3 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)
View submission: Why not have a downvoting tax?
Every time someone has an idea about downvotes, you have to consider whether there should be some equal and opposite solution for upvotes as well, or if not you have to have a reason why they're not symmetric. Maybe someone downvotes a post that isn't "obvious trash" simply because they disagree with it, and that's bad. So if someone upvotes a post that is obvious trash because they agree with it, that's the same cause and the same effect.
Under your system, should upvotes also have a tax, or should we be paid an incentive to upvote? It seems like "if you *do* want something to trend, then at least do the courtesy of saying why" could make just as much sense; a lot of things trend that shouldn't. If your downvote tribunal would expose "angry douches" and "a-holes" then an upvote tribunal might expose mindless conformists and circlejerkers.
Comment by EmynMuilTrailGuide at 16/11/2024 at 02:07 UTC*
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Good point. Though, I think that if we look at the state of social media it's not positivity that's skewing things. If we let positivity/propensity flourish I get the sense that it will balance itself out as long as trending is a relative phenomenon. In other words, to quote Buddy, if many posts are special, then none are ... well, to buck Buddy, save for the exceptions. I would guess that the things that explosively trend do so because most everything else is so easily downvoted. Sorry, what's my point? Taxing downvoting will balance out the Karens and let the rest of us enjoy the ride.