The upvote system is way too rudimentary to work efficiently. The upvote incite people to post to become more popular, not to post more interesting content.
One metric is not enough, the upvote system combines both "funny" and "interesting" in the same metric. Soon it's the funny content that is pushed to the top, because it's a more common characteristic. But this is how you get memes, emotional and basic screenshot of tweets to the top of the frontpage. And this is probably what you don't want.
So either we add more type of votes,for example two arrows, like an arrow "interesting" and another arrow "funny" or we get rid of them, leaving only the "report" button.
Get rid of reputation too. Some people are already chain downvoting in rage. What good do you think will happen out of a reputation score? People will just spit on you. People are emotional, don't put a gun in their hands.
"The downvote is useful to get rid of antivaxx"? You have a report button for that. And while the downvote button gets rid of antivaxx, it pushes memes to the top, destroying the platform itself. The benefit of the downvote button doesn't compensate for the flaws of the voting system.
The best way for an antivaxx to get his content visible? It is to get blocked! If he is blocked he cannot be downvoted anymore afaik. So it's all good for him. Even the block system doesn't really work as intended and has nasty side effects. Because yes, you won't see it, but other will, and they will adhere, and they will upvote and post more antivaxx stuff, and inspire more antivaxx people.
And I'm not even starting with the bots and scripting systems, which will detect who downvoted you and will "revenge downvote" for you. Do you want all your post to appear with a starting minus 5 attached to it because you posted about veganism 3 months ago? That's what you will get. All it takes is 5 people who don't like the way you talk, and a script. And all your posts will go down the drain as soon as you post them.
--> The system need either higher granularity or we need to get rid of the voting system, and keep only one button: "report", with a mandatory 60 characters comment with it. <--
Yeah, but you have only so many mods that can do so much work. Having some degree of community "moderation" only serms sane to me.
Especially since every community will have its own preferences and interests so in that sense votes will also help to shape a community. Some might not like any memes in their group, some might etc etc
How do you solve the abuse then? How do you solve the manipulations and sabotage that we will inevitably encounter as the instances fill up? You are asking for a tool that bots, ai and trolls will always master better than you.
edit: cool, I'm already at minus 3. Loos like the community has already started to shape up, right ? What do you think of this? Do you think that my post should be sent to the bottom of the front page too? Because that's what is happening with the downvote as it stands now.
My question to you: how do you solve the moderation staffing requirements? Imagine if every post that got downvoted was instead reported.
The solution here assumes that 'report' sends a post to some nether realm where nobody has to deal with it ever again; but all it's doing is passing the buck, and I don't think that's viable unless the moderation team is the same size as the userbase.
If you then mandate a sixty-character comment, then nobody's going to bother reporting anyway, and you end up with a worse problem..
As someone suggested, move the post with too many reports to an approval list, find the sweet spot between participants and the amount of reports required.
People won't report as much ass they downvote. The requirement for a few words explanation is enough. And a mod will quickly find out who is abusing the function. People here downvote because they made a habit on reddit to use it as a "disagree click'ngo."
60 characters is only an example. A few words of explanation will suffice. Or even a clicklist, like reddit, "why do you report?"
Now look at the score I have on this submission: plus 5 minus 9. Do you think that this subject should be hidden from discussion under the pretext that some people take it personally or somethin'? I say no. but do you think that they would have gone so far as reporting my post? Certainly not, for what reason? "The guy stinks!"
The downvote is way too easy to use and is constantly misused if not plain and simple weaponized. So what would you suggest? How do you deal with people abusing the downvote button? And how do you deal with the clickbaity stuff pushing the more interesting stuff down the frontpage?
I think your posts should be at the bottom of the page. You're complaining to the General Contractor about the color of the bathroom while they're still pouring foundation.
Here is your solution in the Fediverse... Make your own instance. Code it exactly how you think it should be written. If other admins agree with your style, they'll reach out for a copy of it.
In the meantime, let the folks running the show get their toes wet before you start demanding they dry off.
Why do you even subscribe to kbinMeta if you don't want to hear about the functioning of kbin?? Just unsubscribe, done.
Here is yours: why don't you start your own instance where you are alone so no one can bother your sleep?
I'm not the one taking issue with the administration of this instance...
I'm not either. We are talking. If you don't want to talk then that's fine, but don't subscribe to a magazine created so we can talk about kbin.
And you did it again, you mashed the downvote button again, on all my comments in this post! We are having a discussion about the voting system of kbin on the kbinmeta magazine and you still downvote! How is it normal? You'd better unsubscribe from the mag because this is gonna be this kind of discussion again and again.
Your attitude proves my point perfectly. It's a complete misuse of the downvote button. In a sense you perfectly contributed to the conversation, thank you Froyn!
edit: I'm posting this screenshot of an advice I gave to someone about his PCbuild and ssd. Froyn went into my history and downvoted everything, including comments which have absolutely nothing to do with him. This is exactly what I'm talking about in this post. Don't let the editorial task of the content you see to this kind of immature participant.
I wanted to see less of your content, that's how it works.
Then block me and stop abusing the system.
Oh no, my fake internet points. Wow, your history... You like to argue. No debate, not talk, not discuss, argue. The aggression seethes from your comment history... Which I would not be privy to if you had taken your own advice.
This is only an issue for very, very large communities. And we should discourage them from existing. They do nothing for positive engagement, and merely feed the ego of admins and mods that host them.
If a community has a manageable number of users, mods can manage them.