I guess that people currently upvote in the vicinity of 20% of comments they read (this is a guess, but based on how many more upvotes the top articles/comments get than the median), and downvote somewhat under 1%.
Optimal for information in theory might be a 1⁄31⁄31⁄3 split between upvoting, downvoting and not voting. But I think higher thresholds for downvoting than that probably make sense. I guess I might like to see upvoting at about 30% and downvoting at about 3%?
I’m imagining 2 scenarios:
1) People have a very low threshold for upvoting, so upvote most comments. They only downvote in extreme circumstances.
2) People have a high threshold for upvoting, so only upvote comments they think particularly helpful. They only downvote in extreme circumstances.
My thought is that more information about comment quality is conveyed in the second.
I guess that people currently upvote in the vicinity of 20% of comments they read (this is a guess, but based on how many more upvotes the top articles/comments get than the median), and downvote somewhat under 1%.
Optimal for information in theory might be a 1⁄3 1⁄3 1⁄3 split between upvoting, downvoting and not voting. But I think higher thresholds for downvoting than that probably make sense. I guess I might like to see upvoting at about 30% and downvoting at about 3%?
The second scenario isn’t how I started upvoting, but what I’m leaning towards now, on this forum.