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The downvote button has very important functions.
It tells you the difference between a bad fic and a good fic that's not as popular as it should be.
It tells authors when they're writing bad fics.
Don't let overly sensitive people flood the site in a sea of terrible upvoted fics. The ones that truly deserve only upvotes will be lost!
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355977 I could not have said it better myself.
No system is perfect, and we need to be careful when we replace one with another.
359780
I'm going off it based on what I would do and what other people I know would do. If I had no upvote/downvote button, I would give no feedback. Most people I know wouldn't either. Making a comment is inconvenient and time consuming, especially if you read mostly on a mobile device, like I do. This is where I get my idea from. The majority of people do not want to leave a comment. When people do leave comments just saying they liked it and the author asks why, most don't bother to answer. If they wanted to give an opinion, they would have the first time. That or they'll just say some random bullshit that isn't really helpful at all.. Also, sorry to say it, but most people on this site should probably not be giving criticism. If you try and read most stories on this site (including mine) you will see that most people here do not understand how a story is constructed or told and could easily do more harm than good in trying to help.
If you want proper feedback, send it to a legitimate review group and let them do it. You'll get much more in-depth than most would be in a comment.
359778
And you have no way to prove that that'd be the case either. The way I see it, the up/downvote system only serves to give incentive for people to not give proper feedback.
Also, if people were to comment saying whether or not they like it, couldn't you, as the writer, just as easily ask them why?
359756
Upvotes and Downvotes /are/ meaningful, though. At least compared to getting no feedback. And there is no way to prove that people will comment more if you take away the ability to like and dislike. Even if it did, the majority of comments would just be either "I liked it" or "you suck." I'd prefer to keep that somewhere where I can keep count of it and it is easy to know the popular opinion of a story from a quick look.
Yes, if it was possible to force a more meaningful feedback system that everybody would follow, I would do it. But there is no way to do that, simply because people are lazy and don't want to leave a review on every story they read.
359752
Mmm, I love taking things out of context too
No, that's not what I want at all, what I want is feedback that is meaningful
355975
So you would prefer to write a story and get literally no feedback than write a story and get some feedback?
My two bits would be to keep the like and dislike buttons, but list who upvoted and downvoted the fanfic. I bet we'd see a lot less driveby downvoting, or people downvoting everything in the favorite box or front page.
I'd also like something on the user page showing what fanfics that user has upvoted and downvoted. If you know someone's tastes are close to yours, that'd be pretty helpful to have, and I've personally wanted to know what I'd upvoted before.
--arcum42
Just to add my own brie two cents.
I sometimes don't like the downvote button. But it does have a use. Not a perfect use, but a use.
Allow me to demonstrate:
W/O Downvote
Story with 400 likes = Okay I'll read that because its got a lot of likes so it's probably good!
Story with 50 likes = Uhhh... better avoid it.
W/ Downvote
Story with 400 likes and 350 dislikes = Whoa..., controversial story, might avoid, might not.
Story with 50 likes and 3 dislikes = Ah, okay, so this might be a good story, just not noticed much yet, I'll check it out!
As you can see, while not a perfect system, the downvote ensures at least to some degree a person can gauge if a story is something worth taking a look at. As much as downvotes might make us feel bad, without it our stories might go unnoticed, because they don't quickly rack up likes, and no one can tell if those fifty likes are because its not good, or just hasn't had a lot of reads yet.
So, yes, I say keep the downvote button, until someone comes up with a better system that can effectively replaced the vote system altogether.
355974
is it really, when personal opinion of both the writer and the genre is taken into account? No, no it isn't. In fact, in many cases it's made things worse. I have nothing else to say in the matter, the ability to like/dislike anything on this site is a concept I never once enjoyed humoring, especially when it comes down to "Oh, by the way, I'm not the one downvoting your comments/stories"
355971
I'm not saying that it's the end all be all of feedback, but it is USEFUL! Most people who like a story also favorite it, but having the option to dislike a story is necessary, should there be stipulations (like making a comment first or having at least clicked on the chapter)? Yes, those would be nice additions. But any feedback, even faceless like-dislike is better than no feedback at all.
