On StackExchange, you lose reputation whoever you downvote a question/answer; this makes downvoting a costly signal for displeasure. I like the notion, and hope it is included in the new site. If you have to spend your hard-earned karma to cause someone to lose karma, then it may discourage karma assassination, and ensure that downvotes are only used on content people have strong negative feelings towards.
##Pros
Users only downvote content they feel strong displeasure towards.
Karma assassination via sockpuppets becomes impossible, and targeted karma attacks through your main account because you dislike a user becomes very costly.
Moderation of downvoting behaviour would be vastly reduced as users downvote less, and only on content they have strong feelings towards.
#Cons
There are much less downvotes.
I don’t think downvotes should be costly. On StackExchange mediocre content can get a high score if it relates to a popular topic. Given that this website has the goal of filtering content in a way that allows people who only want to read a subset to read the high quality posts downvotes of medicore content as useful information.
I think the first con is a feature and not a bug; it is not clear to me that more downvotes are intrinsically beneficial. The second point is valid criticism and I think we need to way the benefit of the downvotes against their cost.
I think you lose one reputation, per downvote, and cause the person downvoted to lose 2 − 5 reputation.
I think downvoting costing 0.33 − 0.5 the karma you deduct from the target of your downvote is a good idea, and will encourage better downvote practices and would overall be an improvement to the karma feature.
Hmm… I feel that this disincentivizes downvoting too strongly, and just makes downvoting feel kind of shitty on an emotional level.
An alternative thing that I’ve been thinking about is to make it so that when you downvote something, you have to give a short explanation between 40 and 400 characters about why you think the comment was bad. Which both adds a cost to downvoting, and actually translates that cost into meaningful information for the commenter. Another alternative implementation of this could work with a set of common tags that you can choose from when downvoting a comment, maybe of the type “too aggressive”, “didn’t respond to original claim”, “responded to strawman”, etc.
Hmm… I feel that this incentivizes downvoting too strongly
How does this incentivise downvoting? Downvoting is costly signal of displeasure, and as downvotes cost a certain fraction of the karma you deduct, it disincentivises downvoting.
makes downvoting feel kind of shitty on an emotional level.
This is a feature not a bug; we don’t want to encourage downvoting and karma assassination. The idea is that downvoting becomes costly signalling of displeasure. Mere disagreement would not cause downvoting. Downvoting should be costly signalling.
An alternative thing that I’ve been thinking about is to make it so that when you downvote something, you have to give a short explanation between 40 and 400 characters about why you think the comment was bad. Which both adds a cost to downvoting, and actually translates that cost into meaningful information for the commenter.
I thought of this as well, but decided that the StackExchange system of making downvotes cost karma is better for the purposes I thought of.
Another alternative implementation of this could work with a set of common tags that you can choose from when downvoting a comment, maybe of the type “too aggressive”, “didn’t respond to original claim”, “responded to strawman”, etc.
This fails to achieve “adds a cost to downvoting”; if there are custom downvoting tags, then the cost of downvoting is removed. I think making downvotes cost a fraction (<= 0.5) of the karma you deduct serves to discourage downvoting.
Oh, okay. I still think we want to disincentivise downvoting though.
##Pros
Users only downvote content they feel strong displeasure towards.
Karma assassination via sockpuppets becomes impossible, and targeted karma attacks through your main account because you dislike a user becomes very costly.
Moderation of downvoting behaviour would be vastly reduced as users downvote less, and only on content they have strong feelings towards.
#Cons
There are much less downvotes.
I don’t think downvotes should be costly. On StackExchange mediocre content can get a high score if it relates to a popular topic. Given that this website has the goal of filtering content in a way that allows people who only want to read a subset to read the high quality posts downvotes of medicore content as useful information.
I think the first con is a feature and not a bug; it is not clear to me that more downvotes are intrinsically beneficial. The second point is valid criticism and I think we need to way the benefit of the downvotes against their cost.
I suggest users lose 40% of the karma they deduct (since you want to give different users different weights). For example, if you downvote someone, they lose 5 karma, but you lose 2 karma.
