Elimination Of The Vote Down Button

1. 71

   AEvansposted 12 years ago

   Following this button and receiving countless e-mails about the 'Vote Up and Vote Down' button, is it possible to just eliminate the down button on this site? I believe it would not effect the (algo) of our hubs, but would allow the scores to remain somewhat steady and not drop tremendously when it is not used appropriately.
   
   
   Since we are trying to create a positive environment on HP the down button is subject to negative conversation and really does not have a purpose but to harm other hubbers who are trying relentlessly to improve there writing skills.
   
   
   Or can HP track the ip when the button is being used with malicious intent?
   
   
   I made a commitment to those who are concerned over the rated down button and told them I would have this addressed in a positive way.
   
   If anyone out there has any other ideas on how to improve the button then please share.

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   1. 87

      WryLiltposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      From memory it barely even changes scores anymore - and yes, it stops people doing things like clicking adverts, or the share or like buttons.
      
      I'm all for it disappearing!

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      1. 92

         Rochelle Frankposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I can't see why it is useful in any way. If  a hub violates terms it should be flagged.

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         1. 87

            WryLiltposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Exactly. Otherwise if the person disagrees they can just leave a comment instead of being anonymous.

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            1. 78

               Rebecca E.posted 12 years agoin reply to this

               well said!

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         2. 71

            AEvansposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            I agree

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   2. 87

      Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Yes please!  Let's get rid of both voting buttons, up AND down.  They're completely misunderstood - even AEvans, who is a long-established Hubber, believes other Hubbers can damage your Hub by using the down button excessively, which is not true. 
      
      If a Hub is worth voting down, it should be flagged instead.  If a Hub is worth voting up, it's worth clicking on one of the other accolades or leaving a comment.  So they're both redundant.  And all the "down" button achieves is to cause bad feeling and groundless persecution complexes.

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      1. 92

         Rochelle Frankposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         You want people to think we have "lost our buttons"?
         (We have too many, anyway.) These two have outlasted their usefulness, if they ever had any.

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         1. 74

            Anna Marie Bowmanposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            LOL!!!!  Some of us have "lost our buttons"...is that worse than losing our marbles?

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            1. 92

               Rochelle Frankposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               It's very similar-- except your clothes start falling off.

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         2. 59

            FloraBreenRobisonposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Ah, a new way to say lost their marbles.....

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      2. 71

         AEvansposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I was speaking out for those who do become it is upsetting to them, I do not personally believe it effects the hubber score. If it doesn't effect the score I believe it wouldn't make a difference if it disappeared. It would eliminate animosity.

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         1. 87

            Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            I do beg your pardon, AE, I should've known better!  And I'm grateful to you for starting this thread, because you are so right - it's just silly to keep the voting buttons, when they do so little good but create so much bad feeling amongst people who don't understand them.

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            1. 71

               AEvansposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Lolo! You sound like my sister Marissa! Seriously I am glad you agree they need to go away and then we wouldn't be having this discussion and new hubbers wouldn't be so stressed out. I am only there voice

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   3. 60

      calpol25posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I am all for getting rid of it too, I had a hub at 92 I then went to bed and when I woke up it was at 87 and I thought how is it possible? There is nothing wrong with my hub I even checked grammar the lot. So yeah get rid of it then I can get 100 and celebrate lolololololol!

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   4. 61

      JYOTI KOTHARIposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      There is no way to know how many times a hub is voted up or down. If HP continues the buttons, they should make a way to know the up and down score.

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2. 74

   Reality Bytesposted 12 years ago

   I have never voted down a hub.  I have however voted up many hubs.
   
   I can see how a person who would use this feature in a malicious way by voting down all hubs of a member that they disagree with.  Eliminating this feature would  not bother me in any way.

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3. 82

   homesteadboundposted 12 years ago

   I have seen the down putton used inappropriately many times on questions. It seems as if someone just went to the page and voted them all down. I would not miss the down button at all.

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   1. 92

      Rochelle Frankposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      On the questions, I think it is a bit different.
      I will vote them down if it is a matter of giving a 'bad' or wrong answer about TOS. I'm always seeing new people who haven't ever read the learning center contents or help pages giving "authorative" wrong answers.
      
