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A user just got stripped of all his points and levels for downvoting. I disagree with this policy but lets see what poal has to say.

A user just got stripped of all his points and levels for downvoting. I disagree with this policy but lets see what poal has to say.

Yes. The current policy is best. Leave as is.
No. The current policy is gay. Allow downvoting
Fuck You!

(post is archived)

[–] [deleted] 15 pts

Downvoting is the gayest shit ever. It has no real life social equivalent. Imagine being in a social setting and you say something someone disagrees with. What would a "downvote" be? It's not a "fuck you", because downvotes are technically anonymous. It's not getting up and leaving, because that wouldn't leave some kind of impact or impose any penalty.

Downvotes exist solely to bunker online sperg faggots from contradictory views. It's for reddit-tier faggots who can't handle reality. I agree with this site's policy.

[–] [deleted] 15 pts

Imagine being in a social setting and you say something someone disagrees with. What would a "downvote" be?

That subtle dissenting visual cue that the crowd gives to an obnoxious drunk that lets him realise that his humour is unwelcome.

[–] 13 pts

You simply cannot have free speech and policed speech simultaneously.

The policy restricts free speech as the down vote is one of the most basic forms of speech.

Either accept POAL is NOT about free speech, or remove the policy.

Right now it is utter hypocrisy.

[–] [deleted] 7 pts

might want to reconsider relabeling the downvote button. Trusting people to use it only for spam and also punishing users that overuse it doesn't work well when the user base grows. How can he expect to police 100,000 users? Simply changing the downvote button to something more like saidit's "humor" button might be a better path forward.

Change the button and reduce your stress, Boobs.

[–] 2 pts

I would agree except I'm unclear of what getting downvoted does when you get enough of them. If getting downvoted can lead to bans or your content is hidden or whatever then it is not really speech, you're taking action against someone.

So if downvoting only affected your downvote count and nothing else then I'm all for it. If not then it will be abused by those that want to silence you.

Don't yell at me

[–] [deleted] 2 pts

What the fuck are you talking about. If you disagree, say it you fucking homo

By downvoting, you're technically policing speech? Isn't that right you disgusting kike?

[–] 0 pt

You got your libertarianism all jumbled up... Free Speech doesn't mean its free from criticism, it means its free from censorship. If people don't have cues that they are presenting in an unwelcome fashion, it forces in the long run an increase in unwanted behavior; in general lowering the level of discourse.

Not everyone has time to write out a reasoned dissertation on something when 100 people just saying its shit will suffice. Social enforcement is not the same thing as top-down censorship. (and ironically punishing people for downvoting is effectively top-down censorship of the smallest voices)

[–] 8 pts

Yeah that, and never responding to your messages, constantly changing the subject when you talk about something, not inviting you to parties, social events etc. The loss of interest in you, lessening of chances to get hired for a job based on your answers to interview questions, etc etc. LOTS of real life equivalents.

[–] [deleted] 10 pts

Are you guys stupid?

So if we're having a discussion and I say, "I disagree with open borders", you're going to uninvite me to the party we're already at, and reduce my chances of getting a job?

You're overthinking the concept. Downvotes are a pussy way out of direct confrontation or an argument. They allow people to circumvent any sort of discourse or challenge in favour of suppressing dissenting opinions without any recourse.

They're for extremely cowardly people and no one else.

[–] [deleted] 4 pts

So being that weakling that won't just tell the drunk to shut the fuck up?

You must be fun at parties.

Did I say anything about a drunk person being stupid?

[–] [deleted] 3 pts

Did I say anything about a drunk person being stupid?

Yes, when you asked for an example of what a downvote looks like in real life.

[–] 3 pts

imagine someone at a party was an uninvited lying nigger, you'd go an tell everyone individually that this guy is a piece of shit and not to believe what he says. that's a downvote.

[–] 3 pts

Level 6+ can access the voting [details] option (available under post's title or comments) to see who downvoted a post or comment

https://poal.co/welcome

Downvotes don't change the ability for a user to comment/post

[–] [deleted] 2 pts

In any case downvotes are for fags. Just argue or ignore the person. What does downvoting accomplish other than validating your own sperg ego?

