Could a support feature supplement the great answer feature?
I think Fluther would greatly benefit from a supporter meter, and by that I mean a way to see how the public leans in support of two peoples’ discourse, who has devolved a discussion into a defensive bout of retorts and bickering, and who is on point with facts. Maybe the people who support a particular side of a dialogue can cast their lot, and if enough people outweight somone on an issue, their text could be force whispered.
Naturally people would want to add their support to the side that they agree with, thus the popular opinions will win out, so perhaps moderators should get the choice to add the feature to a back and forth dialogue as long as it isnt an opinion based argument. In the fact based arguments this could help people pick out what is generally supported factually and has been checked and what hasn’t.
How does this feature sound to you? Would you use it, or would something similar be more helpful?
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I don’t think that this would be the best idea. We already have the GA system, which pretty much does what you are saying. If I see a post in a discussion that says something that I agree with, I generally give it a great answer, much like you are suggesting one would do with this support feature. Secondly, I think the best way for others to know if something is not factually sound isn’t a vote of support for the opposing idea, but having the person who checked the fact reply as such in the discussion.
I think that forcing somebody out of a discussion, or even force whispering them because their ideas aren’t popular is a really bad idea. Every person’s answer, provided it meets the requirements for a decent answer not spam, not trolling, etc.. should be viewed in the same light. Still, as it is now, one could just look at only answers with more than five GAs if they want to see the most popular answers or, in some cases, the most popular posters
Then it wouldn’t be fluther.
I would rather see something akin to the “thumbs-down” button that you see sometimes, but that would probably not work well with the Fluther aesthetic.
Ekans/faye/nullo : Eventually I will take what comes out of here, and make a better new feature question ^_^ lets keep going! Methinks a common scene is two users basically defending two sides. What about a cite tab for answers, so a person could name their sources.
Fluther doesn’t punish people with points(lurve). They don’t get removed if someone removes you from their Fluther. You never really know/notice. This is best.
And all adding a down-vote button would do is get the trolls to be more obnoxious to win the race to the bottom.
I do support this.
I support this. Too many ways to give out lurve would probably just get too complicated to bother with.
Nothing that could devolve into a popularity contest, no matter how well intended, is going to be good for us.
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