Do you wish fluther had a thumbs down for "crappy answer?"?

I really enjoy giving people a great answer when they deserve it. I wouldn’t want the ability to give “bad answer”/thumbs down votes. Focusing on helpful, amazing answers benefits me and the fluther “community”.

It’s too easy to just click one’s disapproval. As it is now, people are free to express their objections to a previous post, but they have to at least find some way of expressing that disapproval in words. That requires a modicum of forethought; you have to examine your feelings enough to discover why you object. I think that’s healthy.

However tempting that would be, it would most likely foster an atmosphere of hostility & negativity with folks engaging in “revenge attacks” & we can’t be having that now can we?
No, I much prefer the spring loaded boxing glove button…now there’s an idea that could catch on ;¬}

I found Fluther and stayed because of the mostly positive, intellectual community. At that time in my life, I desperately needed positivity and reinforcement—I needed a place I felt I could be myself. My ex husband works at the same place I do, and Fluther turned out to be the support system I needed to get through my separation because my coworkers could not be my support system—I would never ask that of them. I met some really amazing friends here.

Thumbs down answers- especially, when I got attacked on my third reply, would have driven me away. There’s no benefit to be gained from thumbs-down answers, really, and I think a few jellies in the past would have used them to gang up on and bully others.

Isn’t getting 0 points enough?

If such a down-vote feature existed, I’d love for it to have a reason why downvoted thing, like “false information”, or “poorly thought out reasoning”, or better yet, “failed attempt at humor”.

Unfortunately I think any down-voting system would ruin Fluther, so I am against the idea.

Yeah, I agree, @Sunny2. Zero lurves or GA’s is a message enough that it was a crappy answer! :D

NO
I have seen people in Reddit throwing hissy fits about being downvoted. I offer daily sacrifices to the Great Space Goat so that this shit doesn’t reach here.

@Michael Huntington: Here’s my favorite goat.

hehehe, well I guess that makes it pretty damned clear how you all feel.

I still think it would be a good idea. Instead of ganging up on a poster who has a thought that bucks the trend, they could just be given a thumbs down. It would actually lessen negativity not increase it. A little thumb pointing down would be a lot less threatening than a whole bunch of people telling you what you mean by what you say and how wrong you are.

I’ve been on other Q&A sites that had such a mechanism, and it was badly misused by trolls. They would often stalk a user and vote down absolutely everything they said regardless of the content.

I am a happy member of Fluther because we have no way to simply vote a post down. In order to show our disapproval of a post, we have to post something ourselves. We have to put thought behind it. It’s not a simple, anonymous click of a button.

^
Answerbag did that. It was always so much fun getting rows and rows of red -5’s in my account because someone didn’t like me. I’m sure those type of trolls didn’t even read three quarters of my shit. not that what I say is any grounds for people liking me XD
I don’t wanna see that here. Not that I doubt the maturity of Fluther members, but eh…’‘trails off’’
As already mentioned, it’s way better to show one’s disagreement or disaproval through words. :/ Fluther is good at being smart and constructive, and a downrate feature isn’t needed. Hell I’d do away with the whole Lurve thing if it was up to me.

No way, no how. Fluther is all about positive reinforcement. <throws glitter on everyone>

I think I’d be king of the negative lurve… I like it!

omg, thank you @King_Pariah – I was getting so buried under the negative replies! It would be so much less painful if I just had to look at thumbs down!!!

I never go anywhere but fluther so I don’t know about other sites. I did join one a long time ago but never go there. I can’t keep up with fluther, how do you have time to be here and other sites too???

I’m glad Fluther doesn’t have it and isn’t interested in it. I’d rather have someone tell me what they think is wrong about what I said than give me a thumbs down and leave me wondering what was wrong with what I had said.

Death, where is thy sting!

I’d leave

I don’t think I would have joined in the first place if Fluther had a down-vote feature. There is no way it would not be abused by trolls, or at best, cliques. @rooeytoo I suggest you explore more websites that feature down-voting before deciding it would be good for Fluther. Someone mentioned Reddit..that’s a great example.

I just ignore.

@SpatzieLover – are you suggesting I should leave or you would leave if there were a thumbs down?

