Dislike on FB. Promote/Demote on IndiBlogger
The social media, I guess is no longer about just counting your 'likes'... we will need to handle our 'dislikes' too. Is it time for Indiblogger too to do some radical thinking and add the 'Demote' button to posts (especially on the contest posts) Ha! Ha!
It is time for bloggers to be grounded and understand what R-E-A-L really means.
Your comments on a 'demote' button please...
Rivalry is common everywhere... unavoidable. Both rivalry and ganging up -- are they not already present on Indiblogger as well? :)
Look at the contest pages on Indiblogger... page 01 will invariably have a few who have managed 10x more votes or likes than others languishing on the inside pages. I have seen instances where the first five or six get 100+ likes and the tally has a sudden drop to below 10. Isn't this ridiculous? Not that any of this really matters.
What matters is that those few who climb the vote ladders may start thinking they write better... and this is what one needs to guard against. So a demote button can probably be a great equaliser. Don't you think there is potential in a 'demote' button? :)
Let me clarify my point, Rio...
There is someone who has written a great post and is waiting for others to notice his post and read... but he is on page 9 with 2 votes. Can you even imagine his/her pain? Moreover, if 'toil' is simply to gather votes, such people had better not call themselves bloggers.
Yes, these votes are not worth a dime... but they have the potential to hurt someone who loves blogging. These pseudo votes can also promote mediocrity amongst bloggers. Who knows, there might be instances where even judges are influenced by these votes and... is this why we sometimes see undeserving posts winning?
However, I do agree that pressing the 'demote' button will have to be done 'responsibly'. No one asks for reasons when you're on a 'promote' spree... but a 'demote' action must be tagged with a reason. Let bloggers give their reason for disliking a post. I guess this exercise will only make us 'bloggers with a backbone' and NOT spineless bums who are here for fun.
By default, the 'contest posts' pages land on the list of random posts where all posts get a fair chance to be noticed. Viewing popular posts and latest posts is only a blogger's choice.
Indivotes shall remain an unending discussion but let's never intend to demote any blogger or any creativity, for that matter. It would hurt more than not being noticed.
+1
Disagreement and dissent, Nandhini ji, are tools for improvement and a 'demote' button, like the 'dislike' button that FB is planning to introduce, is one way these tools can be employed to emhance creativity.
Must we remain afraid to call a spade a spade?
Must we hide behind pseudo euphemisms and continue living a flaccid life?
Must we have the option to only praise and like?
Can you even imagine what will happen if all political parties began praising each other and shying away from pointing out flaws? Political learning will cease and we will probably cease to be a vibrant democracy. Even creative impulses rely on people pointing out faults... is it not better to rid of faults and get out there with your first novel that free of stupid glitches? The alternative, of course is to keep swimming in false praise and end up writing something for a global audience that will be spurned and rejected. I guess this is what happens when writers and authors churn out puerile works of fiction... no one has probably pointed out their flaws. these are the authors who end up being bashed mercilessly by critics. Do you want bloggers who are starting on a life dedicated to writing, to stop evolving?
I don't think a demote button can make a blogger realize his/her faults. Only a sincere comment to that particular post or a personal message to the blogger can do that. If asked for an opinion, I would rather prefer to take off the whole voting system and let random posts to be displayed on the homepage. It has made IB complicated in several ways. Let's not complicate it further.
like the 'dislike' button that FB is planning to introduce, is one way these tools can be employed to emhance creativity.
It's not a dislike button: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/the-media-lied-to-you-its-not-a-facebook-dislike-button-at-all/
I agree with Nandhini when she says that the entire system of voting needs to be done away with.
I wish IB comes up with a poll to check how many bloggers are in favour of the voting system. And make the majority, a reality!
Even that poll requires "votes"
Haha! But I am confident that the 'vote seeker' population is lesser and the rest would win provided the 'rest' bother to cast their votes.
Mr. Sloman was supposed to start this thread as a final rant before quitting the voting system and Mr. Passey jumped him to it.
I don't think I'd ever use a dislike button on FB or demote button (if the button is ever added) on Indiblogger. There's always something I love in every post. If I hate the viewpoint, I invariably love the writing style.
If I don't like anything, I would point out what I don't like instead of demoting a whole post. How would a demote button help? The blogger would never know the reason I demoted if I don't tell him/her.
Nandhini's idea of doing away with the voting system seems good. Here I have to confess that when I'm too lazy to comment on a post I like, I just vote on Indivine. It's an easier way of saying 'great post'.
For me the vote button is not a way of saying "great post" For me it is a way of saying "I have read". Some people promote without reading. I promote anything I have read whether I like or not (unless of course it is so horrible that I would be ashamed being seen in company of such a post)- at least let the person know I have read having spent the time.
Well, if someone has actually clicked and gone from Indivine to the post and read it... it takes lesser or almost the same time to write one line in the comments section than to come back to Indiblogger and push the 'promote' button.
Yeah. It takes same amount of time to write "Nice one" which conveys no better information than the vote and in order to do that one has to undergo the ordeal of their humanity being questioned by the captcha system.
