Forum changes for more transparency

Navaac223 · April 25

I've been thinking about adding 2 things to the forums : votes to validate taking down comments and a dislike button

When a mod wants to take down a post, they can only do so if it has been disliked into oblivion. That way, we can't accuse them of deleting posts that aren't actually harmful. If a comment is actually insulting, it will get disliked : the average person on the forums knows where to draw the line. Of course, you'd have to wait until a sufficient number of people have voted (wich should depend on the section of the forums it's in : 10 people for general discussion, 4 for pvp activities, 5 for pts...) but this shouldn't be a problem : worst case scenario, a mean comment stays on for one day, wich just means not a lot of people have even read it so it doesn't matter.

Plus, having dislikes can help if anyone at zos ever decides to check what people are talking about in the forums. That way, if they see a nightblade crying about how nb is underpowered in pvp since they just died to a necro, they won't buff nb again because they will see most people don't agree, especially forum regulars, who are obviously way more invested (and knowledgeable) in the game than the average player. After that, the chances that they can make changes that makes sense in the next patch will skyrocket to maybe 5% !

Tandor · April 25

Far too much scope for abuse. It will never happen.

DenverRalphy · April 25

Online forum users as a whole have proven time and time again that they're incapable of using dislike/disagree/down-vote/etc.. with any modicum of responsibility. They always end up being used for little more than a griefing tool.

Especially within the gamer community.

Syldras · April 25

Didn't this forum have just that many years ago, but then this button was removed due to people abusing it? Or am I confusing this with another forum?

spartaxoxo · April 25

No. Mods shouldn't need to ask permission to do their job. That's inefficient and open to abuse.

It also is overly punitive for posts that are simply unpopular opinions that get unfairly dismissed as trolling because it doesn't fall into popular consensus.

valenwood_vegan · April 25

Why stop there? If they're going to make decisions based on forum likes and dislikes, I think whichever forum user gets the most awesomes in a quarter gets to decide what features and balance changes are in the next update. Most dislikes gets their favorite skill nerfed into the ground.

This is a gaming forum, not some bizarre social experiment. Reddit exists already for those that enjoy the upvote downvote drama. I'd rather they remove the current "reactions" too so that people have to use some words if they have something to say.

Grizzbeorn · April 25

Ain't gonna happen.

The whole reason why we don't currently have those functions is because they'd get abused.
It's why most forums these days don't have those options.

Grizzbeorn · April 25

Syldras wrote: »

Didn't this forum have just that many years ago, but then this button was removed due to people abusing it? Or am I confusing this with another forum?

I can't speak with confidence to the ESO forums since I wasn't here in the beginning, though I do think I've seen people talking about those options having once existed here, but, LOTS of forums that formerly had those options removed them because of people abusing them.
The newer forums simply don't implement them to begin with.

ZOS_Kevin · April 25

Yeah, we explored having those added back in after I started a few years ago. But because folks abuse those systems regularly (generally across forums), so we did not add them in. Also, I do think we had a dislike button awhile ago, but that was abused, so we had to remove it. Generally speaking, it's pretty clear when someone dislikes a comment or post, because they tend to voice it or give a counterpoint. Which as along as it is respectful or constructive, is fine to do.

Navaac223 · April 25

Well then, I stand corrected

WhiteCoatSyndrome · April 25

Syldras wrote: »

Didn't this forum have just that many years ago, but then this button was removed due to people abusing it? Or am I confusing this with another forum?

I don’t remember a Dislike button specifically, but we used to have a Lol button that people were using as a Dislike button and that’s why it was removed.

Danikat · April 25

I've been on forums with a dislike button and I've never found it helpful or informative.

Agree works because you can assume anyone who clicked it agrees completely with absolutely everything in the post, to the point where anything they said would just be duplication.

Dislike or disagree doesn't work like that. "Someone, somewhere doesn't like some or all of this" tells you nothing useful.

If I posted a suggestion and 5 people disliked it that didn't help me at all. They obviously thought there was some problem with it, but unless I knew what that was I couldn't do anything about it. Obviously I thought it was a good idea or I wouldn't have posted it, but part of the reason for putting any idea on a public forum is to get feedback on problems you didn't see, or how it could be better, or why it wouldn't work at all, and none of that can happen if the only response you get is "dislike".

(Also the vast majority of my posts which got dislike reactions were statements about my own opinions and preferences and then I don't care. An ESO equivalent would be I'd post something like "my templar is a khajiit and wears purple" and someone would disagree. Well I'm not wrong, that is a real character I have, and it doesn't affect me at all if they don't like my character, so the only 'benefit' to having that button available is they saved us both the trouble of writing a post which would be ignored, except we all know they wouldn't bother doing that anyway.)

DenverRalphy · April 25

Syldras wrote: »

Didn't this forum have just that many years ago, but then this button was removed due to people abusing it? Or am I confusing this with another forum?

It was a Disagree button. But yeah, it didn't last long.

Warhawke_80 · April 25

There is something decidedly draconian about wanting to shackle mods from doing their job ...

I like it as it is currently

As long as we are respectful we can have our opinions heard...if you act like jerk..then you will be shouting your opinion on some rando Reddit.