The Downvote/Dislike Button... what's the point of it?
Trick question. There is no point to it.
There have been many an author whom have slaved over a brilliant masterpiece, only to be bombarded by a barrage of bastards pointing and clicking on that stupid, red thumbs down. I think many can agree it's a sucky feeling to see all of those flood your story. There are trolls with literally NOTHING better to do with their lives than press that little, red button.
Banish that shit to the moon.
If you don't like a story, just leave the writer a comment telling them why, for knowing exactly what reason their story was downvoted to hell is much better than the uncertainty of not knowing... and making the same mistake again.
If you agree, please promote this at your leisure.
As of late there are these four trolls or one with multiple accounts downvoting every comment made to my Spike stories and other stories as of late, mostly my Spike ones. Even my positive comments to other stories get downvoted by the same amount of trolls. And it's not just me. Other Spike supporters who write stories centered around him have been receiving the same number of down votes on those who comment those stories. It's because of this I want this whole downvote button to be removed because trolls take advantage of that to writers who know how to write and write good stuff.
I post an update, and all of two minutes later, there’s another downvote. They read the tags, and then they hit downvote instantly? Without even reading one word of the actual story? Where’s my constructive criticism? Why can’t you tell me what you didn’t like about it? Oh, right. You can’t.
Because you didn’t actually read it.
Eeyup.
388795
Agreed. I'm only in this group for shits and giggles, anyways.
This group is dead. I'm'a write anyway.
I am a writer. I write things.
The occasional drive-by or downvote bomber aside, votes on a story tell me a lot about what people think, without having to ask them. While it's nicer when people actually leave written feedback explaining what they liked or didn't like, the upvote to downvote ratio is usually a decent estimate of how I'm doing. When I posted my first story on fimfiction, it got roughly 50% downvotes, and when I let it rest a few days and re-examined, I found that actually, there was a lot I did wrong and a lot that wasn't awful, but could've been done better. I rewrote it, to a much more positive reception (despite retaining almost all of the original downvotes).
The old version makes me cringe, now. The new one, I don't mind occasionally nudging friends to read.
Negative feedback has real value and I would rather keep it.
Okay, and how is someone supposed to figure out whether they like a story? Not reading it? When you're done and you want to leave feedback, you have three choices: Comment (takes too much work for most people's lives, and honestly takes more knowledge and skill than a lot of people have), upvote ("Hey author, I enjoyed this!"), and/or downvote ("Hey author, I didn't enjoy this, there are some problems with the story.").
Lack of a downvote has led to the situation on deviantart and fanfiction.net where authors continue to pump out garbage (and if they ever get a critical review, they often delete it) because all they're getting for it is praise. If you don't know something is seriously wrong with your stories, you're never going to improve (or if you do, only by chance). There's actually a similar problem with some clop authors on this site, as enjoyable sex short-circuits reason and so some very mediocre writers have gotten followings large enough to give them unwarranted praise and an unwarranted ego.
Also, downvoting something you don't like doesn't ruin things for others.
I like the idea behind this group because my philosophy is that if you don't like something you aren't forced to view it so why ruin it for others...
355993
It's actually the only answer. Sheer volume of upvotes means nothing, and vote to view ratio does not mean much. Downvotes are helpful because they help me decide what I'm going to read. In Ocalhoun's group, here is a comment made by Arcum42
and thatguyvex
These perfectly illustrate why I think we need to keep it. I do acknowledge that it definitely has problems, but I feel like it's much better to have it than not. I actually think that 355949 has a good point, but I also think it should not just be limited to downvotes. You should have to have read at least 10k of a story (or finish it if it's shorter) before being allowed to upvote or downvote, and leaving a comment should be necessary. Granted, there would still be people abusing it, but it would be slightly more difficult so it would happen less often. I do also think it would be better if authors could see who liked/disliked their story, but I feel like this could easily backfire, with some authors assuming all downvotes are trolling, like I have seen some authors saying about all negative comments being trolls.
Last thing, I feel like you are not really taking into account what the downvote is meant for. It is not meant to actually indicate quality, but simply to indicate people's opinions of it. Each vote simply means that this person either enjoyed or didn't enjoy the story.
Yeah, I really don't like voting systems in general, but especially downvotes. I agree that some stories are of poor quality/trollfics, but let the cream rise to the top because of people nice enough to up vote your fic.
356009In this group
355985 Off topic: please explain to me what ITG is.
355991 That may be the single worst answer I have ever received to any question I have ever asked in my entire life.
355989
Stories that people do not enjoy reading.
355928
Define "bad".
ITG: People complaining that their stories are bad
355928
How do you see who is abusing the voting system?
Also, just from the upvotes and downvotes I see in posts of this thread, I think we can see that trolling is pretty rampant.
355928 I can see why the down vote button is important, but how it currently is makes it to easy to abuse, you barely even have to look at a fic to down vote it, maybe if when you went to down vote something you had to leave a comment on why you didn't like it so the author can see their mistakes and improve off them, this would also discourage people who down vote just to troll.
355928 I'd down vote your comment, but that would shoot my purpose in the foot. Instead, take an up vote, because I respect your bravery, coming here to voices your thoughts.
355928 lolno, science person. The Downvote must die.
The downvote button serves two very important purposes:
-It lets people distinguish between good fics and bad fics without having to read them first. (Without the downvote, you just see popular good fics and unpopular good fics.)
-It lets authors know when they've written a bad fic. (Really, when you've got more than 50% downvotes, don't come saying that it's the system that needs to change: you need to change.)
In the interests of keeping this valuable tool, and preventing the mass of truly terrible fics from being indistinguishable from good ones that need more attention, I'm making my own group, Keep the downvote button!
The truth is, some fics are bad, and they need to be downvoted. If someone's abusing the voting system, report them. Otherwise, grin and bear your downvotes, and learn how to be better and avoid them.
(And really, is being downvoted that bad? I'd rather have a popular fic with a lot of downvotes than an obscure one with a 100% rating.)
Never have I ever used the button in my whole Fimfic experience.. and I plan to continue the abstinence for forever.