I’m not always the sharpest knife in the drawer, but this time, I really outdumbed myself.
For weeks now, I’ve been increasingly concerned about the tone of the site. I have spent an inordinate amount of time addressing this issue, mostly behind the scenes, with a combination of engineering efforts and diplomacy.
Anecdotally, we might guess where all the “Dislikes” are coming from, but I’ve got the data. (As a courtesy, I have blurred out the actual names, since Lord knows there is a lack of civilized decorum in present society). One of these chaps is dead, so no more worries there, but it looks like some folks spend an awfully lot of time bashing that downvote button. Thousands upon thousands of dislikes.
As with all things in the universe, however, the good tends to outweigh the bad, and whereas the most industrious haters have doled out a few thousand dislikes, the forces of positivity have upvoted deep into the six figures. I’m actually proud to be so far down this list, since others have handily bested me.
In any case, I struggled what to do with the downvoters. Ban them? Delete their accounts? Delete all their past downvotes? Write to them?
No, no, I’ve already spent too much energy on this topic. Did you know one clown created hundreds and hundreds of fake accounts just so he could downvote one particular Sloper? Do you people live in a basement or something? Unattached, right? Am I close? Thought so.
In any case, I finally hit upon the way-too-obvious answer. Get rid of downvoting! Poof! It’s gone! What’s my solution to downvoting? Making it impossible! In its place is an icon that lets you search the comments database instead, which I think is a better use of your mouse click.
So that’s it, folks. No more downvoting into oblivion. No more making multiple accounts while your Hot Pockets heat up in the microwave. With a nation saturated in ogre-induced negativity, my site will no longer take part. You have no choice but to Like a comment or simply do nothing at all.
