Should Fediverse interfaces that have a "Like" button also have a "Dislike" button?

[evan@cosocial.ca]

@phaysis we don't have a spec for the `dislikes` collection! That's correct.

[andypiper@macaw.social]

@evan variety and optionality are what I'm here for. I don't need a dislike button on Mastodon, but I might want it in a different social context.

[po3mah@mastodon.social]

@evan Human reactions are rarely binary, so no.
If I understand a star correctly, it means 'you are seen/heard' and not 'like'.

[evan@cosocial.ca]

@po3mah

https://www.w3.org/TR/activitystreams-vocabulary/#dfn-like

[po3mah@mastodon.social]

@evan Thanks for the pointer, until now I never read the spec.. Good to know.
I guess I'm using it wrong then :)

[evan@cosocial.ca]

@po3mah NBD. It's definitely open to interpretation!

[po3mah@mastodon.social]

@evan actually, we need 4 of them:
like
like, but...
dislike
dislike, but...
:)

[evan@cosocial.ca]

@po3mah this guy gets it

[evan@cosocial.ca]

Thanks to everyone who replied.

I am a Yes, but. I think downvote/dislike buttons are a great distributed moderation tool. Many of the microaggressions (and not-so-micro aggressions) that make social networks difficult could be helped a lot by peer moderation.

The "but" is that it is hard to implement well, and hard to ensure that mobs don't silence important but unpopular voices.

[bipolaron@scholar.social]

@evan So I said "no" but I should have said "no, but".

I don't understand the purpose of there being a favorite button at all, there's no algorithm so number of likes and dislikes doesn't change anything.

So my "no, but" is that they shouldn't have a favorite button either. They should encourage people to boost things, since that's how the "algorithm" works here -- favoriting something doesn't help other people find it so it is a placebo that gets in the way of actually spreading cool stuff.

[johannab@cosocial.ca]

@evan I think there is a required level of common understanding needed to really have like/dislike, upvote/downvote, or agree/disagree be usable without being abused - it doesn't translate well across online sub-cultures without some careful UX thinking and knowing your user community.

It works on Ravelry, which uses "Agree/Disagree" but there are two essentials there that I have not seen anywhere else: /con't

[evan@cosocial.ca]

@bipolaron It's OK if you don't understand.

[cmsdengl@mas.to]

@evan You only need dislike to feed algorithms not people. Keep Mastodon people friendly.

[liilliil@mastodon.online]

@evan That's why you should consider the opinion of those you trust, not just anyone. Maybe

[quinn@social.circl.lu]

@evan @benbrown reddit is also terrible 😂

[evan@cosocial.ca]

@quinn @benbrown it's a lot better than if all those downvoted comments were visible.

[evan@cosocial.ca]

@liilliil sure.

[evan@cosocial.ca]

@cmsdengl 1) Fediverse, not Mastodon 2) the algorithm is as simple as "things that are highly downvoted should be hidden by default".

[owlyph@cosocial.ca]

@evan I see the appeal for distributed moderation but am unsure a dislike button could accomplish it. I recall Slashdot (though haven't used it in a long time) had descriptive words that could be "voted' on, which made filtering for certain qualities (e.g. looking for expertise) possible. I fear that a dislike button could lead to "downvoting" stuff without consideration and maybe diminish interaction. Liking adds a positive feeling but I don't want to put effort into disliking people's stuff.

[evan@cosocial.ca]

@owlyph I think the key use case is a popular post with a lot of comments. Many of the responses will be bad -- mansplaining, hostile, etc. Without a dislike button, the original poster or another commenter has to reply to the post, explaining for the umpteenth time why mansplaining is unacceptable (or whatever). This puts the conversation into a he-said-she-said mode, where the OP has to argue for why the behaviour is wrong.