{"id":2673,"date":"2015-09-16T13:30:58","date_gmt":"2015-09-16T17:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/antipaucity.com\/?p=2673"},"modified":"2015-09-16T13:30:58","modified_gmt":"2015-09-16T17:30:58","slug":"like-problems-social-voting-is-a-bad-idea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/merikebi.warrenmyers.com\/?p=2673","title":{"rendered":"“like” problems: social ‘voting’ is a bad idea"},"content":{"rendered":"

The news story making the rounds about {{Facebook}} the past few days indicates they’re working on a kind of “dislike<\/a>” button.<\/p>\n

The problem with the Facebook “like” button is the same problem {{Google}} has with Google+ and their “+1” button: it doesn’t tell you anything meaningful.<\/p>\n

Voting on Reddit doesn’t\u00a0really<\/em> convey much meaning, either.<\/p>\n

Stack Overflow tries to address this with its up\/down voting and being able to see the gestalt votes as a ratio (if your rep is high enough<\/a>\u00a0(an admittedly low bar, but still a bar, and an aspect of the {{gamification}} of Stack Oveflow)). But that doesn’t really cut it, either.<\/p>\n

The problem with online “voting” (or “liking”, or “plussing”, etc) is that it is a dimensionless data point.<\/p>\n

Does getting 300 “likes” on a post make it “good”? Does it reflect on its quality in any way? How about getting nearly 400\u00a0upvotes (and only a handful of downvotes) on a question<\/a> about {{MySQL}} (along with 100+ “favorites”) mean the question is\u00a0good<\/em>? Does it show something is\u00a0popular<\/em>? Are people clicking the vote mechanism out of peer pressure, because they actually agree, or because they think it needs more visibility? Or something else entirely?<\/p>\n

Dimensionless data\u00a0that gets used as if it has meaning<\/em> is a problem – one of many problems<\/a> of social media<\/a> and web sites in general.<\/p>\n

Of course, you will object,\u00a0quality<\/em> is a potentially-subjective term – what does “quality”\u00a0mean<\/em>, exactly, when talking about a post, website, question, etc? Is it how well-written it is? Is it how long? How funny? How sad?<\/p>\n

Take this question<\/a> I asked on Stack Overflow, “CSS – how to trim text output<\/a>?” It’s clearly-written, was answered excellently<\/a> in 2 minutes, and is a “real” problem I had. Yet in the 4.5 years since asking, it’s only gotten 2 votes total (both “up”, but still only two).<\/p>\n

Reddit<\/a> has upvotes and downvotes – and your comment\/post score is merely the sum of the ups and downs; below a certain [relative] threshold, you won’t see content unless you ask for it.<\/p>\n

One of the biggest\u00a0problems with all of these systems is that the “score” doesn’t actually tell you anything. An atheist subreddit, for example, will\u00a0tend<\/em> to downvote-into-oblivion comments that are theistic in nature (especially from Christians). Quora<\/a>‘s voting system is highly untransparent – downvotes don’t really seem to mean much, and upvotes are pretty much just for show.<\/p>\n

This derives from the fact that these sites use\u00a0dimensionless<\/em> data and try to give it a\u00a0value<\/em> or\u00a0meaning<\/em> outside of what it really is – a number.<\/p>\n

What\u00a0should<\/em> be shown is the total number of “votes” a given post has gotten – positive negative, reshare, etc – but\u00a0never<\/em> combined. A ratio could be displayed, but the\u00a0sum<\/em> of the votes is a poor plan.<\/p>\n

Facebook, {{Google+}}, and others should offer various voting options – “up”, “down”, “disagree”, “agree”, “share”, and possibly others – some of which may be mutually-exclusive (you cannot upvote and downvote the same thing), but you might downvote something you agree with (or upvote something you disagree with) just because of how it is written\/presented, etc.<\/p>\n

And the total of each type of click should be shown – show me 10,000 people disagreed with what I said, 15,000 agreed; 20,000 upvoted, and 30,000 downvoted; 12,000 reshared it (with, or without, comment).<\/p>\n

Using voting as a means of hiding things (and trying to prevent others from seeing them)\u00a0can<\/em> be somewhat akin to online bullying – revenge voting<\/a>\u00a0has its problems; as does blindly upvoting anything a particular person says\/does. Which is why assigning (and then displaying) dimensionless data anything more than a count is dangerous.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The news story making the rounds about {{Facebook}} the past few days indicates they’re working on a kind of “dislike” button. The problem with the Facebook “like” button is the same problem {{Google}} has with Google+ and their “+1” button: it doesn’t tell you anything meaningful. Voting on Reddit doesn’t\u00a0really convey much meaning, either. Stack …
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