Downvoting Policies · 9:45pm Oct 21st, 2015
I've seen different people do different things with the upvote and downvote counter. I've seen people liberal with them and conservative with them. Personally, I have my own policy regarding downvoting. It's pretty conservative.
I never, ever, ever, downvote a comment directed at me or my stories, no matter how mean, unjustified, etc.
I never, ever, ever, delete comments on my stories, criticism is criticism, I don't want a hugbox.
I rarely downvote a story, unless they really weren't trying and the Author is an absolute ass and doesn't want to take any advice. If I leave criticism, any sort of criticism on your story, I haven't deemed it bad enough to downvote.
I just as rarely upvote a story, if that matters anyway. It has to blow my mind.
I only occasionally upvote a comment, usually when it's helpful criticism.
So the next time you see a downvote on your comment in one of my stories, I want to make it clear. It's not me. Sincerely, thank you for leaving your comment, I appreciate the comment, no matter what the flavour.
If you're wondering why I don't follow anyone, or have any favourites, it's simply because I'm compiling an external list and I have enough in my notifications to keep me preoccupied. I know that might sound a bit arrogant, but I check up on my followers as well! I just don't make it public, that's all.
Got an upvote/downvote policy?
If the story amused me, they get an upvote.
If the story was/is great, they get an upvote, favorite and a follow.
If the story takes a turn for the worse, I may remove the favorite, but usually as a rule do not downvote a story I have upvoted unless the author does something monumentally silly with his story.
If the story disturbed me, rustled my jimmies, and/or is just atrocious, downvote.
Story-wise, I don't do a whole lot in the way of downvotes. Usually if I really don't like a story, I just leave the story, nothing lost but my time after all. Of course if I invest, like, 40 chapters worth of time in a story that has potential just to see that potential blow up as things go in utterly ridiculous, nonsensical, out-of-nowhere and out-of-character directions, then I might downvote because I actually had something invested in the story so I did lose a bit. But that doesn't happen very often, thankfully. But if it's kinda not great, I haven't lost anything yet, and I do see something to work with, I prefer polite critiques to downvotes. Anyone can say they don't like something, but that's not nearly as helpful as saying why you don't like it, you know? No reason to downvote it then, even if I didn't think it was all that good.
Comment-wise... well, that's a lot of the same of that last one. I don't like comment downvotes for the sake of 'I didn't like this comment' or 'I disagree'. I don't know that I feel that's a valid reason to downvote a comment, given what downvotes kind of entail - anything that hides a comment if they get enough of, I think should only be used on comments that genuinely deserve to be hidden. So I only tend to downvote bullying and jerkitude or whatnot - and if I get in a debate, I never thumbs-down people just for taking the other side, I think that is pretty much the dickest move to make in a debate especially when you just downvote and don't even bother to reply. Honestly whenever I get downvoted on any comment, I'm not particularly upset that someone downvoted me, but that they almost never bother to say anything after doing so, just downvote and leave without a word, that bugs me.
on the flipside sometimes people do actually reply and it turns out to be the sort of rare comment i do downvote so that's a thing too i guess
... Upvotes are mostly just whims.
I'm pretty liberal with the upvotes, about one in five stories I read gets one and about half the comments. Downvotes are reserved for only the most horrible stories, people and comments. Where I really say what I think of a story is my bookshelves. Bronze means not bad, silver is entertaining, gold is great, and the platinum shelf is reserved for "godly". Out of my 400+ bookshelf entries, there are only 16 platinum. The majority go into silver and gold, and I'm more likely to just not rate something than put it into bronze. Those shelves are reserved for completed stories, and I have two tracking. Favorites pretty much guarantees gold or platinum, and tracking is probably going to be bronze or silver. I rate things this way for the sole reason that I can express what I think of those truly amazing stories, aka the platinum shelf. If anything even ranks on the list it's a positive review.
3487232 That's certainly true, I did forget to mention when I do look at a story, the problem of investment. I like to read stories that are halfway to be completed, or completed. It's that nagging fear that it might not turn out to be so great when the author twists it down a bad plot, or does a major flub and ruins the experience of a great setup. I've been mostly on the end of ruining setups, but I like to think I'm improving, though criticism definitely is the best commodity!