@zensky – yep I guess that is the best way to handle it.

So later dudes, I’m outta here!

I would leave if there was a thumbs down. Sorry @rooeytoo that I didn’t make that clear. I certainly don’t want you to go.

I don’t think anyone wants you to leave, @rooeytoo. You just need to learn to ignore the people that annoy you. Just like in real life.

I apparently sounded like a prima donna who was threatening to leave! I am sorry for giving that impression. @SpatzieLover – I really was being facitious, I knew what you meant, or at least I thought I did. And then, I just decided to take @zensky‘s succinct advice, heheheh and ignore the whole damned thing! As I told a friend in a pm, I think fluther needs old farts such as myself to keep the young liberals on their toes!

It will take more than this to get rid of me! Cheers to you all.

I would rather just ignore an answer I don’t think adds to the discussion. I can’t see any value for giving someone a thumbs down. Very few or no GAs says it all really.

I think this would be abused (as I am sure the GA option is although at least that’s positive abuse, if there can be such a thing?!)

0 points = nobody liked my answer. (boo hoo)
1 point = thanks for writing
2 points= that’s nice!
3 points = oh wow!
4 points = hey, they really liked that one!
any more points than that = Look at me! I’m hot shit!

Wants to ^ see @Sunny2 be hot shit

@SpatzieLover Thanks, but don’t hold your breath. Or, if it happens, maybe you should!

@rooeytoo Speaking as an old liberal, I think we’re dancing as fast as we can already. So don’t feel like you are needed to keep liberals on their toes. That is, what we call in the biz, just adding to the massive redundancy we already have. I’m sure you can come up with more creative ways to wreak chaos here! ;-)

Some days I wish there was a thumbs down button, but I know that it really isn’t a good idea so I don’t dwell on the thought.
On a completely different subject, I just love @Leanne1986 ‘s Highland cow, and I wish I had a real live one for my very own.

@wundayatta – actually I am an old moderate, which simply means I swing every which way depending on the day and the issue. I hate being locked into a mold.

Old libs don’t worry me and yes you appear to be a wonderful dancer.

Everybody has the ability to give a “thumbs down” by actually commenting on a post, but they/you/me have to give an explanation as to why we think an answer was bad/wrong/silly/not useful etc.

If we had an anonymous thumbs down button, people would be able to wrecklessly “hit and run” other users. By having to actually write something, to explain why we or you didn’t like something, we also put ourselves in the position of having other jellies call us out. Sometimes that fact, alone, is enough to make the negative commenters shut up or put up.

Oh Wow! @Sunny2 ;)

Although this is tempting at times, I really think that Fluther is much better off without any such “crappy answer” button. Anything along those lines would turn the whole lurve sysetm into a competition, and one of the great things about this site is that lurve is simply positive reinforcement; it encourages people to contribute without the distraction of competition, which is one of the things that people value most about Fluther.

@Sunny2: It is complicated enough giving grades out if I am being paid to do it. Here, for free? What a thought?

@gailcalled I was thinking more of how a receiver could interpret the GA’s. Since we only give the “grades” one by one as a group, it’s a little hard to suggest what the evaluator may be thinking. 1 GA could be “you have a point” or “you made me laugh” or “I agree” or “I’m following you, so here’s a point unless I’ve gone over my limit.” We’ll never know since we can only give one point at a time.

I do notice a drop in the number of GA’s given out lately, overall.

Just an observation, could be wrong…

@rooeytoo. I thought you knew that’s what private messages are for. If you find yourself wishing for a thumbs down, pm me. I’m a great listener. bitch all ya want. ;)

heheeh, thanks @jonsblond, I’ll keep that in mind!

@wilma Thank you. I love them too!

No, no no. It’s far better to explain in detail why you think a particular answer is crappy. How else would discussion happen? Fluther wouldn’t be any fun if it was reduced to just giving and taking away lurve.

There is no such thing as a ‘crappy’ answer, since what is considered crappy is relative to each user. Personally on many occasions I’ve found that the best answers were the ones that didn’t receive any lurve/points/raves (depending on website). There were also quite a few occasions where I just couldn’t bring myself to understand why certain answers get large amounts of points because I thought that they were crappy.