I’m not opposed to downvote limits, but I think they need to not be too low. There are situations where I am more likely to downvote many things just because I am more heavily moderating. For example, on comments on my own post I care more and am more likely to both upvote and downvote whereas other times I might just not care that much.
I don’t think downvotes should be costly. On StackExchange mediocre content can get a high score if it relates to a popular topic.
Given that this website has the goal of filtering content in a way that allows people who only want to read a subset to read the high quality posts downvotes of medicore content as useful information.
So… let’s imagine that one day the website will attack e.g. hundreds of crackpots… each of them posting obviously crazy stuff, dozens of comments each… but most people will hesitate to downvote them, because they would remember that doing so reduces their own karma.
Okay, this will probably not happen. But I think that downvoting is an important thing and should not be disincentivized per se. Bad stuff needs to get downvoted. Actually, other than Eugine, people usually don’t downvote enough. (And for Eugine, this is not a problem at all; he will get the karma back by upvoting himself with his other sockpuppets.)
I think it is already too easy to get a lot of karma on LW just by posting a lot of mediocre quality comments, each getting 1 karma point on average. Sometimes I suspect that maybe half of my own karma is for the quality of things I wrote, and the remaining half is for spending too much time commenting here even when I have nothing especially insightful to say.
Thank God you agree, and thus I think it’s value as a thought experiment is nil.
But I think that downvoting is an important thing and should not be disincentivized per se.
Disincentivising downvoting discourages frivolous use of downvotes, and encourages responsible downvoting usage.
If you just disagree with someone, you’re more likely to reply than downvote them if you care about your karma for example.
Actually, other than Eugine, people usually don’t downvote enough. (And for Eugine, this is not a problem at all; he will get the karma back by upvoting himself with his other sockpuppets.)
On StackExchange upvotes and downvotes from accounts with less than 15 rep are recorded but don’t count (presumably until the account gains more than 15 rep). LW may decide to set her bar lower (10 rep?) or higher (>= 20 rep?), but I think the core insight is very good and would be a significant improvement if applied to LW.
On StackExchange, you lose reputation whoever you downvote a question/answer; this makes downvoting a costly signal for displeasure. I like the notion, and hope it is included in the new site. If you have to spend your hard-earned karma to cause someone to lose karma, then it may discourage karma assassination, and ensure that downvotes are only used on content people have strong negative feelings towards.
##Pros
Users only downvote content they feel strong displeasure towards.
Karma assassination via sockpuppets becomes impossible, and targeted karma attacks through your main account because you dislike a user becomes very costly.
Moderation of downvoting behaviour would be vastly reduced as users downvote less, and only on content they have strong feelings towards.
#Cons
There are much less downvotes.
I don’t think downvotes should be costly. On StackExchange mediocre content can get a high score if it relates to a popular topic.
Given that this website has the goal of filtering content in a way that allows people who only want to read a subset to read the high quality posts downvotes of medicore content as useful information.
I think the first con is a feature and not a bug; it is not clear to me that more downvotes are intrinsically beneficial. The second point is valid criticism and I think we need to way the benefit of the downvotes against their cost.
I think you lose one reputation, per downvote, and cause the person downvoted to lose 2 − 5 reputation.
I think downvoting costing 0.33 − 0.5 the karma you deduct from the target of your downvote is a good idea, and will encourage better downvote practices and would overall be an improvement to the karma feature.
Hmm… I feel that this disincentivizes downvoting too strongly, and just makes downvoting feel kind of shitty on an emotional level.
An alternative thing that I’ve been thinking about is to make it so that when you downvote something, you have to give a short explanation between 40 and 400 characters about why you think the comment was bad. Which both adds a cost to downvoting, and actually translates that cost into meaningful information for the commenter. Another alternative implementation of this could work with a set of common tags that you can choose from when downvoting a comment, maybe of the type “too aggressive”, “didn’t respond to original claim”, “responded to strawman”, etc.