[–] [deleted] 3 pts

People intuitively use the downvote system to show dissent.

What does downvoting accomplish other than validating your own sperg ego?

Metrics mostly

[–] 2 pts

It is a form of speech.

It is restricted.

POAL IS NOT ABOUT FREE SPEECH.

[–] 0 pt

For spam, is the only good use I can think of. IDK how much automated can prevent spam. I've seen some on ConsumeProduct. Although so far, it seems this and that forum have avoided being taken over

[–] 3 pts

We should've probably just gotten rid of the button altogether. But then again, if I'm cruising through the new feed and I see 2 downvotes on a post I know it's spam.

[–] [deleted] 3 pts

That would make much more sense to me or just have a 'mark spam' button. Every other place on the internet a down arrow is a downvote.

This is nonsense. Voaters were a bunch of fags that would downvote anything they didn't agree with, which would then censor those people and prevent them from expressing their views. Fuck these Voat homos

[–] 1 pt

It does seem like what they're asking for here is the ability to brigade. Some cite examples of possible abuse, like if you can't downvote you're gonna have a bunch of flat earthers and 5G conspiracy shills that overrun the place. But that doesn't seem to be a real problem at present.

[–] 1 pt

So what's the real life equivalent of an up vote button? Or of writing something then hours later a person responds and you get a flag telling you you were responded to?

I don't get comparing this to real life to justify that the downvote feature sucks.

And if it's such a damn problem why even have it? Or at least why not state what it's intended purpose is?

It's a spergy way to get out of arguing. You have a problem with something someone says but instead of addressing it or ignoring it, you add a gay -1 next to the post.

Worst case is also some fags and their 90 alts mass downvote your entire comment history because you said Trump is zogged.

[–] 1 pt

Ok then why have the button at all?

[–] 1 pt

I don’t think anyone is in favor of downvote spamming with alts. Hell, even at voat people got banned for that

The evolution of the internet says you're wrong.

You mean socially retarded spergs finally getting a platform and a voice, without being laughed at or bullied into submission?

Spend 10 minutes on reddit, you'll be downvoted to the point where your posting quota is so long it's impossible to maintain any reasonable conversation. No one argues with you, no one proves you wrong, they just downvote you and run away, pretending you never existed.

[–] 2 pts

If you claim to be for free speech, then complain when people shout you down, you are not about free speech. You are about protected speech.

[–] [deleted] 2 pts

The majority of those downvotes are bots, power mods and chinks. Not the same thing.

[–] [deleted] 9 pts

I'm new here and didn't know this, what's the point of having a downvote button then?

[–] [deleted] 4 pts

My point exactly. They claim it is used to report spam etc. I believe they're missing the purpose and power of the downvote. There's no good reason everyone has to look at retarded shit. The downvote filters the trash. When the site gets more popular downvoting will help sort by quality of content.

[–] [deleted] 9 pts

Exactly. A massive negative vote score on a submission is simply a warning to the other readers that what you are about to read is retarded. There should be no punishment for that

[–] 5 pts (edited )

Retarded according to who, though? This site has just experienced a massive influx of new users who seem to not understand jokes a lot of the time.

Edit: and i came from Voat too so obviously not everyone. But try to put yourself in the shoes of someone who's been here for two years. A bunch of people come here and immediately demand a rule change so they don't have to read something they don't like? Gtfo of here.

Shall I pretend that armies of shills did not downvote brigade to drive certain current events material from the front page of Voat constantly? As in all day every day? And then sperg upvote their stale years old "funny" articles, etc. over and over to fill the void?

[–] 4 pts

I haven't figured out how to actually report spam yet. I've seen 2 blatant spam comments, but never found a button to report them. Fucking gay. What, so we're supposed to politely downvote the spambot, so this script starts to get the hint that it's spam is unwanted?

[–] [deleted] 3 pts

Me neither. I'm guessing they want us to downvote spam but with risk of getting exiled, why would I?

