| I think the easiest option to prevent downvoting for "I disagree" is to have a dialog before the actual downvote asking the user for a reason (as seen on Lobste.rs) Additionally I think the best option is to completely hide the downvotes from other users, especially in the score numbers. Ideally you don't show the score to anyone but the comment owner. On Reddit, once you dip below 1, people tend to simply vote down even more. Not because they disagree but because it's a bad comment. It must be, it's score is negative. From what I've observed, controversial comments (when marked as such) are usually the ones that have initially gotten enough upvotes to stay positive through the downvotes. Hackernews also has (IMO) some signs of downvote trains where people downvote comments with the shadow but HN usually quickly hides the comment or dead/flag marks it to prevent further voting. In an ideal system I would also not simply rank by the score or a variation of it. I'd spray in some controversial or low-ranked comments into the high ranking ones to ensure that people with not enough votes get visibility even when the discussion has been going on for a while. Personally, I don't find anything bad about a downvote existing, it just needs to be carefully gated and manipulated so as to decrease the usage as a "I disagree" button without people wanting a "I disagree" button nor that vote brigading/raiding becomes a problem. Furthermore I think it's important that people don't have the score of a post so as to improve the neutrality of presentation. |