Why don't you just remove the downvote button? If you don't want downvotes, just remove the button.
I think there should be more buttons, like some right/left buttons.
I've tried sites with no downvote and they're really annoying. Rather than being able to downvote bad posts, you're relegated to passive-aggressively ignoring them.
You just described Poal then.
From the user guide: https://poal.co/userguide
It says:
At Poal, we believe the down vote is not a "I disagree button".
We'd rather engage in a counter argument with the post/comment we disagree with, and use down votes for spam (you can report to admins) and off topic trolls.
Also note that your downvotes are public here, which isn't such a big deal. The point I've been trying to make is that if they don't want downvotes they should just remove the button rather than act butthurt about downvotes or have some algorithm that resets your account if you do it too much (which they have).
I guess that makes sense. You can only crack down on downvotes so much before there's no point in having them at all.
we believe the down vote is not a "I disagree button".
Believe it as hard as you want, won't make it become true.
LITERALLY LIKE FACEBOOK.
TBH A quiet downvote is also a passive-aggressive move.
That is a complicated answer if you'd like I can do a write up on it later this evening.
I don't want a write up. I already know the answer myself.
If you don't want downvotes, just disable the downvote button in the code.
Its not that I don't want downvotes, I want people who use them to be accountable.
Downvotes are necessary to bury spam.
Then they can have a "mark as spam" button.
But that button should also reduce post visibility.
If Poal scales up to 10000 users, it would become harder to moderate spam.
That feature already exists but to avoid abuse and false reports it’s only available to Red Barons (level 30+).
kiwifarms does it best. Plenty of pozrate and negrate buttons.
(post is archived)