provided for why edit limitations are in place, @Gaile Gray.6029 , could you provide us with a little insight as to why we have a Thumbs Down voting tool? Many thanks!

The Thumbs Down option reminds me of another forum. Can't mention said game and forum. But anyway if you had a negative rating everyone disliked what you said no matter what.

I've seen people who down vote, not because they dislike the poster, but rather because they don't like what the poster is posting about.

For example, "you can't edit your posts as a recruit longer than 15 minutes" gets down voted because the person doesn't like the system.

And of course people also down vote when someone just disagrees with them. Personally, if I disagree with you in a post I shouldn't have the right to vote your post down as well. I've already said my piece and that should stand for itself.

@symke.3105 said:Simply put ... please, remove thumbs down option.I am afraid this forumwill turn into reddit version with such an option. And reddit is nothing more but a cesspool for

1. Who's got more friends
2. Who's opinion is more popular at certain time and place

Interesting, because the people on reddit have very little positive to say about the official forums in turn, basically criticizing the inverse, a lack of user-based regulation and hence being nothing but an echo-chamber for overdone hype mixed with PvP and balance complaints.

What I mean to say is, I doubt the thumbs-down option is or isn't a major factor. It changes the specific problem, but not our human nature. We'll have a lopsided discussion place either way.

The thumbs up and thumbs down system is a good indicator of what's happening within the community; not only what do people think about certain ideas, but also what kinds of reactions are more popular, and allow to ascertain why that might be.

I would imagine people who only downvote others' posts without any other contributions might get banned from the forums after some time.

The major difference is that downvoted posts do not disappear from the main page of a category here, whereas downvoting on Reddit casts threads into oblivion.

lets see how it works out and then decide. Don't forget Official Forums and Reddit have a slightly different pool of people.

But yes I do get where your coming from people downvote for all the wrong reasons on Reddit.

Reddit isn't a place for opinions like mine that are critical towards something ArenaNet should have considered doing. Yet people are afraid of ArenaNet taking that feedback out of context and instead of a QoL improvement it will be a nerf and ruin everyone's day. And I agree GW2 forums shouldn't become something that hides away strong opinions and a different point of view. Thumbs up or down should be a matter of like or dislike and doesn't act like a voting system.

Thumbs up is all that is needed, period.

@Metavahn.7293 said:Thumbs up is all that is needed, period.

Why? If one isn't allowed why should the other be as well. Why is it okay to like something or agree with someone but to express your concern or disagreement not okay.

Thumbs up or Thumbs down doesn't make reddit a cesspool many forums and other things has this type of method of rating content (even netflix). The major problem with reddit is that it goes the extra mile and hides comments and topics which been thumbs down by the mass majority the system here doesn't.

At least I'd implement some kind of "puppy protection" for the Recruit-Rank @"Gaile Gray.6029" . Recruits should not be allowed to use the rating system and also not get any ratings.In the old forums there are a lot of different threads started by people who are new or returners with similar topics and similar replies like "use the wiki" or "use the forum search". The new rating system could lead to "use the wiki"+Thumbs down or "use the forum search"+Thumbs down. Or even no replies at all but just Thumbs down. I wouldn't say it necessarily will happen, but it could.

@drkn.3429 said:The thumbs up and thumbs down system is a good indicator of what's happening within the community; not only what do people think about certain ideas, but also what kinds of reactions are more popular, and allow to ascertain why that might be.

I would imagine people who only downvote others' posts without any other contributions might get banned from the forums after some time.

The major difference is that downvoted posts do not disappear from the main page of a category here, whereas downvoting on Reddit casts threads into oblivion.

Had they started this before announcement of mounts, would we still get mounts? More likely. The thumbs up and down do nothing but grief. It would be better to have the +1 system so Anet sees what people like.

There is one thing I can think of where the thumbs up/down feature will be extremely useful:When Anet looks at statistics for forum posts, it can help them jump right to popular and unpopular ideas/opinions based on number of votes. It can be a way for them to more quickly see overall feedback for certain things as opposed to having to always read every single reply in a thread just to gauge general player reaction.

@Lanhelin.3480 said:At least I'd implement some kind of "puppy protection" for the Recruit-Rank @"Gaile Gray.6029" . Recruits should not be allowed to use the rating system and also not get any ratings.In the old forums there are a lot of different threads started by people who are new or returners with similar topics and similar replies like "use the wiki" or "use the forum search". The new rating system could lead to "use the wiki"+Thumbs down or "use the forum search"+Thumbs down. Or even no replies at all but just Thumbs down. I wouldn't say it necessarily will happen, but it could.

