The Reddit upvote/downvote system is what has made that site a virtual echo chamber. The original intent was for upvotes to be given for insightful posts and comments, and for downvotes to only be used for post and comments which were off-topic or broke the rules of the subreddit (harassment, doxing, illegal activities). The market however decided differently and tribalism naturally took over where upvotes are given to views I agree with and downvotes are given to views I disagree with.
If the only effect of the system was a score attached to a post or comment then I'd be less wary, but it's the automatic hiding of posts or comments below a certain score, -5 in Reddit's case, which causes the biggest problem. Newcomers may venture into a discussion with their own ideas and question themselves when they never see such ideas discussed simply because they are all hidden as they don't conform to the groupthink. Sometimes it only takes a few brave souls to speak out and signal the quiet ones that they are actually not alone in their beliefs, yet when those few brave souls are downvoted to the point of being hidden, critical mass is never achieved.
Nikita is correct in that the culture of the forum itself can help shape the norms, but that's typically evident in the quality of the responses and not in the actual voting system. Each comment can be traced to a specific user, which has a reputational impact, so there's an incentive to conform to the cultural norms. However the voting system is anonymous, so there isn't the same incentive structure. I could comment how lovely it is to see dissenting opinions, yet quietly bury those with whom I disagree.
Ultimately I think a hidden voting system could work, which alone does not have any impact on the visibility of a comment, or on the order in which comments are presented, but could be used by moderators to identify comments which should be manually reviewed. Rules should be transparent and in the event they are broken the commenter should be made aware of the actual reason rather than them be left guessing. That's my 2 cents...
The Reddit upvote/downvote system is what has made that site a virtual echo chamber. The original intent was for upvotes to be given for insightful posts and comments, and for downvotes to only be used for post and comments which were off-topic or broke the rules of the subreddit (harassment, doxing, illegal activities). The market however decided differently and tribalism naturally took over where upvotes are given to views I agree with and downvotes are given to views I disagree with.
If the only effect of the system was a score attached to a post or comment then I'd be less wary, but it's the automatic hiding of posts or comments below a certain score, -5 in Reddit's case, which causes the biggest problem. Newcomers may venture into a discussion with their own ideas and question themselves when they never see such ideas discussed simply because they are all hidden as they don't conform to the groupthink. Sometimes it only takes a few brave souls to speak out and signal the quiet ones that they are actually not alone in their beliefs, yet when those few brave souls are downvoted to the point of being hidden, critical mass is never achieved.
Nikita is correct in that the culture of the forum itself can help shape the norms, but that's typically evident in the quality of the responses and not in the actual voting system. Each comment can be traced to a specific user, which has a reputational impact, so there's an incentive to conform to the cultural norms. However the voting system is anonymous, so there isn't the same incentive structure. I could comment how lovely it is to see dissenting opinions, yet quietly bury those with whom I disagree.
Ultimately I think a hidden voting system could work, which alone does not have any impact on the visibility of a comment, or on the order in which comments are presented, but could be used by moderators to identify comments which should be manually reviewed. Rules should be transparent and in the event they are broken the commenter should be made aware of the actual reason rather than them be left guessing. That's my 2 cents...