(Please keep in mind this is something I’ve written in regards to all of these various social platforms, not just kbin, mastodon, lemmy, etc)
Albeit, other platforms have failed their user base for various reasons. This article isn’t about that. This is about addressing other issues that encourage low effort or otherwise useless content. The vast landscape of social media platforms, there is a growing need to reevaluate and refine the user experience (UX) to address common issues that hinder genuine interaction and content discovery. By examining the shortcomings of existing practices and proposing innovative changes, we can create a more engaging and meaningful online environment.
Hiding Voting Metrics:
Voting metrics inadvertently lead to conformity and discourage users from expressing genuine opinions. Users should feel more comfortable sharing their thoughts and perspectives without fear of judgment or backlash.
Removing Emoji-Based Reactions:
The current practice of using emoji reactions as a means of interaction lacks depth and context. These reactions do not provide any insight into why a user liked, disliked, or loved a post… This change would promote more genuine interaction and create a space for nuanced conversations.
Discouraging Clout Chasing Behaviors:
Platforms can implement measures that limit the emphasis on popularity metrics. Introduce alternative ways to measure influence and impact (insightful comments, fostering discussions, valuable contributions). By shifting the focus from superficial metrics to meaningful engagement, platforms can create an environment that encourages authentic participation.
Promoting Content Quality and Relevance:
Hiding voting metrics and mitigating clout chasing behaviors allows platforms to prioritize quality and relevance. Engagement, interactions, relevance, and authenticity is used to determine the visibility of content. This approach ensures that valuable and meaningful content receives recognition, while reducing the emphasis on arbitrary popularity metrics.
Recognizing the Limitations of Memes:
While memes can be entertaining and lighthearted, they often lack the depth. Memes, while humorous, rarely foster in-depth discussions or promote the exchange of diverse perspectives. By highlighting the limitations of relying on meme-based content, platforms can encourage users to move beyond superficial engagement and embrace more substantive interactions.
This approach optimizes content organization by utilizing horizontal space before continuing vertically. This method ensures that users can browse through a larger number of posts allowing users to quickly scan and explore popular posts while maintaining a clear overview of the content available. Reorganizing the UX of platforms by adopting a mass display approach for content organization brings numerous benefits. It optimizes content visibility, promotes content diversity, and streamlines content organization. By presenting the most interacted-with content side-by-side (instead of most popular on top) and utilizing horizontal space effectively, platforms create a dynamic and engaging user experience.
This reimagined platform design enhances content discoverability, improves user engagement, and fosters a thriving online community that values quality and relevance.
There are tons of other aspects of this to discuss but I won’t bother diving into them (how new and unpopular posts receive recognition, front page content dying off due to less interaction based on time decay, etc etc)
The exact opposite happened on youtube. Once they hid the downvotes we were unable to recognize relevant content from clickbait.
The same for where people are asking for help or advice, downvotes and upvotes can help crowdsource accurate and useful answers much better. Otherwise you can end up sifting through tens of answers (sometimes hundreds) and not knowing how accurate those answers could be. At least with up/downvotes there can be some semblence of consensus on what’s useful and what’s not. It also helps prevent a bajillion replies to helpful comments that are nothing more than +1 or “this!”.
You get the most popular answer. No guarantee of the answer being right or accurate.
Removing that and you get answer roulette.
So go to the next upvoted answer. There’s only so many comedians in the world.
There’s a difference between sifting through 10 comments and 1000 comments.
This is another great feature that I will add to my list of suggestions. Thank you. You are absolutely right in that “Post Has Been Answered” feature is absolutely necessary for these types of platforms. Ironically enough, your comment has the most downvotes while being the correct answer to the problem.
I’ve also mentioned this in numerous threads, but downvotes also are extremely useful against bigotry. When bigoted comments can’t or won’t be removed (or removed quickly enough), downvotes are reassuring. It sucks to see bigoted comments being expressed and the only thing that can make it better is seeing that the comments are not accepted.
I’ve noticed in cases where downvoting is not available that such comments are just not upvoted, which kind-of does the same thing… although maybe not in the reassuring way that a downvote would.
The other reassuring-type approach I’ve seen is replies challenging the individual’s negative comment getting showered in upvotes
https://kbin.social/u/CoderKat
https://kbin.social/u/@[email protected]
I proposed that the metrics (upvote/downvote) are hidden, not gone. Users would still have the ability to vote, the point is to avoid new users who are joining the discussion and instantly forming their opinions before actually engaging with the content. Be it full of love or full of hate, it’s crucial to any community to uphold the principles of free speech.
Otherwise, you delve into becoming an echo chamber, regardless of if the ideas within that chamber are good or bad…
While downvoting can certainly provide a sense of validation and solidarity, it’s important to remember that it is just one aspect of a larger ecosystem. Curating your own feed empowers individuals to shape their online experiences by blocking or reporting accounts that promote harmful or offensive content. While hate speech can be undesirable or harmful, it is indeed protected under the umbrella of free speech.
You are right that challenging the distasteful opinion happens often. However, seeking validation on the challenge is where we disagree. Encouraging critical thinking and engaging in respectful and thoughtful discussions are essential practices in fostering a healthier online discourse. Challenging negative comments with well-articulated counterarguments and promoting constructive dialogue is a much more powerful way to combat bigotry and promote understanding, especially when compared to an “us vs them” mindset.
By challenging these comments and promoting critical thinking, we can collectively create an environment that values empathy, inclusivity, and the exchange of diverse perspectives.
Thank you both for sharing your thoughts.
I watch tons of diverse YouTube channels, I’d argue that the voting metrics are actually useless to determine clickbait or not. Instead, a system like rep or karma would be more suited. There’s also the ability to block an entire channel from your feed… How is relying on anonymous votes actually assisting in the avoidance of clickbait? You have zero context as to why a video is liked or disliked. It would be foolish to say “you should just be able to tell”, because I get it, sometimes you really can’t. But thankfully, SponsorBlock addon/extension exists and many users utilize it to skip directly to the good part of a video…
When youtube published the dislike counter it was common knowledge that 3% was the threshold for good content, while 1% was excellent and 30% was garbage.