Should blizzard remove Voting from their Forums?

[manypillars]

Aaahhh.. so OP is upset that people they don't think are worthy get upvotes, while they themselves get downvoted by a couple of known people for writing about how they hate elves.

Though as the OP themself points out: even if downvotes were removed the people who don't like your fanfiction will continue to post critique of it whether they like it or not. Unless they also feel that only positive comments should be allowed too?

[clevin]

Down vote systems are almost always abused and usually not useful. Upvote systems tend to highlight good or popular ideas which is my preference.

Why not bury a post with down votes? Because the mob mentality does give a relatively small group of people (10-50 usually are enough) the power to effectively censor ideas. Want to bury a post? Ignore it. Don't post in the thread. It will go away.

[guardian_titan]

Downvotes have a purpose. If a thread topic is on mythic raiders and someone decides to talk about battle pets out of the blue, the topic change should be downvoted to promote the topic remaining on topic.

Should a thread regarding LFR have posts regarding returning to the MoP model upvoted while others saying LFR should just be outright removed have downvotes? Depends on the situation. People not offering anything to the discussion except maybe parroting another poster should be downvoted. Forums are for discussion, not parroting. If you agree but have nothing to add, upvote instead of just quoting someone. Rather hard to tell a troll some days. A good many downvotes I've noticed are related to trolls, though. Seeing someone complain about LFR only to find they have never done LFR (or even normal+) doesn't lend itself well to the poster being legitimately serious. Sure, they could have done LFR or maybe they never have. Hiding on an alt that isn't connected to the toon that has done it doesn't help their issue. So may as well downvote people who even look like they're trolling.

The system's fine but perhaps when someone's downvoted, you're required to select a reason from a box (can't just type in gibberish to downvote) AND everyone gets to see who downvoted and why. There's no system that wouldn't be used by trolls to screw over other players, though. Do you think the Chinese guy who invented gunpowder thought it'd be used to kill people? Maybe he made it for fireworks alone but someone else discovered it could be used for guns and cannons. People have ways of distorting things that were made for good reasons into something bad. On the other hand, we also go the other way, too. Knives were originally made to butcher and kill. Eventually they were whittled down to scalpels which can help save lives.

Maybe another way to avoid the downvotes while retaining them is if you have a certain ratio of upvotes to downvotes or have negative votes. If you drop below 50-50 upvotes to downvotes, you can't give any votes until you're back to 50-50 or better. Or if you have negative votes, you can't vote and your posting is restricted to maybe 5 posts a day and no thread creation until you get positive votes. If there's a lot of trolls, though, they can effectively destroy someone's posting ability by mass downvoting people. But if the system goes off what votes are available now and doesn't start anew with a new system, the trolls can be removed pretty quickly with little chance of them being able to come back unless they make regular positive posts with their few posts they can do daily. Make the system battle.net account wide so you can't just change toons to post unrestricted. Maybe even make it related to the name on the account or name on the card used to make the account or on IP address so people can't just buy an account to post.

[Molis]

I thought Down voting was not a good system until I started clicking on the "show buried post"

90% of them deserve to be down-voted into oblivion.


It is the 10% that are trying to have a constructive debate or conversation that pay for the trolls bad behavior.

[Aggrophobic]

I don't really care but whats the issue with getting a few down votes?

[Zandalarian Paladin]

Downvoting is an abused function that is being misused widely everywhere. Downvoting should only be used when something goes against the rules or bring nothing to the table. Disagreeing does not warrant a downvote, yet it is used this way in 99% of cases. Which is why it's utterly stupid and should be reworked. It's also why facebook didn't use a "dislike" button - because such a tool is basically cancerous for the cultural well being.

[Shinv]

Just remove the down votes if they want to present a real counter argument they'll need to find a good post that answers the OP and up vote that or write there own response. When people actually read they actually think good feedback is then created. Down votes encourage troll behavior. I know people will first just post things like NO and tdlr please, but those kind of responses get tiring to regular readers regardless if they disagree with the OP. People just don't really read each others responses and often ignore anything down voted regardless if something true and smart was said. Its a very poor cycle for find good ideas and creating quality feedback.

