EVE General Discussion

I think we should be given an option to either upvote or downvote a single post. I believe it would serve a different purpose than the somewhat controversial "likes" system as well as promote better quality posts.

Here is my current dilemma:

When I participate in a heated discussion where there is clearly two sides, I usually tend to "like" the posts I agree with and the ones which are well-constructed. Occasionally I might even like a post which completely disagrees with my statement simply because it is well-thought, intelligent and brings something new to the discussion.

What I would like to see is a system where I can "rate highly" a certain post without necessarily "liking" it. There should also be an option to "rate low" posts which are clearly trolling or being outright disrespectful.

Here are the definitive advantages once this is implemented:
- Being able to sort bigger threads by hiding low-rated posts and/or showing highest-rated only. Especially useful when reading a long thread for the first time and trying to get the general direction it is heading.
- Making CCP's and ISD's job easier when characters seem to accumulate dozens of low-rated posts (troll detection).
- Favoring quality over quantity; instead of posting your ideas with 5 posts in a thread, it would be preferential to make a single post if you wish your points to be more visible.
- Rating should be anonymous and one-per-account
- Longer posts/OPs would be much easier to sort (to read or not to read, that is the question)
- Not to mention "highly rated" posts would make DEVs jobs easier when looking for constructive feedback.
- Gives you the chance to show appreciation to opposition's arguments without making them think you agree with their points.
- Since making "highly rated" posts takes an effort and would be reserved to ranking a single post each time, it would be impossible to farm unless you actually create dozens of "highly rated" posts, which is actually a good thing.

I think "liking" posts should be reserved to funny, clever and truly outstanding posts and thus remain as is. It shows that character is active on the forums and the sheer quantity of his likes proves they are aware of the current trends and events.

Whatcha' guys think?

I think there was a dislike function briefly if I remember correctly. Probably got abused and taken out.



But really like/dislike or rate high/rate low whats the difference?

I agree on hiding low rated/disliked posts though.

I agree, the system will be too easy to game and the quality still wouldn't be separated from the crap.

Yes they are similar but my main issue with the liking system is that it is cumulative.

If I see a character with 500 likes to his character, I have no way to see if it is 500 posts with 1 like each or 2 posts with 250+ likes. Only one scenario is truly impressive.

I could, of course, read all the posts of a certain character but why not implement a rating system instead? It's convenient.

I'm not reading this thread as you lack the likes to earn my attention.

so you want to turn this forum into Reddit?

Came here expecting official KB/Leaderboards. Left indifferent...

What would be the point of the system then?

And we can that information without some special point system. Whenever I read a post by somebody and I'm not too sure about their intention I usually check out the first page of their post history to get a better idea. To me this is the same as our current likes system which personally speaking is nothing more than a popularity contest. Lets say somebody from a very well known major alliance decides to shiptoast in a anti-well known major alliance thread, you may decide to down vote but 25 of his friends and 8 of his alts will up vote. Now imagine that when they are upvoting each other on each post. At which point the whole idea of separating good posts from bad post by the clicky system becomes moot and you are back to deciding the quality of a post with your own judgement again.

But wouldn't it being anonymous and one-per-account work as a damage control II?

Sure you could farm it with your alliance, but the point is to keep it local to the actual post unlike the likes system which is bound to character.

So you manage to ask your entire alliance to log-in on the forums and upvote your post. Then you ask them to switch accounts and do so with their alts. Okay, it works once, point made, you have an artificial "highly rated" post.

Now do this a second time.

Now try it a third time.

Do you think that the fourth time you ask all your alliance members to do it again you will have the same numbers as during your first try? No. While your artificial alliance alts diminish gradually, the amount of active forum posters remains the same and they will keep downvoting obvious attempts at popularity.

Bottom line, after a month you are back at square one. If none of your posts were actually constructive, chances are no one will remember you even tried it at all.

The cumulative and permanent aspect of the likes system is what makes it farmable with a few of these "popularity contests". An upvote/downvote system that resets after each post makes it extremely tedious and time-consuming to keep farming efficiently.

Slashdot. Yum ?