Dem thumbs ... · 5:21pm Jul 1st, 2013
Inquiring Lyra's wish to know about your relationship with thumbs.
(img by cradet)
That's the thumbs up/down on this site, not the ones on your hands, silly 
Do you ever downvote a story? If so, how bad does it have to be before you turn that thumb upside down? Do you leave a comment to explain why? I don't think I've ever seen someone comment that they gave a thumb down and explain why, it seems it's always just a silent gesture without explanation, which makes me feel that it's an utterly pointless and frustrating feature.
Personally I never downvote a story, no matter how horrible it is. If I don't like a story, I just don't upvote it, which I consider enough of a gesture on my part. I may or may not leave a comment, although usually not, because I don't have infinite time.
(img by UlyssesGrant)
Another question. Is it possible to upvote your own stories? Anyone tried? If it's possible, do you upvote your own stories? It's occurred to me more than once that maybe one could do so, but I've never tried. I guess I'm curious to hear
Finally, I've noticed downvotes disappearing from time to time. Either someone changed their mind (unlikely, I think) or FiMfiction has some system in place to weed out trolls and haters (seems likely given the ratio of up and down votes). Anyone know any details about this?
I'm so terribly curious lately.
It is possible to upvote your own stories. I do so for every story right when I submit it, sort of a little "yep, this is good enough now," ritual.
I don't downvote much, unless the story is actively bad. Although I'm equally stringent with upvotes and favorites.
And I too have noticed downvotes disappearing. Don't know how it happens though
I've never down-voted, I imagine I only would if I thought something was really offensive or mean.
I think the use of the down-vote is probably useful in a way is it allows people to easily show how they feel without leaving a disparaging/offensive comment (we've all seen what can happen then) there by saving the authors feelings and preventing a mass of hateful comments.
I downvote a story when the writing is Aweful, the characters are waaaay OOC and the actual plot is just...WTF?
When I do downvote,I leave a comment stating why, give tips on improvements (and on the rare occasion a lot of hate....)
1181020 you do that too?
I just think, 'well I've just spent hours writing this, so it deserves a thumbs up'
1181020
That's good to know.
I'm more free with upvotes than I am with favorites. Often when I think a story is well written but not really my cup of tea, I'll give it a thumbs up but leave out the favorite. I wish there was a way to follow a story without giving them a fave, the Read Later list isn't very good for keeping up with stories that I haven't decided yet whether I really like.
1181032
Personally, and especially as an author, I feel not voting if you can't or don't want to leave a constructive comment serves that purpose better than downvoting. It's very discouraging as an author to see a downvote and no hint of why this person thought the story was bad.
1181041
That's one way to look at it, I suppose
The whole like dislike system, as well as the favorite system, are rather broken.
Admittedly, most systems of that type are broken, but that is besides the point
You cannot get chapter updates without Favoriteing a story, which generally results in they coming to your page and thanking you, which feels awkward, especially when it is really that you are using that as a bookmark, essentially, or to mark stories you started reading.
As for likes, well, I avoid liking stories most of the time, unless it is really, really, really epic, or, if not as epic, it has a really low like score that I don't think it deserves. After all, unlike a favorite, you cannot remove a like, at least without disliking a story. So yea. Its broken and infuriating.
But w.e.
I downvote stories that are very bad as a warning to other people not to read them. There is no way in hell that I'd ever leave a comment in a story I was downvoting, because the best possible thing that could happen as a result is nothing (while the bad things run through harassment, ploys for sympathy and requests for help, and retaliation).
If the story is good enough that constructive criticism could possibly help, then it's probably in the 90% of stories I don't vote on either way.
I think the upvote/downvote thing works decently; just looking at my own stories the ones that were better have better ratios. I think you need the downvote there so that it's a ratio and not just a raw number which would tell you nothing; I guess you could give it as a percentage of people who read the story that upvoted it, which might still be useful? But more data is generally good.
I can't recall. I tend to avoid a story if they are hard to comprehend; bad spelling everywhere or just in every major important key scene that changes its meaning all together. Jarring incoherent messes that go on forever without pause.
I don't know. I am pretty vocal when I do down vote and give a fair reason why. Those usually come from enjoying the concept, but dredging through mucky grammar. To see something with potential be held back by something a pre-reader could of helped to avoid.
No easy answer for this. Most just down vote based on tags and what pony ship goes against their headcanon. There's more blue moons in a year then I believe I've ever down voted.
1181047
I don't think going by totally views versus replies is a good measure myself. People can forget to vote (I think I've done this), might view a story outside their account/have multiple accounts so registering several hits for the same person, the gap between views and lack of comments is usually very large perhaps from a lack of apathy and/or community engagement.
Maybe they're should be a limit on down-votes you can do on a particular author, versus the amount of up-votes you give them. After a couple of stories if you don't like the author you should stop reading
their work otherwise you just being mean.
Perhaps you should be able to turn thumbs both up and down off?
If I really don't like a story I doubt I would want to spend the time saying why.
Time to read some more lovely of your Uniformity story.
1181170
I downvote stories that are very bad as a warning to other people not to read them. There is no way in hell that I'd ever leave a comment in a story I was downvoting, because the best possible thing that could happen as a result is nothing (while the bad things run through harassment, ploys for sympathy and requests for help, and retaliation).
Agree.
I have seen, though rarely, people (including myself) comment when downvoting. These comments themselves are often downvoted by people who do not know or care about the guidelines for voting on comments.
I upvote any story I read in which the merits outweigh the flaws either subjectively or objectively. I will usually still comment on the flaws.
I downvote any story I read in which the flaws outweigh the merits due to objectively or subjectively bad writing/story/plot/characterization AND/OR lack of editing AND the author does not appear to be willing to address the issues or does not agree with the critique. I will usually leave a comment unless the author has made it clear they do not appreciate constructive criticism.
I downvote stories I haven't read if they contain explicit foalcon, rape for gratification, OR are FEATURED stories that contain explicit sex for gratification and/or gratuitous explicit gore/torture. I will rarely leave a comment in this case as it would probably not be constructive.
I will not vote on any story when either the flaws outweigh the merits, OR I have not read, but in either case do not fall into one of the above criteria for downvoting.
And yes, you can upvote or downvote your own story. I have seen authors downvote their own story.
As for disappearing votes, that may be due to the voter requesting the vote be removed, the account being closed, or the mods undoing trolling.
I haven't down-voted anything. Generally I skip poor stories. I guess if the subject matter breaks the guidelines of Fimfiction though... might do so as a warning.
I try to remember to up-vote when I read. I also try to remember to run a spell check whrn I type messages, but you can see how often THAT happens.