I disagree that downvoting is not worth it. Downvoting is a clear signal to others that this is a comment not worth paying attention to, and prevents them from responding to a troll comment.
The majority opinion isn’t always accurate, but it is generally useful, especially in a narrow community of your choosing.
One way or another, you have to face the trade off between the expected value of the time you will lose reading the comment, and the expected value you will extract from the comment. In other words, how can you decide if a comment is worth your time or not? There are several data points that can help you make your decision:
Overall quality of comments, that you know from prior experience with the site.
Whether it belongs to a thread you participated in. (That’s not objective, but what counts is the value the comment has to you)
Length of the comment (the longer ones tend to be more valuable, but also takes more time to read)
Upvotes and downvotes (highly depends on how much you trust the community there)
The content itself doesn’t count, because you need to read the comment to judge it.
Now assume your time is valuable, and you need to sort the weed from the crop. Without a voting system, you’re left with the first three criteria, maybe only the first two. In the end, you are likely to read either few comments, or almost all of them. Voting systems can help you do better.
The problem is, you also have to judge the voting patterns. To what extent do you agree with the votes you see? The more you do, the more you can let the community judge for you. Enjoy your time.
Another thing to keep in mind in this regard, is that this forum has a filter that blocks posts with enough of a negative score. Downvoting a comment posted by a troll can swiftly block it from public consumption, which means only those who want to read it will.
The proper way of dealing with trolls is to ignore them altogether. Even downvoting them gives them the attention they don’t deserve.
I disagree that downvoting is not worth it. Downvoting is a clear signal to others that this is a comment not worth paying attention to, and prevents them from responding to a troll comment.
Can’t they judge for themselves?
Takes time.
Sure, but it seems better than relying on the majority opinion.
The majority opinion isn’t always accurate, but it is generally useful, especially in a narrow community of your choosing.
One way or another, you have to face the trade off between the expected value of the time you will lose reading the comment, and the expected value you will extract from the comment. In other words, how can you decide if a comment is worth your time or not? There are several data points that can help you make your decision:
Overall quality of comments, that you know from prior experience with the site.
Whether it belongs to a thread you participated in. (That’s not objective, but what counts is the value the comment has to you)
Length of the comment (the longer ones tend to be more valuable, but also takes more time to read)
Upvotes and downvotes (highly depends on how much you trust the community there)
The content itself doesn’t count, because you need to read the comment to judge it.
Now assume your time is valuable, and you need to sort the weed from the crop. Without a voting system, you’re left with the first three criteria, maybe only the first two. In the end, you are likely to read either few comments, or almost all of them. Voting systems can help you do better.
The problem is, you also have to judge the voting patterns. To what extent do you agree with the votes you see? The more you do, the more you can let the community judge for you. Enjoy your time.
In order to do that, you have to read low scoring comments too.
Only for a time.
Voting patterns can change with time and with respect to different issues.
Another thing to keep in mind in this regard, is that this forum has a filter that blocks posts with enough of a negative score. Downvoting a comment posted by a troll can swiftly block it from public consumption, which means only those who want to read it will.