How does this incentivise downvoting? Downvoting is costly signal of displeasure, and as downvotes cost a certain fraction of the karma you deduct, it disincentivises downvoting.
This is a feature not a bug; we don’t want to encourage downvoting and karma assassination. The idea is that downvoting becomes costly signalling of displeasure. Mere disagreement would not cause downvoting. Downvoting should be costly signalling.
I thought of this as well, but decided that the StackExchange system of making downvotes cost karma is better for the purposes I thought of.
This fails to achieve “adds a cost to downvoting”; if there are custom downvoting tags, then the cost of downvoting is removed. I think making downvotes cost a fraction (<= 0.5) of the karma you deduct serves to discourage downvoting.
“How does this incentivise downvoting?”
Sorry, my bad. I wanted to write “disincentivize”, but failed. I guess it’s a warning against using big words.
Oh, okay. I still think we want to disincentivise downvoting though.
##Pros
Users only downvote content they feel strong displeasure towards.
Karma assassination via sockpuppets becomes impossible, and targeted karma attacks through your main account because you dislike a user becomes very costly.
Moderation of downvoting behaviour would be vastly reduced as users downvote less, and only on content they have strong feelings towards.
#Cons
There are much less downvotes.
I don’t think downvotes should be costly. On StackExchange mediocre content can get a high score if it relates to a popular topic.
Given that this website has the goal of filtering content in a way that allows people who only want to read a subset to read the high quality posts downvotes of medicore content as useful information.
I think the first con is a feature and not a bug; it is not clear to me that more downvotes are intrinsically beneficial. The second point is valid criticism and I think we need to way the benefit of the downvotes against their cost.
I suggest users lose 40% of the karma they deduct (since you want to give different users different weights). For example, if you downvote someone, they lose 5 karma, but you lose 2 karma.
How about the boring simplicity of having downvote limits? Maybe something around one downvote/24 hours—not cumulative.
If you’re feeling generous, maybe add a downvote/24 hours per 1000 karma, with a maximum or 5 downvotes/24 hours.
I’m not opposed to downvote limits, but I think they need to not be too low. There are situations where I am more likely to downvote many things just because I am more heavily moderating. For example, on comments on my own post I care more and am more likely to both upvote and downvote whereas other times I might just not care that much.
This is a solution as well; it is not clear to me though, that it is better than the solution I proposed.
I don’t think downvotes should be costly. On StackExchange mediocre content can get a high score if it relates to a popular topic.
Given that this website has the goal of filtering content in a way that allows people who only want to read a subset to read the high quality posts downvotes of medicore content as useful information.
I’ll add the point you raise about downvotes to the “cons” of my argument.
So… let’s imagine that one day the website will attack e.g. hundreds of crackpots… each of them posting obviously crazy stuff, dozens of comments each… but most people will hesitate to downvote them, because they would remember that doing so reduces their own karma.
Okay, this will probably not happen. But I think that downvoting is an important thing and should not be disincentivized per se. Bad stuff needs to get downvoted. Actually, other than Eugine, people usually don’t downvote enough. (And for Eugine, this is not a problem at all; he will get the karma back by upvoting himself with his other sockpuppets.)
I think it is already too easy to get a lot of karma on LW just by posting a lot of mediocre quality comments, each getting 1 karma point on average. Sometimes I suspect that maybe half of my own karma is for the quality of things I wrote, and the remaining half is for spending too much time commenting here even when I have nothing especially insightful to say.
Thank God you agree, and thus I think it’s value as a thought experiment is nil.
Disincentivising downvoting discourages frivolous use of downvotes, and encourages responsible downvoting usage.
If you just disagree with someone, you’re more likely to reply than downvote them if you care about your karma for example.
On StackExchange upvotes and downvotes from accounts with less than 15 rep are recorded but don’t count (presumably until the account gains more than 15 rep). LW may decide to set her bar lower (10 rep?) or higher (>= 20 rep?), but I think the core insight is very good and would be a significant improvement if applied to LW.