3487325 The frustration of receiving a downvote and not knowing why! Popularity of your story is one thing, but knowing how and why someone did downvote is just as important. I don't bother downvoting unless it's irredeemable, or if someone has already pointed out the error, and the Author has railed against common sense without justification. I don't bang on people's styles, I talk about their fixable problems. Like grammar, or spelling, or plot logic.
Jerkitude! That's an excellent portmanteau I was thinking of!
3487400 One thing I love about the bookshelf system is the freedom to write your own name. It also gets transmitted to the author, and it can be very flattering! Sometimes, I see hilarious titles that make me crack up.
e.g. WHY?!, or OH GOD, WHAT HAVE YOU READ?
On a side note, I should really write a random story that'll get me added back on those shelves.
Thanks for all your comments! I love a good discussion.
3488091 You could also just go finish one of the twenty (1) stories of yours I have in the favorites list and get an easy gold on those bookshelves.
(1) Yeah, twenty sounds about right.
3488096
Or I could make a whole lot of unfinished stories and then die before they all get finished!Yeah, sorry, I feel really bad about it. Human Blood was a guilty pleasure.3488109 Well, I'm consistently compelled to put these things on the favorites shelf, so you must be doing something right!
That, or I have really poor taste.
I'm quite liberal with skyward thumbs, giving them whenever a story left me something, be it a laugh, an interesting idea or leaving me queasy and disturbed(in a good way).
Downthumbs are instead something I use rarely. For the truly egregious stuff, unrepentant authors or frankly horrifying (from an ethical point of view) ideas put out without the slightest trace of empathy and awareness. I also try to motivate my downvotes if the point hasn't been already hammered home by someone else in the comments.
Comment rating instead goes along the civil<--->jerk axis, with some extra thumbs thrown the way of extremely well structured argumentation or abysmally badly messes seasoned with arrogance.
3488200 Ugh, yeah I have to agree. I'll upvote a comment fairly easily, especially if they've well articulated their point.
3488117 That's a catch 22 if I ever saw one. Poor taste or poor author? HMMMMMMMMMM. No I kid, you're amazing.
I generally only bother when I think a story stands out as either actually good or bad, rather than just average. On comments, I never do either. It seems petty. If I had something of value to say about it, I would respond to it, not vote on it.
3488648 I think comment voting is useful. I mean it shows if an idea or thought is popular or vindicated. For example, good criticism will have a good amount of thumbs up, while contentious criticism tends to have equal ratios. Sometimes, when I'm having doubts, it's good to know how validated someone's opinion is when they're critiquing, and whether or not it holds up. Of course, independently, I should be able to evaluate it, but you know, there are times when it's difficult to tell.
3490918
The downsides to this is that a good but unpopular idea can be downvoted just as hard. There was this one featured story about coffee or whatever just a few months ago. Some guy made a rather funny but low-key joke in one of the early comments that most people ended up not understanding. The comment was up to something like -100 downvotes by the point the story dropped from the featured list, all because the vast majority of commenters that had an opinion on it didn't realize it was never supposed to be serious criticism of the story.
Voting is ultimately a popularity contest. It's not a realistic measure of quality, just of approval - and to know how much that is worth, you always need to take the character of the crowd doing the voting into account.
3490935 Well, yes, but the same could be said for voting on fics. Ultimately, it depends on how much you can intrinsically trust people to judge things. If you put a comment out that may be intelligent, subtle, or contentious, you have to be aware that you did so in a public forum. Subtlety can be lost, humour can be derivative, etc. Whether it be a comment or a story, voting happens to hold value. Even though I don't use it often, I like the fact that it's there.
3491625
3491935 Greater truth has never been spoken! That's why I love reading story reviews!
3491952
Personally, I prefer to let myself be surprised and then just converse about what I thought of a story afterwards. One of the things I like about this whole "fanfic" thing - most authors are available and at least willing to address feedback, even if they don't always take it well.
3491992 Each to their own. I have limited reading time, so I prefer to get a quick feel of a story before I start investing time in it. Rest of the time is answering comments, writing stories, or real life.
3492321
Don't we all? I'm a fast reader and good at telling if the rest of a story will appeal to me pretty quickly after skimming a few chapters, though.