Meta: Upvotes and downvotes
As I mentioned previously (LINK), I am making small tweaks to the site here and there. Next up is a discussion with my tech guy about installing upvotes and downvotes. So I ask for your help with the direction of this aspect of the website.
Above is the standard Reddit upvote/downvote button. The orange-highlighted arrow reflects the user’s individual vote, and the numeric total in the middle represents the net vote total. In this example, the user upvoted the comment/post and it currently has two more upvotes than downvotes. This is a spare but clean approach.
The image above is a screenshot from MGoBlog. As you can see, the upvote arrow and downvote arrow are both visible, as are the totals for each. If this post were upvoted 10 times and downvoted 9 times, those totals would be visible rather than a simple -1 like the Reddit example above. Add in the join date and the “MGoPoints” – which reflect the user’s entire membership career – and it’s a much more complex and comprehensive representation of the user’s posting history.
Rather than an upvote/downvote button, a thumbs up or thumbs down button could be used. If you’re a Facebook user and ever wanted an “Unlike” button to go along with the “Like” button, maybe we could make this happen.
The images above represent the voting process on 247 Sports. It’s a simple upvote or downvote selection, and the vote total is revealed only after the user votes. That presumably prevents “groupthink” and people jumping on the bandwagon if they see something getting a ton of upvotes or downvotes.
What are your thoughts? Do you like any of these ideas better than others? Do you like having your posting history (sign-up date, number of posts, etc.) connected to your name and avatar?