[Spinster]

Nothing wrong with the voting system in the blizz forums. The burying of posts is a godsend if anything.
If 200 people dislike it, chances are it's warranted and not worth ones time reading.

Well that depends on your opinion of the people currently in the forums, doesn't it.

I've never understood craving the approval of strangers. I particularly don't understand craving the approval of strangers who are mostly stupid. And they are mostly stupid in the WoW forums these days.

[PolarityER]

Voting on forums like WoW should never existed.

[StationaryHawk]

Welcome IRL, why do you think worldleaders are not scientists.

While that's nice, there's no reason to keep a flawed system just because "real life is hard."

[Klingers]

I'm practically done posting anything on there

It's impossible to have ANY opinion there whatsoever without getting downvoted into Oblivion. Give Legion some Critizism, buried post, on EU we have an extreme problem of Elves. SAY anything negative elves in the story forums and they will tear you apart with both votes and words.
Might not seem like a big Issue, but it has something to do with peoples self-esteem aswell. It's a reason facebook didn't implement the Downvote button.
Maybe keep the Upvote function? You still see that you're being trashed if people have more votes on you on what they say, but atleast you don't have a big fat Minus next to your name

Say no to Voting

I think this is one of the few things we can expect Blizzard to act quickly on. The only thing the World of Warcraft CAN manage without a 10-14 month turnaround is removing things.

[Stuffs]

The whole upvote/downvote concept is stupid, but if your self esteem is actually hurt over something as minor as that you have larger and more important issues.

Nothing wrong with the voting system in the blizz forums. The burying of posts is a godsend if anything.
If 200 people dislike it, chances are it's warranted and not worth ones time reading.

Praise be to the bandwagon.

[Wildberry]

The voting system on the official forums is terrible. All that it actually accomplishes is enforcing and cultivating an echo chamber. Low quality posts aren't the only posts that get downvoted or hidden. There are plenty of cases where thoughtful posts get downvoted, while shitposts are upvoted.

If you disagree with a post, you're more than free to say why, and make a case for your point of view. That doesn't happen on the official forums, and they're worse off for it. I won't pretend that MMO-Champion is a bastion of rational discourse; however, to compare, say, the Lore forums here, to the Story forums on the Official website; it's abundantly clear that the quality of discussion is higher here.

And no, my feelings aren't "hurt" for being downvoted. I just dislike forums where autistic internet crusaders can form downvote brigades to stifle differing opinions.

[Very Tired]

Voting on forum posts is a true tell sign of a crap forum.

Of course people are going to just dismiss it and say "Lol, can't take a few downvotes? Get off the interwebs"

Have you ever tried disagreeing with someone in any normal conversion then follow it up by saying nothing at all? That's pretty much forum voting in a nutshell. People can disagree with you for the dumbest of reasons, which everyone can see, but never post why. You know this learning/correcting thing we are supposed to be doing? It skips that entirely.

If you think someone posted something dumb, reply to them and explain why.

[Pantalaimon]

I'm fine with upvoting, but downvoting is really stupid on the forums. I've had both seemingly more neutral points & even points where I brought up a situation or scenario that was correct & not just my opinion buried. I've also had a few vocal posters bury my points that I've legitimately wanted to have be discussed. Really makes it hard to enjoy talking about the game on the official forums unless you simply give in to pressure & make your opinion that of other posters instead. I find the WoW forum posters more toxic than trade chat more often than not, albiet with Blizzard moderated filters. Forums shouldn't be popularity contests in all honesty.

[bluspacecow]

It really doesn't work in the tech support forums.

Seems some players get salty and down vote every MVP or forum regulars posts.

Which sucks when we are trying to help people.

Neither is down voting strictly necessary in that forum - we are usually good about steering people away from bad or malicious advice

[Lochton]

Can't vote on your poll, your choice are bad.

And really, if you worry about votes on the forums, then maybe you go too much in to it? And if you are downvoted so badly, then there might be a reason.