I agree with TF. I have never once passed the dreaded captcha test in first attempt. And I read on my laptop. So, all I have to do is click on the other tab to promote the post.
Besides, some posts have scores of meaningful comments which add to the discussion. I feel like I'm a moron advising an expert if I have nothing to add besides 'nice post', especially when I'm new to that particular blog.
One of the things I suggested in similar discussion years back was a rating system where person gives a rating as well and not just a vote - but only the fact that a person has rated being visible - actual rating invisible till 5-10 people have rated and then average rating to show up.
Why make things complicated for indiblogger? It is simpler to just get rid of the 'popular' tab which will leave only the 'random' and the 'newest' tabs.
Rating system would be better than voting. So, we would know to what degree people like our posts. It would serve the purpose of both promote and demote buttons.
Up vote and Down vote... hmmm... different words for promote and demote... but why anonymity? Doesn't anonymity promote cowardliness? It is similar to back-stabbing, thinking, 'arrey, no one will ever come to know that I have done this' kind of attitude.
Why is it that we desperately want to stay away from conflicts that arise from truth? Is this why India lags behind on a global platform?
I disagree with the Demote button because of it's negative connotations. Why foster negativity? If you like something read and promote, if you dont like it ignore it. If it is really, really bad and you find it hard to let it go, leave some feedback.
+100.
I also diagree with your opinion sir. Its better if negativity is avoided..We need to motivate each other..
An upvote for the proposal to remove the Popular tab
Downvote button on Indiblogger? No!
The both Upvote button and Downvote buttons are susceptible to gross misuse.
However, misuse of Downvote button will cause far more harm than the misuse of Upvote button.
Misuse of Upvote button will greatly diminish when the popular tab is removed and anonymous upvoting is introduced.
Well... well... well... I hope indiblogger is reading all this.
My purpose for creating this thread is successful if they give some credance to a system that is thriving until now on meaningless votes.
Agree. The present system sure needs to give way for a better system. Indibloggers deserve this.
To be honest, we have learnt to distinguish between readers and promoters. If you take a survey on how many have noticed the top voted posts or read them, reality will come to the fore. Yes, the system needs a revamp - maybe new bloggers can be introduced on a rotational basis which may encourage them. Experienced bloggers articles can picked up in random and highlighted which may also help others to recognize them. Just a wild idea that might add meaning to the home page.
The simplest thing is to do away with the concerned blogger KNOWING who voted for his/her posts :) THAT, of course, could end up as a de facto abolition of the voting system OR could end up MAKING the voter go around and comment on the blog as well.
To clarify - I mean that with only the current system of voting FOR a post.
Aha! Thanks for the clarification. :)
Wow. Bloggers are scared of a demote button. I have to agree with Passey here. It's time to get grounded. If people are really uncomfortable then we can always make it anonymous voting for both promote and demote. If bloggers cannot get a thick skin & deal with the boo and the hiss and the thumbs down, Now before someone says "it will be misused"- tell me any type of system that will not be misused??? I remember in some cases where few people who ask for reviews defend wholeheartedly while being in denial. That's "few" compared to a lot of them who took criticisms and improved. There was this one bloke who changed few things in his blog and then says that I am wrong which pissed me off, but that's a different tale. Even if its going to be misused, how many are going to do it? one? two? ten? Having them both balances things. Having only one of them does not.
Long before topics like this came, if the mass asked to remove the voting system, then I would have been cool with it. But if people ask to remove the voting system NOW because at some point demote system seems inevitable, then you're just being in denial.
TS, you are missing the consequences of the button being misused. There is nothing wrong with criticism when it is constructive. Demote button equals to a destructive criticism, because it wouldn't tell the blogger what is wrong with the post, only that someone doesn't like it. Seasoned bloggers can easily brush off destructive criticism. What about the newbie blogger?
A person starts writing because he feels he may not be great, but he is not that bad. A destructive criticism is going to ruin his confidence. I think everyone is a mediocre writer. We improve with every word we write, and every year we write. We need to encourage a newbie writer. Who knows he/she might end up being better than we can ever be. But, misuse of demote button might put him/her off writing forever. Indiblogger is here to encourage bloggers not to discourage them.
Besides, reading is subjective. The only problem with the most demoted post might be that it is read by the wrong audience.
Instead of a voting and a demote button, why not use rating system like TF Carthick suggested? This way we get a range of voting buttons. Those who want to demote can give one star, and others can give any number they feel the post is worth. The average would give the real value of the post. Then, only the best post would get all five stars, and everyone else would have a range of feedback.
If people follow what you said, then the lack of "promote" also ruins one's confidence too. But I doubt that's happening. Only reason I say some people don't like is because many good posts are pushed behind because a network of people who like eachother's post just like that. Demote acts like a balancer for such people. We shouldn't even had this system to begin with. A lot of people took it for a ride.
Demote button is a grudge tool and no one is "scared" of it. It is plain wrong.
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