It really needs to be understood and people need to be aware of it. Some front ends already have some indication. Like PeakD for example... where there is some RED LETTERS SAYING SOMETHING OF SORTS - or trying to explain at least :D
But others don't have this. For example ecency needs something like that in my view too. Other places adopt a posture of NOT showing downvoting "as possible" and that can be seen both ways.
Technically speaking the options have to be there for balance and because the chain allows them, but realistically only advanced users will really understand when and how to used it. So, the aftermath is that it might be best to actually "hide" it or at least make it less accessible/visible, forcing the user to learn first about it (almost like a learning your powers...), might actually not be a bad idea.
But making it NOT possible to use is probably a no go for me, just because one will eventually have to explain when someone downvotes your post, and learning about it should be something visible (at least that you had downvotes) to a user (for transparency reasons too). For example, on inleo its visible, but then it does not work (not sure what level of LEO I need in order to use it, but it never worked for me), and that alone can be frustrating for a user.
For me it should be like this:
- Slightly hide or make the user have to click something that acknowledges the action of downvoting (but should not be to make the user afraid of it, instead to inspire curiosity on learning about it), before the user submits a downvote.
- If front ends doesn't want to include the downvote values to avoid "the 0% downvotes or 0.001 downvote values", then add something like a default threshold on the front end that basically ignores those values. 1% is probably good enough (or even lower). Then when these are met, the user clearly gets alerted something is wrong and triggers him/her to find more about it. Obviously this should be configurable so that if one wants to see everything like on chain, that to be also possible.
- Only show upvotes if no downvotes, and only show downvotes if not upvotes (probably same with percentage to avoid noise). This creates some obfuscation indeed which contradicts transparency, but for a default, I think its beneficial for most users. And if configurable, users can always remove the thresholds.
- (this one almost everyone is doing it right, but just for completeness) Make the "Like button" big and accessible! even with options of pre-defined voting percentages, smaller, bigger hearts, unvote, whatever... as long its easy, and people can see the impact of the post. Sure upvotes != the same as likes (on web2), but still provokes much more impact positively.
And yes, for most projects anyone can help by doing some code and then submitting an MR. And there are a couple of great people around that I know they can do that, but we also have our lives.
If I had website coding skills I would do a demo from the already available open source ones, and would give it a good trial, so if anyone out there wants to help with something like this, I am happy to facilitate some BEE for it to happen via ATX token (because I have already almost everything there, just need a rewards pool), or if someone wants to do it via their own token, but usually those have already enough support. Or if anyone seeing this comment and wants to copy the idea... I don't care... ping me if you do, cause I wanna try it!
This is an awesome comment!
This is already a discussion someone will come back to, and read because it is interesting and because you clearly care. This is really cool! And I do believe these discussions add value to you, me, and of course HIVE.
Even if I am going to pull back on the downvote project, I will obviously still be open to use the DV in the future because of the balance you described; balance is important.
Circling back to some things you said about down voting. I think hiding the downvote button and making some documentation that it is for advanced users seems like a good idea.
I say this because they are inherently different.
For Example:
• 1% upvote often goes unnoticed
• 1% downvote tends to have some type of reaction
One is way more influential than the other. To me they are not comparable and they are also not inverses of each other. They are very different things and I do think that is pretty interesting.
I hope someone picks you up on some of your ideas. I don't have the skills to do the things you described but tomorrow is a new day. And maybe I will have those skills one day and we can do something cool. Is it likely? Who knows? But it is fun to dream about new things!