I always find it stupid of people to post that they should just use the search function or google to find answers. Sure you may find the answer but it might take a person anywhere from one min to an hour to do so. It also negates the reason why they ask in the first place.

It's fine to have thumbs down option. I find it irritating is someone is being a jerk and you can't down vote his comments. I'm more concerned of this messy layout we have on the new forums. I like things simple and the old forums are easier to read. I kind of hate this kind of trend, when the layout is being changed even if the previous style was perfectly fine. And the style usually go from practical and easy to "trying-to-look-cool" but messy.

@Cyprien.4208 said:

I always find it stupid of people to post that they should just use the search function or google to find answers. Sure you may find the answer but it might take a person anywhere from one min to an hour to do so. It also negates the reason why they ask in the first place.

Well, obviously it is meant to negate the reason asking in the first place. The whole reason why we say "check the wiki" is because we want to teach these people self-determination. A lot of time and effort can be saved if they'd just learn the same techniques that lead the people asking to come to that knowledge which they desire.

As I said in another thread, I have mixed feelings about the thumbs down option. I generally don't like positivity circles, and a thumbs up only option encourages this. It has been my general experience that a disagreement on an issue is a result of character flaw, and there are plenty of people I'd like to lightly admonish. I don't want to spend my entire day explaining to somebody why their thoughts are wrong, especially when they've spent a lifetime cultivating an immunity to criticism. A down vote is a method to simply demonstrate that somebody is in the wrong without having to deal with their usual nonsense that follows.

I'd rather we just not have an thumbs up/thumbs down function on the forums at all. I've never seen anything good come of it, but I've seen it abused in a plethora of ways.

Not everyone's opinion is correct, good, or liked. Nothing wrong with pointing it out with an EXTREMELY benign thumbs down vote. That's simple reality. Toughen up, buckaroos.

I feel like it's something to let people say they either Agree or Disagree with the stated opinion :)

@symke.3105 said:Simply put ... please, remove thumbs down option.I am afraid this forumwill turn into reddit version with such an option. And reddit is nothing more but a cesspool for

1. Who's got more friends
2. Who's opinion is more popular at certain time and placeJust imagine someone saying they didn't like new Star wars movie. They will get downvoted so fast and for nothing more but their opinion. It doesn't matter if they were civil and constructive. They will be drowned by the "how dare you" folk. And do we really want people that are having a problem controlling their emotions to, basically, run this forum?It happened in ESO forums and it got removed exactly because trolls were abusing it.Show me one forum user who is going to troll someone by giving them thumbs up? It's not going to happen. While showing their contemp, disagreement or simply having a bad day will make many use it whithout regards to anything else. After all, we are all sucsessfully hiding behind our usernames.

Give us an option to reward someone with thumbs up, and moderate trolls by means of reports and forum moderators. Don't give us the power to be judge and jury.

The scariest part of the thumbs down option is that will make people self-censor themselves, and no, that doesn't mean trolls will stop being trolls, it means legit concerns won't be posted around here for fear of getting thumbed down.

One of the best things about GW2 is its healthy community, and things like this aren't healthy at all.

As far as I can tell...thumbsup/down do not affect the viewing or order of comments...hence, this is crying over spilt milk here. If someone is "afraid" of getting thumbed down in an anonymous message board...they are going to have a rough life ahead of them.

I would also wager a bet that the downvoting going on in this particular thread is coming from people who are upset over downvoting...

I have seen nothing but good from reaction buttons (be they positive or negative) as they give a sense of the community. For example, one forum I am on skews heavily to the left. If a new person were to ignore all the warning stickies and post a treatise praising the current POTUS to the politics forum they will get dislike votes so fast (as well as a list of who had that reaction) that they will immediately notice that just maybe they read the room wrong. To bring it to GW2, if someone gives some terrible advice on a build there will be a huge reaction immediately if it was a good idea or not. I would keep the list of names with the reactions: I am more likely to trust 1 reaction from someone who is a known expert on an issue than 100 reactions from people who do not even main that profession.

Thumbs down to me is similar to peer pressure to conform people to specific social norm. If someone is to say something not of the majority's interest, people can easily abuse the thumb down, not because it is a verbally offensive post but because "i don't like it". It is like public way of silencing free speech.

I think thumbs up/down is just a worthless statistic - nothing more, nothing less. I prefer when people write their opinions/critique instead using lazy numbers.I totally don't care about statistics, but there are people who devoted their lives to get such statistics as high as possible or to simply abuse that system.Both options should be removed.

The bottom line is that a lot of people simply aren't intelligent enough to responsibly use thumbs down. I don't think they should be a thing.