There are 33,400 members of this site. Under the "down arrow" rule, 0.03% of the membership can gag the other 99.97% by joining together to put 10 down votes on any post they like. Do it quick enough and it will vanish before it gets a chance to pick up countervailing "hearts".
Does that make sense? More to the point, how does it fit with the idea of the site allowing a free exchange of views?
The greatest contributions to a discussion often do not come from repetitions of widely held views but from the lone voice presenting a view that has been overlooked, that may or may not be popular.
Isn't allowing 10 votes to silence an opinion the same as saying the church war right and Galileo was wrong, because he was one voice and more than 10 bishops disagreed with him? Or that the anti-Semitic "100 Authors against Einstein" proved that Einstein was wrong and the 100 right, just because they out-numbered him?  Einstein's retort was that if he were wrong, then it would only need one person to prove it.
It's a wonder that none of the stock sites have taken advantage of this to conceal criticism of their action.
Shouldn't the "disappeared ones" be brought back from oblivion? If you dislike someone I believe there is still the "ignore" option available.

Well stated BT

Agreed. But, the simplest thing to do first perhaps may be to let posts remain visible even if they gather a net -10 votes. This will ensure that posts dont get missed eventhough a higher number of people may disagree with the poster.

Yes, that would address it.

But you can open the comment and add a heart and if it will be from 10 to 9, the comment appears again. Plus all comments can be opened even if hidden. By the way, not disagreeing with the OP.

The plus and minus thing serves no useful function.

There is far too much rude and aggressive and, I suspect, sometimes drunken posting here. That's the biggest issue and it is why many people have stopped writing.

The second biggest issue is the constant negativity and conspiracy minded speculation. The upshot is a self selected group of people who increasingly mostly express the same depressed group opinions about almost any subject.

 I'd agree that automatically hiding posts because they get voted down seems unnecessary... but perhaps some people prefer it that way, I don't know.

However, you can change that setting in your profile - it allows the options of "Hide", "Grey Out" and "Nothing", as I recall - so perhaps if Leaf would just change the default to "Nothing" rather than "Hide", then anyone who really feels they would prefer not to see negatived posts could choose for themselves.

Posts get hidden, not deleted. A person can choose to read any post, even if they have put someone on ignore. There really isnt any censorship going on. In fact most of the time if i see a post hidden with so many votes, i have to read it to see what the big deal is. Changing the icons to agree or disagree would be ok tho.


All i have to do is say the word symbiostock and the gang will vote me down in a new york minute. The arrow and heart are supposed to mean agree and disagree, but we all know its used for bullying. There will always be people who turn what starts out as one thing into something negative and ugly. That doesnt mean the idea should be scrapped. People can recognize when that is happening, the best thing to do is ignore the bullies.


As far as Lisa leaving because of negative votes, there have been posts by Ember Mike and JoAnn and others that sum up my feelings exactly. EVERYONE needs money to pay bills, not just Lisa. I have no stake in the fotolia/dpc thing...i left there a long time ago. But i was hoping that shooting stock would help supplement my income in a few years when "retirement" rolls around. Agencies getting away with schemes like this hurts everyone, not just Lisa's income.


I hope lisa comes back, she is a valuable member of the community. I think this is the first time in almost 10 years i have disagreed with her. I still love you, tho, Lisa. :-)

I used the word "disappear" advisedly. And I gather they are actually invisible if you are not logged in. It does cause problems in following the flow of a discussion someone responds to something that isn't immediately apparent.
I'm not too bothered about ups and downs, though there is bullying. I think it's a bit sad that some people can post anything and get negative votes (and others get positive ones just as easily) but it's not important.
I wasn't aware that the greying-out could be switched on and off by users and if I didn't know I doubt if many others do.
The words "Agree" and "Disagree" might be more friendly than down arrows and hearts, if the system is to be retained

As I have already written in other threads I don't like the arrow/heart system.
We are not at school where we need grades�
The forum is not a playground where we have to show how much we are popular��
Why don't make "the best post of the year" contest and give a lollypop to the winner?!!��   

I think that a simple system with stars is better.
from 0 to 5 stars� (Camera Raw users know that�[I mean stars])
- you are indifferent: 0 star
- you like a lot: 5 stars
- And everything in the middle.
- you don't like� the usual behavior is to give 1 star (monostar)
The number of received stars for a post is the average of the given stars by all the users having given stars.

In this way we will avoid to offend the most sensitive/susceptible people or to put on a pedestal the greatest "heart receivers" (yes, when you receive 30 hearts for one of you posts you feel importants, confess it!), and everybody will be happy.

Why is so hard to show both up and down votes? I see that on plenty of forums.

With all due respect. If you say 'poop' you'll get 10 hearts,

Don't tempt me.

Why is so hard to show both up and down votes? I see that on plenty of forums.

I've no idea but if Tyler thinks it might cause problems I would accept his judgement. He's the one juggling the code.