      I wouldn't vote it down if it's just a matter of opinion that adds to the discussion.
      
      Also, on the questions, the up and down votes help bring the best ones to the top.

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   2. 87

      WryLiltposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      This thread is referring to the down button on Hubs, not on Questions.
      
      I personally like the down button on questions - it can give the question asker an idea of which answer other people agree with.

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4. 60

   Randy Godwinposted 12 years ago

   I don't believe this is a very important issue at all.  Especially since we really don't have any clear idea if the scoring systems is indicative of quality in the first place.  I'm often amazed how some of the junk published here scores as high as it does.  But then, I'm often amazed at other aspects of HP anyway.  Besides that, we peasants don't get to decide whether it goes or stays. 
   
   
   
   
                                      

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   1. 87

      WryLiltposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I see it as important because if someone is clicking on useless buttons, that means they're NOT clicking on important buttons.
      
      Totally agree about the scoring system. I tell newbies (till I'm blue in the face) that scores are almost meaningless. But they still want to "get a high score".
      
      ...and if the thread gets big enough we might get a response.

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      1. 60

         Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Yeah, last time I tried that I got accidentally banned for a month.  Good luck with that! 
         
         
                                              

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      2. 59

         FloraBreenRobisonposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         That did indeed work for the Pinterest button issue. A solution was found that made both sides happy.

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   2. 87

      Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      It isn't - that's the point.  The voting buttons don't do anything useful, yet these useless buttons regularly cause angst on the forums, out of all proportion to their (lack of) function.  Then we all have to waste time explaining to newbies why other Hubbers aren't persecuting them and to stop worrying about it.

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      1. 60

         Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I thought that was what the elite were for.  They said.....
         
         
         
         
         
                                            

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         1. 87

            Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Now, now, get off your hobby horse.  Whether it's volunteers or the rest of us, it's still wasting someone's time for no good purpose.

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            1. 60

               Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               That's what they get the badge for, isn't it?    And I dislike horses.  I used to own some of them.  I do understand your point, by the way.
               
               
               
                                                            

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                  FloraBreenRobisonposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  You dislike horses? Oh dear. Marisa needs to use another animal phrase. Is there one about snakes?

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            2. 71

               AEvansposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Lololo!

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   3. 88

      Cardisaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      @Randy, is it possible that you can behave yourself for once? jk

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5. 93

   Gordon Hamiltonposted 12 years ago

   I may be wrong here and am sorry that I can't back up this comment with quoted evidence but I am fairly sure I saw a comment by an HP staff member in the forums a few months back to the effect that these buttons (Up and Down) have very little effect in present times and are merely remnants of a former HP thinking policy.

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   1. 60

      Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      "merely remnants of a former HP thinking policy."  I like that, Gordon!  Mind if I use it sometimes? 
      
      
                                                       

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      1. 93

         Gordon Hamiltonposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Feel free, Randy! So long as I don't get busted for duplicate content!!

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         1. 60

            Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            I'll change the names to protect the vindictive...er... I mean innocent!!
            
            
            
                                                                 

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   2. 87

      Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Exactly.  That's why we're asking that they be deleted.  Why keep something that means so little? 
      
      Especially as it creates misunderstandings and grief.  We already have two comments on this thread from Hubbers who clearly believe the "vote down" buttons can seriously hurt them.  That just creates the potential for complaints and animosity to other Hubbers for no reason.

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   3. 71

      AEvansposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I had seen that thread but after receiving countless e-mails from hubbers who had concern and with respect to them I had to create this thread. I don't personally think it effects the score like Marissa stated, but there are those hubbers out in hubland who believe it effects them tremendously. Getting rid of the down button on hubs would eliminate all of the negativity that goes with it.

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      1. 68

         Lord De Crossposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Team software could be able to add on a java script that can locate IP addresses. Is my thought... When I post A QUESTION in the forums..immediately get it flagged down...you know who you are..!

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         1. 71

            AEvansposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Who is flagging you down? That isn't right. What they are talking about is the questions in the 'Answers' on HP and keeping the up and down arrows there. They are not talking about the threads in the forums.

