I’ll start by saying that I really liked the functionality that allowed Village 14 readers the ability to give a quick thumbs ups or thumbs down on comments.
The thumbs, I believed, gave visitors here — especially those who only lurk and never, or rarely, comment — a way to weigh in on an idea or position.
And I found it hilarious — and flattering — the way some folks (who apparently had lots of time on their hands) would go to the trouble of clearing their cookies or whatever, to thumbs up or down a comment, dozens or more times. As if this site or any one person’s views were that important.
But I know the thumbs downs bothered some people, including some of my fellow Village 14 bloggers as well as a few participants who said they stopped commenting because they didn’t want their comments dismissed so easily. (There’s even someone we recently invited to become a blogger — and who has never been shy about being disagreeable — who declined because he didn’t like the thumbs downs.)
So today, as an experiment, we removed the ability to thumbs down a comment. But have kept the ability to like one.
What do you think? You can’t give the idea a thumbs down so you’ll have to weigh in the old fashioned way, as a comment.
I’ve said from the beginning that I liked thumbs up but not thumbs down. Thumbs up gives me a way to show I agree with a comment when I don’t have anything further to say. Thumbs down are just nasty in a lot of cases. In others, it’s hard to tell whether they are meant to dislike the comment itself or to dislike the state of affairs the comment is referring to.
In other words, thumbs up to only having thumbs up!
Correction – thumbs up to the ability to “like” posts, but not thumbs down them.
The thumbs were a distraction without value because there was no context. There was no way to know why someone gave thumbs up or down. Didn’t like the writer or what was written. Didn’t like the subject the writer brought up, or their opinion.
I gave a few down thumbs because of indigestion. I’m not sure that was fair.
Glad you cleaned it up.
Awe really? I’m a fan of the “thumbs” and never took it personally and always found it humorous that an innocuous comment would get a “thumbs down” …. So if this is an experiment keep the thumbs up only for V14 readers like me. Happy Snow Day !
I agree Gloria. As I wrote earlier on a different thread, I could comment that it was going to be 60-degrees next week and a group of my “fans” would thumbs down me because, well, I’m me, I guess.
I like the thumbs-up feature. Never liked thumbs-down. So I support this change.
Just 4 days into 2018 and I can already scratch one thing [thumbs-down] off my list of things to complain about. Only 999,999,999 more to go.
HAPPY NEW YEAR VILLAGE 14
In a venue such as this, which I think is a bit cliquish and full of insiders, I personally think thumbs up AND down are valuable to combat “group think” I would prefer keeping thumbs up and down but showing who responded which way. I think we should all own our thumbs up or down
Happy New Year all.
We need the thumbs down. Facebook grappled with this same question and decided to provide the t-down along with a range of other responses. It’s not fair to posters or productive to the conversation have t-up without the t-down.
When I was participating in the Charter vote discussion, I found yes and especially NO very useful to gauge if I was on point or drifting. There were times where I got TDown, and it caused me to rethink and refine my views.
Honestly, I’m glad that the person you invited to guest blog turned it down – This blog doesn’t need people who are so easily offended by dissent. You are better off to have those who have the strength and courage to speak their mind.
What I would recommend is that you bring back the t-down, but only allow people who have verified profiles to use the up/down feature … Users who are transparent and public about who they are and/or users for whom you have verified by a process that you decide on. A verified person gets only one vote per comment.
I find (As did Facebook) that just having t-up is too pollyannaish, too antiseptic, and doesn’t represent the natural range of expression that a person has when engaging in conversation.
t-up without t-down makes V14 and it’s overall mission much less interesting to me.
@ Greg I notice that we randomly can see who provided a thumbs up on just some comments . I s this a feature that can be enabled on all comments and could be used for up or down?
People who read, but don’t comment, don’t add much to the conversation with their admiration of or dissent to a submitted comment. Since this is not the Roman Coliseum, and we are not voting on the life/death determination (termination?) of a fallen gladiator, I prefer no thumbs at all. Let the lurkers lurk. If they want to speak, let them use words!
I’m thrilled to see no “thumbs down.” I don’t think they served any valuable purpose. “Liking” a comment conveys general agreement to me while a down vote can be misleading – disagreement with the comment sometimes but more often disliking the person’s viewpoint whether agreeing with the comment or not.
Hmm – I was thinking it we’d go the other way on this – i.e. replace thumbs up/down with high fives and head slams
No thumbs down seems like the adult equivalent of every child getting a trophy. I’ve always been all thumbs–up & down…
@Lauren Exactly
I’m with Marti – the T-down was confusing. If a commenter says that s/he hates zero-degree weather for 10 days in a row, does that get a T-up or a T-down? I agree with the sentiment but hate the zero-degree weather.
As an aside, lurking can be a good thing. A number of lurkers comment to me in person about the V14 conversation or one of my comments.
There is much I like about V14 but two issues I have:
1) No transparency of who “likes” or “dislikes” a post. Eliminating thumbs down is not the answer. Increased transparency is. Identify all likers and dislikers
2) Only a select few can initiate a topic. Allow any register user to initiate a topic. If the moderators take issue, state why and eliminate the tread. Or require a topic to be approved before before it is posted
@Sallee – As you know, I’m not a lurker by any means, but sometimes I’d rather not make a comment when all I have to say is “I agree”.
