Miles To Go
Hmm...
What about instead of disabling it for the user, we can choose to disable it on the thread itself?
Cuz I do like seeing up and down votes in SF... but I feel other forums lack the necessity for it, and people will up/down vote based on their personal opinion of you instead. (Exchange, etc)
I'm sure if someone makes a petition they will want to see up/down votes as well, without exposing them to votes in other forums etcetc.
Edit: Oh.. you're suggesting just hiding it from that
person's view. I see. Then no, I disagree, because it's not solving the reason why people are getting bothered by it.
A person shouldn't be forced to subject themself to the up/down system, if they feel bothered by it. It was implemented to get top rated threads spotlighted. If a person chooses to disable the feature on their own thread, that simply means it will never be spotlighted. Which I think is fine to leave up to the thread owner. Because despite what people think, it is not uncommon for the down vote system to be used as a troll method. Now whether those negative votes actually bother the owner is another story, but there ARE some people who find it quite troubling. And lets be honest... I can't help but think the people who enjoy this system, enjoy having the ability to drag down a thread without even having to post in it. Because that IS the most common use of this whole system. Overall, I feel it is counterproductive. In sf for example, rather than explaining why they dislike an idea, or posting constructive criticism, people will just mass downvote without a peep.
No one is being forced to do anything, right now they have the ability not to vote if they don’t want to . And if they disable the feature it doesn’t mean their thread won’t be spotlighted because it means the user won’t be able to SEE the system. The thread still can be voted on and spotlighted but they won’t be able to see how many up/down votes they have nor can they vote.
And they might be trolling, but the people who enjoy the system are not all about being able to drag down a thread but like expressing their opinion. And in SF people don’t want to say what’s already been said and bump up a thread so they use the system.