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            1. 68

               Lord De Crossposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Yes Flora and AEvans, I understand... just letting you know that there are certain individuals that instead of creating hubs, they just love to push any buttom down, just for the sake of letting you know, that they are here to harm. Either in forums or Q/A. For me doesn't matter much. Is the fact that they don't have enough brain to create or get inspired.

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               1. 71

                  AEvansposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  Lolololo! I agree. If they spent more time writing and less time pushing buttons there would be many more hubs to read.

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         2. 59

            FloraBreenRobisonposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            I've read how some people who don't understand that the voting buttons don't actually affect score because they are too new to know this still tell people to vote down hubs of people they don't like. The fact that it doesn't make any difference does not change the hubber's/voter's intent. It is the discussions found on forums and Facebook etc. where the distress is coming.

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   4. 88

      Cardisaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Hi everyone, I recently read a hub where the person was a victim of malicious votes by persons who disagreed with their point of view. The person stated that their hub was bombarded with traffic from some of the instigators friends but the score kept going down. Now it could be another reason why the score kept dropping but with the amount of traffic the hubber was getting and the comments being left on the hub, I believe that they were being voted down.
      
      I agree with Julianna, remove the vote buttons and let all hubs stand by their readership/views/traffic. 
      
      The main issue I have is that, if our accounts remain a subdomain and we are responsible then our domains needs to function like real websites. What purpose then is the vote button if it hardly affects anything? I believe it does have some effect on something, or it would not be there.

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      1. 87

         Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Cardisa, this is an example of when being here longer is an advantage!  There was a similar case (someone convinced they'd been targeted by a "voting down" campaign) some time ago, before your time.  Paul Deeds posted to say the voting buttons had an insignificant effect on scores.

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         1. 0

            Website Examinerposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            However, such a statement does not guarantee there is no real impact. If they said there was a real impact, it would tempt some Hubbers to misuse the feature even more. We don't know for a fact what is going on.

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6. 70

   sunforgedposted 12 years ago

   I can also attest that one of the Paul's or Jason specifically stated that the buttons had a negligible effect if any on "score".
   
   I don't remember the exact wording, and that doesn't mean the "vote" buttons are not used for any other internal metric or experiment but its pretty clear that vote down does not equal loss of Hubscore.
   
   I'm also for streamlining the platform to showcase only the most useful of interactions ... if only to cut down on the comments that simply  inform me that I have been "voted up, marked as useful and bookmarked" (lol, all three which have zero utility to us!) not so much to protect the superstitious

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   1. 92

      Rochelle Frankposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      It's just shorthand for "they really like you." The alternative may be for them to say nothing at all-- which doesn't do anything to refresh your views on the feed.
      Be glad for small favors.-- even if you don't personally need them.

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      1. 70

         sunforgedposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I don't mean to sound ungrateful, I was continuing with the points put forth by Wrylilt and other posters.
         
         If the "vote up" "bookmark" and "useful?funny?etc" didn't exist and Hubber's were aware that they functions do very ,very little in regards to real help, the comments might read something like.
         
         "I found this useful, so I shared it with my Facebook friends and gave it a quick tweet"
         
         Which, is the same amount of effort, but actually has a chance of providing the Hub Author with some additional views/interest/buzz.

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7. 92

   Rochelle Frankposted 12 years ago

   I think the team should have some idea of how people feel here.
   Many are opposed to the negative button and some also think the 'positive' is redundant due to the afirmative choices available (useful, funny, etc.)
   
   If there's reason for thinking the up/down buttons are useful, they will leave them in place.
   
   They could just have one link for people to respond to the team-- even though that is what the "flag" already does.

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8. 95

   Sustainable Sueposted 12 years ago

   Don't these buttons help determine the voter's commentator level, such that voting well-written hubs down could lower their rating?  It would be interesting to go to the profiles of some of the worst voters to see what their commentator level is. Enough negative votes of high-point hubs should perhaps get them kicked out of Hubpages.

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9. 81

   Danette Wattposted 12 years ago

   I don't like the vote down button so close to the vote up button. A couple times I almost accidentally clicked on the down button. I "vote" (no pun intended) for getting rid of it.

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