[I was inspired to suggest this by the downvotes on this comment, but it’s a problem I’ve seen more generally.]
The agree/disagree voting dimension is amazing, but it seems to me like people haven’t properly uncoupled it from karma yet. One way to help people understand the differences could be to introduce a confirmation box that pops up whenever you try to vote, that you can opt out of from your profile settings.
This box could contain something like the following guidelines:
Only vote on the karma dimension based on whether you personally benefited from reading it. Voting based on whether you believe others will benefit from it exacerbates information cascades and dilutes information about what people are actually likely to benefit from reading.
Similarly, do not use the karma dimension to signal dis/agreement. This has the same problem as above, and just leads to people reading more of what they already agree with. Remember, people may benefit from reading something they disagree with, and we don’t want this forum to be an echo chamber.
Still, it’s useful for readers to know something about the extent to which other readers agree with a particular post or comment, so there’s a separate dimension you can vote on to help with this purpose.
[Discuss these guidelines] [Disable this popup] [Agree and submit vote]
[I was inspired to suggest this by the downvotes on this comment, but it’s a problem I’ve seen more generally.]
The agree/disagree voting dimension is amazing, but it seems to me like people haven’t properly uncoupled it from karma yet. One way to help people understand the differences could be to introduce a confirmation box that pops up whenever you try to vote, that you can opt out of from your profile settings.
This box could contain something like the following guidelines: