I’m not a huge down voter, but there are cases when I want to do so. However, the handful of times I’ve started to down vote something here I’ve been stymied by the down vote reason choices. The choices are not for down voting, but for flagging/reporting. Yes, the distinction matters. Reporting something as spam or off topic may lead to it becoming invisible or deleted by mods. Down voting because something is, well, shitty, allows my voice to be heard more forcefully than the lack of an up vote.
What do other crustaceans think?
That was pretty much my intention with the voting reasons.
I don’t think downvoting should be used for noting disapproval or considering something stupid or boring (unless it is completely off-topic) because, especially with this site’s traffic, it can easily put something at 0 or -1 and remove it from everyone else’s view by default. I’d rather people just not upvote those things and upvote everything else.
If the first person to vote decides something is off topic, the submission is pretty much gone from the front page with one down vote. And like you said, most other people will never see it unless they check “new”. Seems too blunt of an instrument.
I specifically changed the code recently so that one single downvote won’t kill a story. However, the front page is moving fast enough now that just posting a new story won’t make it show up on the homepage. Users are going to have to start checking /newest (which I have some other ideas for to help stories gain traction).
Ok.
Good problem to have.
There’s also the Twitter feed.
If something is particularly shitty or wrong, I’d say it is off-topic. I see off-topic as synonymous with “after reading this, I want those five minutes of my life back.”
Sometimes there are things that I think are insipid or trivial, but not off-topic. I don’t think they should be downvoted, even if I end up wanting those five minutes of my life back, since there may be people on lobsters who don’t find it as trivial as I do.
Oh, I guess I very rarely use the “want my life back” put down, and not for things that are merely insipid or trivial. The one time I did down vote something as off topic, it was for being wrong. (Maybe there was another longer ago? I would think there’s a way to see and review my down votes, but I can’t seem to find it.)
How about -1, Tripe?