@Greg – is there a reason you also eliminated the ability to “like” a post?
@Sallee – As you know, I’m not a lurker by any means, but sometimes I’d rather not make a comment when all I have to say is “I agree”.
@Greg – is there a reason you also eliminated the ability to “like” a post?
Excellent point Meredith! Perhaps what we need is a REPLY function. That would minimize the need to like or dislike if what one really wants to do is add to the discussion/debate
1st, I’ll out myself as suggesting, as I have in the past, that V14 would be healthier with just thumbs up. Here is some rationale:
1. If it were truly one person one vote (like facebook), perhaps up and down would be fine, but its routinely gamed in both directions by single individuals for some reason, so its an unclear mix of true sentiment and fake news. The same applies to polls occasionally conducted here with the same flawed polldaddy plugin behind the up/down system.
2. If you like something, up vote it, if you don’t don’t. Comments with lots of up votes get the trophies. Same difference.
3. I personally just think many comments (anonymous and attributed) are toxic enough without innocuous comments getting massive down voting. In those cases its the person clearly that’s the target, and not the comment.
4. And of course, people who want to be negative can just up vote the negative comments.
5. Finally did these photos really deserve 5 down votes :-(. https://www.smugmug.com/gallery/n-pCdRpD/
Happy New Year, Dress warm this weekend
Där finns ingen dålig väder, bara dålig kläder
Jack
I originally didn’t like the thumbs down, but now I am finding myself missing them. I think they’re useful in contributing to the conversation and it isn’t the same only having thumbs up. Not everyone wants to comment, especially newbies to the blog.
I found thumbs down confusing, for the reasons many others have already given. I understand the sentiments in favor of keeping them, but I think the number of thumbs ups will serve the same purpose: one thumb up? Not a lot of support for your comment. Seventeen? Now we’re talking. And the critiques/criticisms/disagreements are much more powerful in the comments themselves: I know what’s being criticized or disagreed with. I support the change.
Up vote only is a good compromise. Too much voting can impede a meaningful discussion.
Not sure if people here frequent reddit.com but its content is driven by up/down voting. The voting works well for simple content–it drives all the funny, cute pics and short videos to the top. However for more complex posts (e.g. news, opinions, politics) I find that people just up/down vote based on title or author alone. It’s just too easy to get hung up on superficial voting up/down every post and comment rather than discuss the nuances.
There’s actually a Newton, MA sub on http://www.reddit.com/r/newtonma but it’s infrequently used, yet anyone can post there.
Maybe it’s just me but I have no confusion over T-up or T-down. Up likes /agrees with the comment, Down dislikes/disagrees with the comment. No need to make it more complicated or dissect it more than that.
You can’t have the “up” without the “down”. That’s like “everyone gets an award.” Too much of that going on. It’s perfectly alright to voice your true opinion – up or down.
I’m also a little disappointed that if you switch to this, we’ll have lost all of the thumbs ups and thumbs downs on previous posts.
So some have to see a psychologist because they got a thumbs down on a public forum? Your feeling are hurt because someone disagreed with your opinion? Oh the humanity! So instead of hitting the thumbs down on me which apparently you can’t now, you’ll just have to comment about me being insensative while your holding your teddy bear and blanket.
@John: Exactly!
As I’ve said previously, I found it a combination of hilarious and flattering when an innocuous remark would get a ton of thumbs downs. If folks out there need a forum to vent, I’m glad my comments were able to provide them with some stress relief.
And yes, in some instances it’s hard to interpret what a down vote really meant. But each time that happened, the sun still came out the next day.
Conversely it feels like hell has frozen over since we launched this no thumbs down experiment.
I don’t really see the need of either system (up/down or up only), outside of some of the charter and mayoral discussions the threads aren’t large enough where there’s a need to filter out noise and it’s not like Facebook or Reddit where anyone can create a new thread. The additional detail showing specific users who liked a comment is nice though, if that could be combined with both down/up options that would make it more useful than just numbers.
John, you cracked me up! Thanks. I’m certainly no snowflake and would rather be in Key West today.
I tend to agree that the “no thumbs down” experiment isn’t working out the way I had hoped. There are a few comments that I would really like to click on a thumbs down recently.
Although it seems to me the commenters missing the ability to click on thumbs down the most are the ones who do it over personalities and not necessarily the comment itself.
Having a “Like” without a “Dislike” is meaningless. When you have both, most people use them only for comments they feel very strongly about one way or the other, not for every single comment on a post. When you only have a “Like”, an egregiously negative comment that is disliked by many readers will look exactly the same as one that many readers like or are neutral about, with 0 or 1 “Like”.
Village 14: If you can’t stand the heat, we’ll turn off the fire.
I think it is great step, surely to even consider it, as it does not even seem to be Greg’s personal preference, all the more to applaud.
I understand people have perspectives and deep passions and love to express their views, which is to respected; and the movement towards civility on some level, is also to be encouraged. Sending people peace and warmth, on this Martin Luther King Jr. weekend!