Agnostic.com

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To combat "trolls and baiting", can we have a "dislike" button?

This should be a separate unit from likes. Both counts should be listed.

With a dislike button, comments made to simply generate points can be distinguished from comments that promote actual discussions. And that determination is made by the "popular vote" through the use of the button.

EDIT: added "...from comments that promote actual discussions..."

SamKerry 7 Jan 11
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14 comments

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0

As this site isn't commercial or profit oriented like Facebook, I don't see any reason why there shoudl not be a "dislike" button here.

However, "like" seems to indicate that a person agrees with what is beign said. I think that a "dislike" button should require that a person state their reasoning for not agreeing or why they dont' like what was said, rather than just being generically contrary.

1

Not sure because sometimes an answer is sarcastic and short. We shouldn't be editing comments. Length of answers does not determine points. Trolls and baiting are handled by we the members-we support other members when they are being trolled. Just recently a 29 yr old girl from NY trolled me and another female member. I reported her and I think she is gone. We look out for each other here.

0

I like that idea !

Especially as I have noticed a flood of inane, trivia cropping up.

This is a social, trying to develop into a serious date site for atheist and agnostics... not a focus group for atheist and agnostics. Trivia will come up. You don't need to read though.

@GipsyOfNewSpain I'm fully aware of that. thank you

1

Just if I could have the power to read what I want to read and let others decide on their own what they want to read because here nobody I know other than "Admin" is forced to read everything. Oh wait, I got that power. Too bad others don't think is within their power! I never minded calling a troll a troll. a princess a princess, a king a king, a god a lie... Disagreeing is how I ended being an atheist in the first place.

1

My actual intention for the dislike button is simply as a quick measure of whether the post is considered to be click-bait or a valid thread open for discussion.

For example, posts (or comments) similar to "Are men better seamstresses?", "Are women better navigators?" are very obviously click-bait. They are there only to generate reactions rather than as invites for actual discussions. And as an actual example, search for the post asking which sex is the better driver.

I don't want posts (or comments) like those examples to be the norm in this new social media site. And I doubt many of us do.

Of course, its easy to ignore those posts. But they do generate comments.

And in extension, they generate points. Because points is a measure of our profile's "trueness" (and validity), imagine a troll gaining enough points so that, from the perspective of new comers (or new critical thinkers who do not have the same experience as others in regards to whatever the discussion is about), their comments "look" valid instead of there only to generate comments (likes, and points).

Are these valid concerns?

0

I like the idea.

3

All I want to say is, if there is a "Dislike" button, I won't use it. If I like a post or comment a lot I indicate it, sometimes I add a comment. It's a conscious decision to do that. If I have an issue with a comment or post then I will add a comment to that effect. But I'm not going to go through ticking dislike and just that. A dislike should include a comment. So I won't use it. Others may have a different view, but that's mine. Thanks.

A dislike with a comment is actually a good idea - even if you suggest that it's simply something that you don't see as using. But as suggested in an earlier post, I don't think seeing WHO disliked a post/comment is a good idea.

I only want the numbers shown as a quick meta-data of what participants thought of the post/comment.

Read my most recent reply to this thread - once I get to write it. If the site has not changed, it should be near the top of this list. I want to add it as a separate comment because it relates to my original post in a wider sense. (I'm actually trying to reply to all the comments.)

0

I agree. More reaction-click-options would be cool.

1

Just FYI

Admin Level 9 Jan 11, 2018

I take it the "A" means it's for admins, and that's already a feature? 😀

5

I feel dislike button would cause censorship. The great thing about this site is we can share different opinions not accepted by so called mainstream. I understand there are a few minorities that will troll or disrupt, but a report button with options might solve that.

Agree. I actually don't want it used as censorship. I thought about a report button. But I don't think that outcomes (if any) of that will ever show on the post or comment.

Read my most recent reply to this thread - once I get to write it. If the site has not changed, it should be near the top of this list. I want to add it as a separate comment because it relates to my original post in a wider sense. (I'm actually trying to reply to all the comments.)

1

Excellent point. A thumbs-down may improve the realism. BUT - only one allowed per post.

3

We don't want to be facebook right? We want to be different from the paid sites and unique among the free sites. We have to realize this is early and on a paid site all ground work and kinks are done for before the site comes up. I don't know any of those involved in this site but I know they are working hard to make this happen. We cannot have expectations of a pay site or a site supported by ads and commercials. "This is our little world for the rest of us." It will grow with time but... "we may don't want facebook here or popularity and political contests of I vote for you if you vote for me and we won't vote for this one because didn't voted for us kind of thing". We may be enlightened but we are not immune to that bug. Just my humble opinion guys.

I highly doubt it will turn into that. But keep in mind that Facebook got big for some good reasons. Choose the good, reject the bad.

Unfortunately, without any form of revenue stream, most social media sites will suffer - and eventually get shut down or be bought out by a much bigger company (who may impose more unsavoury practices than ads).

Most social media sites will try to gain as much following as they can by offering free services. I am thinking, even right now, that eventually Agnostic.com will have some form of revenue stream. It has to. Someone's gotta pay for all the bandwidth and database space, right?

I'm happy for Agnostic.com to have ads. I'm undecided about premium membership or paid content. Those two business models only end up splitting the supporter base.

@Hominid And we rather be here than in facebook for some good reasons too.

2

I've seen other places where if a threshold is met by the number of dislikes, then the post is hidden with an option to reveal if the viewer chooses.

I'm not sure hiding the post is a good idea - even if the reader can still view the post with a button click.

Most readers will scan-read a list. And a hidden item can easily be missed.

Hiding posts/comments is almost censorship, I think.

3

Happy to get members' opinion on this as we already have it 90% implemented but holding off for now. Our fear is that "don't like" become more political instead of the goal to find what is the most useful (perhap "best" ) comment to a post. E.g., not liking what someone said doesn't mean that it's not a good answer. We're thinking "dislike" should be more "bad/weak answer".

My current thoughts is to have a "dislike" button but not show who dislike the post NOR the # of dislikes. However, it's used if someone wants to sort by "likes".

Thoughts?

Admin Level 9 Jan 11, 2018

Agree. Some of these topics are sensitive and I think a dislike button could hurt feelings or cause other issues. So a hidden count, not revealing who disliked, is probably the safest way to gain the benefits without some of the drawbacks.

I think there are several different ways of how people could want to give negative feedback to a comment: obviously, "dislike" would be the opposite of like, which usually is about liking a comment and/or agreeing with it. It could be interesting to see, in numbers, what the balance between people who like and dislike a comment is.
Then there are additional dimensions like thinking that a comment is off-topic, trolling, etc. Personally I think showing the count there to the users could be helpful, especially as a feedback to the one posting it but also to others who could then learn from seeing the numbers.

The reason why I prefer seeing the "numbers" is so that readers can see the balance of votes. I don't actually think listing from whom the dislike votes came is a good idea.

An example situation:
In a 1 vs 1 debate with both debaters presenting equally thoughtful points of views, uninformed (consequential and/or third-party) viewers will assume that both views hold equal weight - as they should.

But what if the 1 vs 1 debate is not indicative of the balance of views within the experts of the field the debate was about. What if the actual balance is 97 vs 3? With the 1 vs 1 debate in this instance, third-party viewers (who are not experts in the field) will totally miss the important measure that one point of view actually holds much more weight than the other.

Don't like dislike button-seems like censoring to me-if I am being trolled orsee someone else I report to Admn-though Igot blocked onmy posts and you didn't respond recently-but we take care of each other-most of us.

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