The main thing I like about the ‘only downvotes’ option is that it’s kind of funny and pointless. This suits my aesthetic. I could imagine trying it out for a few weeks to see what happens / to call the bluff of the part of my primate brain that thinks social disapproval from strangers is an x-risk. :)
The main thing I like about the ‘only downvotes’ option is that it’s kind of funny and pointless.
I feel the same about the ‘only upvotes’ option. Applying the reversal test, imagine that most people treat the ‘only downvotes’ option seriously and suggest that it should be the default, since it agrees with the usual norms of in-person conversation. Downvotes could even measure popularity if there was enough volume, in the meantime the sum of absolute values of upvotes and downvotes can play that role.
Applying the reversal test, imagine that most people treat the ‘only downvotes’ option seriously and suggest that it should be the default, since it agrees with the usual norms of in-person conversation.
The usual conversation norms are “only say positive things, unless you think it’s really important to give negative feedback.” This maps to “people receive messages of positive reinforcement, generally don’t receive messages of significant negative reinforcement unless it’s really important, and therefore treat all negative reinforcement as really important.”
One could argue that (in both regular conversation and also lesswrong) the role should be reversed, wherein people usually only give positive reinforcement if it’s really important. But, that’d be a change from the conversational status quo, not in agreement with it.
The reversal test is with respect to the norm, not with respect to ways of handling a fixed norm. So imagine that the norm is the opposite, and see what will happen. People will invent weird things like gaging popularity based on number of downvotes, or sum of absolute values of upvotes and downvotes, when there are not enough downvotes. This will work about as well as what happens with the present norm. In that context, the option of “only upvotes” looks funny and pointless, but we can see that it actually isn’t, because we can look from the point of view of both possible norms.
When an argument goes through in the world of the opposite status quo, we can transport it to our world. In this case, we obtain the argument that “only downvotes” is not particularly funny and pointless, instead it’s about as serviceable (or about as funny and pointless) as “only upvotes”, and both are not very good.
The main thing I like about the ‘only downvotes’ option is that it’s kind of funny and pointless. This suits my aesthetic. I could imagine trying it out for a few weeks to see what happens / to call the bluff of the part of my primate brain that thinks social disapproval from strangers is an x-risk. :)
I feel the same about the ‘only upvotes’ option. Applying the reversal test, imagine that most people treat the ‘only downvotes’ option seriously and suggest that it should be the default, since it agrees with the usual norms of in-person conversation. Downvotes could even measure popularity if there was enough volume, in the meantime the sum of absolute values of upvotes and downvotes can play that role.
I’m not sure I parse this comment.
The usual conversation norms are “only say positive things, unless you think it’s really important to give negative feedback.” This maps to “people receive messages of positive reinforcement, generally don’t receive messages of significant negative reinforcement unless it’s really important, and therefore treat all negative reinforcement as really important.”
One could argue that (in both regular conversation and also lesswrong) the role should be reversed, wherein people usually only give positive reinforcement if it’s really important. But, that’d be a change from the conversational status quo, not in agreement with it.
The reversal test is with respect to the norm, not with respect to ways of handling a fixed norm. So imagine that the norm is the opposite, and see what will happen. People will invent weird things like gaging popularity based on number of downvotes, or sum of absolute values of upvotes and downvotes, when there are not enough downvotes. This will work about as well as what happens with the present norm. In that context, the option of “only upvotes” looks funny and pointless, but we can see that it actually isn’t, because we can look from the point of view of both possible norms.
When an argument goes through in the world of the opposite status quo, we can transport it to our world. In this case, we obtain the argument that “only downvotes” is not particularly funny and pointless, instead it’s about as serviceable (or about as funny and pointless) as “only upvotes”, and both are not very good.