355970
Not everyone knows that, or will even acknowledge that, and the main thing that goes with someone faving or commenting on a story is that you can ask them why, and get actual feedback on the story. Being popular does not matter, but the site likes to make it matter so that people can feel bad about themselves.
An example:
Okaaay, you did something right, good job. Now, do you know what you did right, or why people liked that story in particular? No? Then congrats, because the next story you make will go as unfavored as the rest of them, because you don't know what you did to garner the attention in the first place, and your guess at what it was would be as good as mine.
355968
That... I don't... uhg... okay, let me try again.
I'm not a hugely popular writer. I enjoy getting likes, and I feel kinda bad when I get dislikes. I have a few stories that went under the radar (one that has 40 likes and 0 dislikes).
If a story gets few views and few likes, it tells me that I didn't sell the story properly.
If I get a lot of views but few likes it means I didn't write a compelling enough story.
If I get a large number of dislikes it means I did something wrong.
If, by the grace of god, I get a lot of likes and views, that means I did something right for a change.
Each of these is only possible with the like-dislike system in place. Yes, comments are wonderful, but if someone is just going to comment, 'I like this story' then it might as well be a little button they can push instead.
355966
People can say they don't care about things like that, but in the end, if you're not taking into account a 'resource' that the site has given you, more often than not you're labeled as a 'bad writer'.
355964
What? That doesn't make sense. If a lack of upvotes is enough to keep you from writing, you shouldn't be writing, and getting rid of the like-dislike will not help those people in the slightest.
355958
Yes, I like down/up voting my own stories too!
Y'see, the main problem is that this site rewards fics that have high views/like-to-dislike ratio, while keeping good and decent fics from getting off the ground simply because they aren't 'popular' enough.
355959
That's why I suggested reading the first chapter to see if you'll like it or not. And as I stated before, a story can be complete garbage, and have literally dozens of spelling errors in the span of a few thousand words, but still be upvoted to high hell because 'it's what people like'.
355957
Well, when the story has 10 downvotes and 3 upvotes, that helps you figure out if you'll like it or not as well.
A story might have a good synopsis and have tags you like, but be terribly written garbage inside. A low rating helps you spot those before you waste your time reading any of them.
It's just another tool to use when determining if a story is worth reading or not.
355957
You don't like it or use it? That's fine. But I do. I like being able to give my vote of approval or disapproval to a story that is easily and readily visible to others.
It's not perfect, there are ways to improve it, but in the end it is still useful.
355955
What do you mean 'other stories'? Other people write stories here besides me?
Seriously though, if you can't tell if you'll like a story by the synopsis the writer gives, or the tags s/he's given them, then read the first chapter of it, it really isn't that hard, and will let you know if the story is any good or not. Just because a few flashy colors tell you you'll like or dislike something doesn't mean you will.
You realize how completely stupid that word is, yes? What does it matter to me that someone I know nothing about, or a group of people I know nothing about, care about something I know nothing about? I can decide for myself whether or not I'll like something, as can anyone else.
355954
Sorry, I need to clarify. You read the comment section of every story that you might want to read? That's a hell of a lot of comments to go through.
The vote buttons do their job, they show what stories are 'Popular'. There are changes that could be made to clean the system up, yes. But it is still useful to me to know that story X has 100 upvotes and 50 downvotes while story Y has 100 upvotes and 10 downvotes.
355952
Well, yes, as that is the purpose of them, to read what people have to say about your story. That, and it's not like I, as a writer who gets much feedback either way, has that many to read. And that's why downvotes and upvotes need to be gotten rid of, because they don't serve their damn purpose, they don't don't tell you why someone thinks your story is bad or good, it doesn't even tell you who thinks that, it just sits there, like a parasite to ones self esteem.