[–] [deleted] 2 pts

No, the downvote button will be used by boomers and cuckservatives to suppress people who realize that the Republicans and Trump are zogged.

If you don't like looking at something just ignore the poster. Close your eyes, it's words on a screen.

There's a lot of low effort posts with just a link or single sentence on this site I have noticed. Downvoting submissions would get rid of that garbage fast.

[–] 2 pts

The illusion of choice. The illusion of free speech. Is actually worse than that. You can push it, but you will be punished. You would have to be a sick fuck to think that was OK.

[–] 1 pt

Mouse over a down vote button and it will tell you. I think AOU added this popup with in the past few days

I don't see that.

[–] 1 pt

Not sure why. I Do. Perhaps F5 or ctrl + F5

[–] 1 pt

It's a custom CSS you've seen in

[+] [deleted] 4 pts
[–] 3 pts (edited )

Punishing people for using the DOWNVOTE button to VOTE things DOWN is beyond retarded.

If you don't want people to vote things down, then get rid of the downvote button. If you want a button to flag spam, then add a "Flag Spam" button.

Stop expecting people to magically know that your "downvote" button is super-duper special, and totally different from all the other downvote buttons on the internet, because it actually identifies as a "flag spam" button. And then punishing them when they "misfunction" it. And no, a vague little bullet point at the end of the welcome page doesn't cut it. It's like putting a little blurb in the About window of an application, explaining that File>Save and Ctrl-S actually instantly close the application without confirmation, and the red X in the corner is for saving.

Announcing that you're doing something retarded doesn't make it less retarded.

Kindly pull your autistic heads out of your collective asses on this one. Great website otherwise. Thanks for having us.

Go to Reddit then faggot. Or start your own gay little website.

[–] 0 pt

I've gotten downvotes with more substance than this utterly unoriginal non-reply.

[–] 0 pt

I agree. Aether is a better alternative, it's decentralized P2P (like torrents) and cannot be censored or shut down:

https://getaether.net/

You can find the NSFW communities by clicking on + Browse communities, scrolling to the bottom, and clicking Show non-SFW communities.

[–] 3 pts

I'm from Voat and I'm ready to try the system here. Brigading, superusers, hundreds of alts are all the worst aspects of Voat, and in my estimation lead directly to it becoming the sad echo chamber it was at the end. That notabug place does downvotes right?

We joined Poal, Poal didn't join us. Assimilate or die.

I like it here and want to contribute to poal growing. That and I have too much time on my hands right now. Spring can't come soon enough.

[–] 3 pts (edited )

We should have three buttons for posts:

1) Upvote
2) Report spam
3) Heil Hitler

The third button is for when you agree with the post super hard.

[–] 3 pts

Downvotes contribute to echo chambers. That's what happened to Reddit and Voat.

When putt banned faggots for downvoting from alts it was fine. Reddit downvotes come from bots, power mods and chink shills. Not the same thing.

[–] 1 pt

Voat stifled opposing views by down voting.

If your opposing view is retarded then yes.

[–] 2 pts

This poll needed a fourth option for I don't give a shit. Honestly, I don't care what the rule on downvotes is. Though disabling the downvote entirely and replacing it with a "report SPAM" option seems less likely to provide a trap for the unwary.

I mostly just think the algorithm's function which enforces the rule could be clearer. Notwithstanding AOU's providing a link and thereafter saying he has already answered the question, it is still about as clear as mud. That's because the English words used in the description are open to interpretations which, for any given reader, may or may not map to the actual function of the algorithm.

Perhaps that is the best that can be hoped for given the inherent limitations on human language and a desire not to fully disclose the algorithm and allowing it to thereby potentially be gamed.

[–] 2 pts

What? This is seriously lame if true? If you say something gay and someone disagrees. Big fucking deal. Move on. That is free speech. If it comes with a caveat, it's not free speech.

[+] [deleted] 2 pts
[–] 2 pts

What’s the use of the upvote button then?i Ifyou don’t want downvotes to mean “disagree,” why have a button that is the equivalent of “agree?” Shouldn’t those users have to justify their agreement in the same way you expect dissenters to articulate their disagreement?

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