That’s not really the question either. The question is “why do we have a downvote button/what do we hope it accomplishes?”
If your goal is to have an agree/disagree binary to sort all content, then power to you because that is how it is used. But a lot of people, not just myself, don’t want that.
I disagree with “that is how it will be used” because that is not the only way people use it. Self-moderation is more of a pro than agree/disagree is a con.
That’s not really the question either. The question is “why do we have a downvote button/what do we hope it accomplishes?”
If your goal is to have an agree/disagree binary to sort all content, then power to you because that is how it is used. But a lot of people, not just myself, don’t want that.
I disagree with “that is how it will be used” because that is not the only way people use it. Self-moderation is more of a pro than agree/disagree is a con.
Self moderation clearly isn’t working if you ask me. Otherwise we wouldn’t have mods in the first place.
I also didn’t say it was the exclusive usage but it’s certainly the dominant one.
I’m not sure how you draw that conclusion. It’s not either or, you have downvoting and mods working together
Let’s kind of refocus here because there are 3 things at play.
1: What do you think we need downvotes for, 2: do you think that’s how they’re being used, and 3: are there better tools to accomplish #1?
After that it’s an assessment of other potential cons.