Over that last week or so this question has popped up on the MB.

Should I vote a story down?

What’s the protocol for voting stories down

For me this is interesting since many social news sites don’t allow the voting down of stories. Further if they do, they don’t allow others to see who dished out the negative vote. Even though that little red down arrow has been given to us, it would seem that we’re scared to press it because it may end the world or something.

While there are no hard and fast rules here are a few things to consider before you vote something down.

Don’t like the submission?

We all have our opinions, but did you vote that submission down just because YOU didn’t like it? Well cGt2099 posted a thread in the Bowl about this

Voting is pretty much a personal choice as to how you do it. It could be you voting it down because you disagree or whatever.

Sometimes however, there may be stories about something you venomously disagree with (content wise) that really should be voted up to spread the word. For example, Bush vetos Child Health Bill. You might disagree with it; but it’s probably worth voting up to let others know about.

So voting, in a way, is about being objective. It is about asking yourself “Should everyone else be enlighted by the information?”.

So I can’t vote anything down?

I never said that. FareTheeWell had a very valid reason to vote something down.

The only times I think I’ve voted something down is, if it made zero sense or if I posted a dupe and didn’t notice until it was too late. I don’t feel like I should deter someone from reading a story just because I don’t like it.

So her comment goes hand in hand with the first point I made.

Further along the thread jdaniels brought up an interesting consequence of the negative modding.

If I click on a link and I’m not entertained / intrigued, I’ll just close the tab and move on. Mixxers seem to reciprocate good/bad votes so I’ve been keeping off the “vote down” button.

I think Mixx is about building a community, not bashing stories that other people find interesting. When the site gets busier, maybe I’ll become a bit more critical. But for now, I’m trying my best to get the Mixxing ball rolling.

So what should I do?

Well I’m not your parents, so I can’t tell you what to do. I can however offer advice that my mother always gave me “You reap what you sow”. Because you have a heavy down mod button, you may be on the receiving end one day. Something you wanted the world to see, may not make it to the front page. What’s more someone else will submit the story and because they maintained some sort of neutrality or down voted judiciously, that story (YOUR STORY) will hit the front page with their name beside it.

So i’ll just do what markdykeman says:

As a general rule of thumb, I won’t vote stories down, just not vote on them at all if I don’t like them. Unless they turn out to be completely awful.

Remember social new sites are not here to ensure YOUR OPINION is pushed to the front page. They are here to spread information that MSM would never push. While you may disagree about an article, that’s not grounds to bury it.

Lets say Mixx existed in 1989 and the Berlin came down. Well you dont’ like Germany so you immediately vote it down. Well you just mixxed down history because you didn’t like the context.

Through the looking glass.

I’ll briefly address this next issue because I know it’ll come up and it already has in the Bowl. A down vote is nothing against you, REMEMBER THAT. As I’ve already stated, people have their reasons, some choose to express them in the comments some don’t. If I down vote you, I’ll usually post a comment as to why and typically its because of a dupe.

So if you see someone vote your story down, don’t click on their profile and go all Rambo on their submissions. Don’t throw a Negative Mod grenade in their profile and then leave. Voting up and down are there to regulate content, not bash a person. If you feel that someone is abusing the negative button or any other aspect of Mixx, report them and let someone else deal with it.

Civility in Mixx is the only thing that will distinguish it from everyone else. Its up to us to make or break this site.

Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: Mixx, voting