Downvoting Update
There has been much discussion on CreateDebate about the use / abuse of downvotes on the site and certain participants getting “mass” downvoted, causing their efficiency score to drop dramatically. In order to combat this problem and provide greater transparency around voting, we have decided to implement the following:
- Each downvote now costs the downvoter 1 Reward Point.
- The downvote is now displayed in the User’s Reward Point history.
In our opinion, the main problem isn’t downvotes, per se, but rather encouraging responsible
In our opinion, downvoting should be reserved for poorly thought out, offensive, stupid, or totally-off-base arguments. If you disagree strongly with someone’s argument, then we encourage you to rebut their argument, citing logical fallacies, incorrect information, or poor argumentation. In this way you can help maintain the integrity of CreateDebate and help that participant to understand what you disagree with in their argument.
If you need some reminders on how to write strong arguments, check out our previous blog post on this exact topic.
I’m glad something was done about this. It was a much needed fix. Thank you.
frenchieak
16 Mar 09 at 9:31 pm
This doesn’t address the problem in its entirety. There should be a mandatory explanation for using the down vote. Thus, a rebuttal, or not, can be formed to the proper person or persons. This is needed to hold those who down vote accountable for their actions and give a identity to the down voter.
Felipe
17 Mar 09 at 9:22 pm
We had a couple of debates about this, you might have read them. What’s your reasoning for choosing this change as opposed to other proposals? Simply requiring explanations for downvotes was a pretty popular suggestion. Just curious as to what I’m not seeing here.
Hgrey87
18 Mar 09 at 12:23 am
You may want to read these 2 interesting blog posts that help to shape our reasoning and guide the decision-making process:
Hacker News:
http://www.paulgraham.com/hackernews.html
Stack Overflow:
http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2009/03/the-value-of-downvoting-or-how-hacker-news-gets-it-wrong/
We agree with the folks over at Stack Overflow, there is a value to downvoting.
Loudacris
18 Mar 09 at 3:28 pm
A down vote should really not cost a person anything since it is, and continues to be, an option of the site. This gives an unfair and unwarranted reduction of reward points to an individual. The fact is that it, too, can be by-passed easily by bringing in new accounts just for that purpose. I’d suggest a line for down votes only to show the person is down voting others and at what rate. If you simply deduct points from someone’s rewards and don’t show the down votes, it’s quite meaningless.
Chris B.
18 Mar 09 at 6:00 pm
FYI - Down votes are now publicly displayed in user points history. Also, new accounts cannot downvote until they earn points.
Loudacris
18 Mar 09 at 6:52 pm
New users can’t downvote? Awesome. That was one of my favorite parts of the Stacker Overflow blog post. Good idea.
frenchieak
19 Mar 09 at 12:03 am
i think debate is very good because we can share any think
doower
21 Mar 09 at 8:19 am
LOL, so now I know what I can do with my points. I can down vote the lot of you
BTW, where’s my polo?
Actually, I think the solution is a good one. If the best argument you can make is to down vote someone, then you really aren’t a good debater and don’t deserve points.
Now you should reward good debaters with up votes only. The points you get for just creating a debate or just typing in an argument should be separate from the points you make by receiving up votes for your argument. This is why I have so many points (not because I’m a good debater). This is also why the points currently doesn’t mean anything to me. I didn’t do anything to deserve them. But I still enjoy the site. Keep up the good work.
-j
joe_cavalry
22 Mar 09 at 9:30 am
I’m glad that this has been done. Have you given any thought to LiveChat?
johnbonham32
25 Mar 09 at 2:33 pm
how about every time we choose to downvote, we have to give a 150 charachter explanation of why. that’ll piss them off
doublejumper
13 Apr 09 at 10:05 am