Variation in any Q & A or blogging website means a quality website in my opinion, not echo chambers. It is already difficult enough to get people with dissenting viewpoints to join fluther (along with lasting on here) as it is without making it more difficult. There is little doubt in my mind that a downrave function would be severely abused, even on here. I also feel that a downrave feature would mean down with fluther in the end. People already have the option to not give an answer points or to directly address an opinion that they don’t agree with.

I sometimes wish there was something like that, so I could counter the one prick that always seems to GA the most godawful answers. But that might come to bite me in the ass, since some things are just popularity contests. Probably better to express disagreement more openly, and maybe create a dialogue (yea, right)~.

@incendiary_dan – I am sure if there were a thumbs down, I would get plenty of them but hey it would be worth it to be able to hand them out too. I think there are a lot of crappy, snide, sarcastic, boring, ignorant and sometimes laughable answers and they could be dealt with quicky and easily.

But alas most jellies are for various reasons, against the concept, so I will just have to strive to emulate @zensky‘s sterling example and ignore or take up @jonsblond‘s generous offer to lament in the form of pm.

@rooeytoo I highly doubt that a thumbs down system would stop users from expressing their disagreements with any post. If anything, they’d give it a thumbs down and then tell you why they did it.

And we will all try harder not to be “crappy, snide, sarcastic, boring, ignorant and sometimes laughable.”

@Seaofclouds – yep, I could do that in addition! ;-)

@Bellatrix – well I certainly hope so! But I don’t see any evidence of it happening so far. :-)

(now if there were a thumbs down, you could give me one for being snide and laughable!)

nope

I wouldn’t want to see a thumbs down function. I don’t see any point in it whatsoever. If someone wants to disagree with an answer or the tone of an answer being snide or sarcastic they can do so by posting a comment. The rules of Fluther exist to encourage civil discourse and it mostly works. If it doesn’t the worst offenders get modded anyways. That’s sort of the slap on the wrist that some people need. And I’m sure that the mods would agree how sometimes it becomes difficult to discern if someone is purposely intending to be uncivil or if their meaning has been misinterpreted.

As far as the answer being wrong or “stupid” isn’t it enough to just correct the person? In many cases the answers are opinion-based anyways so just because one person finds it stupid or considers it wrong doesn’t mean it is.

I agree with a lot of the other reasons given here, especially Paradox25‘s answer. I often see the same thing. Great answers that have gotten little lurve and so-so or even lousy answers that have gotten lots of lurve. I guess one man’s meat is another man’s poison as they say.

And another cliched saying if I may have 2, it takes all kinds to make up this world. It’s funny, but I wouldn’t want Fluther to be so homogenous that only people who are smart funny and always say the “right ” thing and say it eloquently were here. How boring that would be! Not that there’s any chance we could drive away all the obnoxious people, lol. (Is it obnoxious to say lol? sure gets on some people’s nerves)

I think many people come to the site not just because they are bored but also because they are lonely and like that sense of community. And just like in real life, there are those whom we like , those whom we tolerate, and those whom we avoid if possible. Avoiding is possible and ignoring too as zensky says.

So thumbs down on the thumbs down!!!!!
maybe a trapdoor would be fun though, hmmm….

^^ cccrrrcht Thunk!

Just like in Sweeny Todd!-

A Flutheresque vaudeville hook would be good too!

Okay, skip the thumbs down and bring in the trap door. That would be a lot quicker and more effective anyhow!

Kardamom I like it! At least it would be funny instead of mean…but I guess that depends.

PLEASE, please, tell me where the trap door button is!!!!!

rooeytoo sounds like you have a candidate in mind….hopefully it’s not me,lol

The last time we had this question, I gave basically the same answer that @thorninmud gave here. When you think an answer is really good, you might not have much to say other than “I agree” or “me too.” This can be expressed without a post. Having a Great Answer button fulfills this function beautifully. When you think an answer is really bad, however, one should ideally have a reason for thinking it is bad. That reason can only be expressed through a post. Having a Bad Answer button just wouldn’t cut it.

That’s why the trap door is just what we need!

@Earthgirl – I would never pull the trap door button on you!!!

rooeytoo hmmm, never say never,lol!