Official Forums no longer have downvotes.

[Utigarde]

https://us.battle.net/forums/en/wow/...7587012#post-8

No longer can people troll via downvotes, but no longer can we use the downvote button if we dislike something, or to bury trolls.

[G3istly]

https://us.battle.net/forums/en/wow/...7587012#post-8

No longer can people troll via downvotes, but no longer can we use the downvote button if we dislike something, or to bury trolls.

Woe is you? Downvoting only promotes "silencing" opposing opinions. Just look at reddit and how quickly posts that don't follow what's popular get downvoted into oblivion.

[Rezark]

Never should have had them in the first place it was nothing short of moronic.

[meowfurion]

Woe is you? Downvoting only promotes "silencing" opposing opinions. Just look at reddit and how quickly posts that don't follow what's popular get downvoted into oblivion.

Exactly. Absolutely precisely totally. 100% agreed. "Thought police."

[Raetary]

good.
i never liked the idiotic like/dislike system.

one of the reasons why the only subreddit i check out from time to time is the overwatch one.

[ls-]

Pathetic.

-- edit #1

Long answer: IMHO, it's a change to make sure that people don't feel bad about receiving downvotes, for instance, I know some people IRL who have panic attacks when someone dislikes their posts on reddit or elsewhere. I don't think people should be coddled to this extent.

-- edit #2

In this case neither + nor - should exist.

[Eleccybubb]

Pathetic. /10char

How so? There are better ways to disagree with an opinion than mindlessly downvoting it.

[RoKPaNda]

Woe is you? Downvoting only promotes "silencing" opposing opinions. Just look at reddit and how quickly posts that don't follow what's popular get downvoted into oblivion.

A really good way to test this is to find the post for the latest video of a youtuber (Asmongold, Preach, etc.) - Disagree with them because they're wrong, and instantly get like 100 downvotes.

[KrazyK923]

Much like with Reddit and EVERY PLACE that has downvotes, it was never used to help "moderate" troll or bad posts, but just remove opinions people didn't like from being able to be seen.

[Derah]

Not surprising. Youtube and Facebook did away with dislikes too for the very same reason.

In theory, the system was made so you could express agreement with things you like, or disagreement with things you dislike.

In practice, it lead to troll-downvoting someone just because you don't like them. Downvoting for the sake of downvoting. Downvoting out of jealousy. Out of spite. Out of hate. Out of any of the many forms of discrimination (Sexism, Racism, etc). Its just not a good system.

Having a system where you can only hit like, means someone saying something stupid will get few likes, and someone saying something good will get many likes.

[ls-]

How so? There are better ways to disagree with an opinion than mindlessly downvoting it.

Quite often simple downvote is more than enough.

[rda]

Pathetic.

-- edit #1

Long answer: IMHO, it's a change to make sure that people don't feel bad about receiving downvotes, for instance, I know some people IRL who have panic attacks when someone dislikes their posts on reddit or elsewhere. I don't think people should be coddled to this extent.

No, removing minuses is the right move.

The Internet was too fast to adopt them, and they got adopted basically out of symmetry with pluses. As time went on it became more and more apparent that minuses actively stifle discussions and instead of making them healthier, make them one-sided brewing vitriol and aggression. All of that multiplied if the downvoted comments change their look or, worse yet, get hidden.

There's research on that.

- - - Updated - - -

Quite often simple downvote is more than enough.

Just moving on is more than enough, and doesn't have the numerous negative effects that a downvote has.

[Tojara]

Downvotes were fucking retarded. If something somebody said is really shitty, or they are just trolling, the report feature should be used.

What ends up happening in down votes is that the echo chamber is setup, and you will literally get zero discussion. Forums are meant for discussion, and all down votes do is have people with the more popular opinion completely silence and bury your posts (even if they are well constructed and articulate a counter argument). It has nothing to do with coddling people who can't handle getting down votes. Quite the opposite, it basically prevents the 'popular' view point from being coddled. While some people will argue your points, others will just mindlessly mash that down vote button, which eventually means you have to go through extra clicks to even read the post.

While I'm the type of person who will go through the extra clicks to see what was so bad that somebody got down voted for (out of curiosity), most people on the internet don't have the patience to make the extra clicks to see (not that they would want to anyway).

[Protean]

Pathetic.

-- edit #1

Long answer: IMHO, it's a change to make sure that people don't feel bad about receiving downvotes, for instance, I know some people IRL who have panic attacks when someone dislikes their posts on reddit or elsewhere. I don't think people should be coddled to this extent.

You base this on what? I mean Blizzard hasn't even made a statement about it, so you're basing it on nothing but your own feelings.

[saintminya]

Good riddance. Downvotes serve no purpose anywhere.

[rda]

Not surprising. Youtube and Facebook did away with dislikes too for the very same reason.

In theory, the system was made so you could express agreement with things you like, or disagreement with things you dislike.

In practice, it lead to troll-downvoting someone just because you don't like them. Downvoting for the sake of downvoting. Downvoting out of jealousy. Out of spite. Out of hate. Out of any of the many forms of discrimination (Sexism, Racism, etc). Its just not a good system.

Having a system where you can only hit like, means someone saying something stupid will get few likes, and someone saying something good will get many likes.

I will say more. Pluses are also bad. They aren't half as bad as minuses are, but they *also* make discussions worse, not better. With time, the Internet will realize that and remove pluses as well - or maybe they will get treated more or less like noise without a number attached, or with a huge logarithmic scale (basically with gradations: 0 pluses - nobody read that, a couple of pluses - normal, tons of pluses - something that ended up being popular for whatever reason, quite possibly a weird one and having nothing to do with the value of the post / comment).

[ls-]

You base this on what? I mean Blizzard hasn't even made a statement about it, so you're basing it on nothing but your own feelings.

It's my assumption, that's why I wrote "IMHO".

[Utigarde]

Personally, I think they should have just removed the entire upvote downvote system. Downvoting is stupid, but just leaving upvotes is equally stupid. Posts go from having clear "people don't like this" to "was this disliked, or just ignored?". If they were intent on just having positive or neutral posts, they could have left downvotes, but not let the vote counter go below zero. Accomplishes the same goal they seem to want now, without allowing things to only get positive feedback and no negative.

[Puri]

It was extremely cancerous. You often had people in customer support who reported actual bugs that even were fixed after or people who got help, but they were downvoted into oblivion by the forum police.

[Tharkkun]

Pathetic.

-- edit #1

Long answer: IMHO, it's a change to make sure that people don't feel bad about receiving downvotes, for instance, I know some people IRL who have panic attacks when someone dislikes their posts on reddit or elsewhere. I don't think people should be coddled to this extent.

-- edit #2

In this case neither + nor - should exist.

Down voting was a way for people who disagreed to censor your opinions or ideas. When someone read a thread with comments down voted you had to manually open the comment which is counter productive to a discussion. It had zero to do with people's self esteem. Blizzard isn't here to police your mental health.