I’d consider adding a single negative reaction—a generic disagree—to posts. I’d rather people select that than downvoting karma to express disagreement, which is I think what too often happens.
I think retaining the ability to anonymously express agreement or disagreement in some fashion is critical—and would prefer that mechanism not be karma-upvote/downvote. My recollection is that some people have expressed concerns about what they say on the Forum in good faith having an adverse professional impact on them. Whether or not those concerns are well-founded in fact, disallowing the option for anonymity may render reported levels of support for a post or comment less accurate.
Thanks, I think this is a good point. We’ll try out what a clear negative react at the post level could be to see if we can maintain this option for readers. FWIW, one reason we don’t have agree/disagree at the post level is that a post often contains a bunch of different points, which makes it hard to agree/disagree on the whole.
Even if it’s true that it can be hard to agree or disagree with a post as a whole, I do get the impression that people sometimes feel like they disagree with posts as a whole, and so simply downvote the post.
Also, I suspect it is possible to disagree with a post as a whole. Many posts are structured like “argument 1, argument 2, argument 3, therefore conclusion”. If you disagree with the conclusion, I think it’s reasonable to say that that’s disagreeing with the post as a whole. If you agree with the arguments and the conclusion, then you agree with the post as a whole. Otherwise, I agree it’s more ambiguous, but people then have the option of not agree/disagree-voting.
What’s the downside of allowing this post-level agree/disagree voting that the team is worried about? (I’m not saying there isn’t one, just that I can’t immediately see it.)
I’d personally much rather have agree/disagree on posts than these reactions, if we had to pick. I’m not sure if these reactions add any useful information. But I’m happy to see you’re trying to make it simpler than at LessWrong. Curious to hear what the other reasons are for no agree/disagree on posts. I frequently upvote posts I disagree with and would like to express that disagreement without writing a comment. Maybe agree/disagrees can be optionally set by the authors of the post?
I’d consider adding a single negative reaction—a generic disagree—to posts. I’d rather people select that than downvoting karma to express disagreement, which is I think what too often happens.
I think retaining the ability to anonymously express agreement or disagreement in some fashion is critical—and would prefer that mechanism not be karma-upvote/downvote. My recollection is that some people have expressed concerns about what they say on the Forum in good faith having an adverse professional impact on them. Whether or not those concerns are well-founded in fact, disallowing the option for anonymity may render reported levels of support for a post or comment less accurate.
Thanks, I think this is a good point. We’ll try out what a clear negative react at the post level could be to see if we can maintain this option for readers. FWIW, one reason we don’t have agree/disagree at the post level is that a post often contains a bunch of different points, which makes it hard to agree/disagree on the whole.
Even if it’s true that it can be hard to agree or disagree with a post as a whole, I do get the impression that people sometimes feel like they disagree with posts as a whole, and so simply downvote the post.
Also, I suspect it is possible to disagree with a post as a whole. Many posts are structured like “argument 1, argument 2, argument 3, therefore conclusion”. If you disagree with the conclusion, I think it’s reasonable to say that that’s disagreeing with the post as a whole. If you agree with the arguments and the conclusion, then you agree with the post as a whole. Otherwise, I agree it’s more ambiguous, but people then have the option of not agree/disagree-voting.
What’s the downside of allowing this post-level agree/disagree voting that the team is worried about? (I’m not saying there isn’t one, just that I can’t immediately see it.)
I’d personally much rather have agree/disagree on posts than these reactions, if we had to pick. I’m not sure if these reactions add any useful information. But I’m happy to see you’re trying to make it simpler than at LessWrong. Curious to hear what the other reasons are for no agree/disagree on posts. I frequently upvote posts I disagree with and would like to express that disagreement without writing a comment. Maybe agree/disagrees can be optionally set by the authors of the post?