Comment Voting
I've been wondering what the purpose of comment voting is and a recent channel talk post inspired me to ask everyone else. Originally, comment voting wasn't voting at all, but either applauding, marking as inappropriate, or flagging as spam. As I remember it, an aesthetic decision was made to change the 'applaud comment' and 'mark inappropriate' links to a pair of arrows, because the second line of text under comments was found to be too busy. Since that time, comment voting has evolved into more of a mechanism of agreement/disagreement with the content of the comment, instead of its original intent of applauding a well crafted comment (regardless of the opinion expressed) or marking it as inappropriate for being an ad hom attack, bigoted or otherwise hateful speech, etc.

My question to everyone is whether the community sees this as a good thing or a bad thing, and if there is any desire to return comment voting to its original purpose.
Submitted by jonny
Comments (showing 10 of 22)
I think it's purpose has evolved naturally. I mean, how would you return comment voting to its original purpose anyway?
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written by shuac

Do you think the arrows caused the change?
0  
written by burdturgler

I think it works pretty well as is. Personally I'd like to see people only down vote because something is insulting or plain stupid, and not simply because they disagree. A bit of the latter going on in the cop shoots dog thread.

I don't think there should be any hard rules against downvoting comments; they aren't a significant source of star points to warrant that in my opinion.(especially when compared to the number of comments made versus comments that receive a star point).
2  
written by Crosswords

*quality
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written by BillOreilly

Awarding jonny with one star point for this contribution to Sift Talk - declared quality by BillOreilly.
4  
written by siftbot

I think comment voting works fine, and it's interesting how it's evolved since those early days of arguing about it.

The "problem" with comment voting is similar to the asymmetry with videos. Once a comment gets 5 votes, it is much more likely to get votes in the double digits, especially since it's size is increased, while other comments will be stopped at 4 votes.

That's the same with videos, though, and I don't see that as a bad thing.
2  
written by Fjnbk

Yeah. I have been debating this... myself. I think you raise a good point and there are merits to both arguments.

But the change is made and going back might not be the answer.
0  
written by MycroftHomlz

When people downvote my comments, a little part of me dies. Some nights, I cry myself to sleep, other nights I just try to reflect on what went wrong. Having been homeschooled all my life, though, I've found this to be the best way to normalize myself socially. My parents asked me the other day, and yes, I think I'm just about ready to take my first trip into the city.

Thanks, Videosift.
4  
written by CaptainPlanet420

I was never a fan of comment voting when it came out. But I doubt anyone will be taking this out.

I however do think the iconology must change, as it gives a false impressions, you are not voting for views like one is better then the other rather you should single out what contributes and what doesn't contribute to a discussion.

Thus instead of Up and Down arrows, it should be either a +, - or ! for abuse violations.

I think Joystiq nailed it.
0  
written by Farhad2000

+, - or !

Great idea Farhad.
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written by dystopianfuturetoday


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