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- To all of you fellow Duolingo…
To all of you fellow Duolingo users:
This was two years ago:
https://www.duolingo.com/comment/10171371
And this was an hour ago:
https://www.duolingo.com/comment/24412084
(Although the comments are good on the second, the downvote button has clearly been overused) How can there be such a difference? What happened to the kind, loving Duolingo community that was on Duolingo a couple of years ago? Everything is much colder, the downvote button is abused, and it just seems less friendly. Where are the kind, warm, welcoming people?
The Downvote Button:
I believe we all have different views on the downvote button. Some people use it if they disagree with something, but that is not the original purpose. The downvote button should be used when a post or comment violates Duolingo's Guidelines. It is being abused as of late, unlike a couple of years ago.
What we can do to be kind:
We can be warm kind and friendly to others, and welcome users nicely. We can try to make a great Duolingo community that represents the spirit of Duolingo in a good way!
Thanks for reading my post, everybody! I hope you all have a fantastic day!
(I apologize for my poorly structured thoughts. Here is another good post by AlexisLinguist: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/6270192)
28 Comments
Great post! :) I was trying to be positive while giving advice in that last post an hour ago.
I noticed that! I wasn't talking about the comments in that post, I was just trying use it to show that the downvote button is being abused.
1989
I'd hazard the main reason the first post was down-voted is that it was just called 'Yulissa', which gave no indication of what it was about. I've noticed a lot of people will vote down any posts that do not have readily-intelligible titles as probable spam without opening them. Much as I don't endorse this practice, it can easily be remedied by giving posts meaningful and descriptive titles.
I cannot help but lament that all those positive comments and lingots given in your example post from two years ago did not appear to make any practical difference, as the user never made it past level 3...
I've noticed a lot of people will vote down any posts that do not have readily-intelligible titles as probable spam without opening them.
Duolingo should make it so you can't upvote or downvote a post without opening the post first. That would prevent this from happening.
I cannot help but lament that all those positive comments and lingots given in your example post from two years ago did not appear to make any practical difference, as the user never made it past level 3...
Maybe they forgot about Duolingo, or something like that. It doesn't explain how the user has 52 followers, though...
- 1989
Duolingo should make it so you can't upvote or downvote a post without opening the post first. That would prevent this from happening.
That is a genuinely good idea.
It doesn't explain how the user has 52 followers, though...
Probably because the post got so many up-votes! Some people (particularly new/young users) add followers quite indiscriminately, although this might be less the case now after the demise of streams.
I like the idea of how you can't upvote or downvote without opening the post. I feel like that could help cut down some of the unnecessary downvoting. The downvote should be only used for posts violating the guidelines. If you disagree, don't downvote, but instead, in a polite and respectful way, comment why you disagree. I also think that the idea of an introductory forum is a good idea. That way, you can subscribe if you want to help newbys/are one and unsubscribe if you don't want to see posts like Hi or Username. Also, maybe there should be a thing that pops up when you first join DL/open the Discussions page and says Hi, welcome to DL! etc. and has links to the guidelines and helpful Stickied posts.
Also, maybe there should be a thing that pops up when you first join DL/open the Discussions page and says Hi, welcome to DL! etc. and has links to the guidelines and helpful Stickied posts.
That's a great idea! I totally agree.
Thanks. I know that personally it would have helped me a lot when I was a new user. Instead it took a lot of watching and learning in the forums for me to get down the etiquette. It also helped that I didn't post or comment at all until I'd be using the website for more than a year. :) I learned from others' mistakes, but I just think that it would be so helpful to have something that would enable you to avoid all that in the first place.
- 1263
I would add that the 'Yulissa' post did receive decent, helpful responses on how to get started with the forums.
The downvotes may have made the post not show up on the forums (there are probably a hundred of these a day, conservatively), but the post itself was not removed. So the user received helpful info and the forums seem to have retained relevant posts.
Perhaps Duolingo can add an "Introductions" forum if people badly want it. That way the rest of us uninterested in "Hi!" posts can skip subscribing to them and whoever does can still access them.
Perhaps Duolingo can add an "Introductions" forum if people badly want it. That way the rest of us uninterested in "Hi!" posts can skip subscribing to them and whoever does can still access them.
Man, I wish Duolingo had a feedback/suggestion box option, because I would love to see this happen. There's a bug report form, although that is, unsurprisingly, only for reporting bugs. Apparently the only other way to give feedback is via the forums. Please make this happen!
- 1989
I think this is unlikely to happen. Staff would be overwhelmed by the number of suggestions, many of them inevitably low-quality. At least in the forums, good suggestions can be up-voted, which staff supposedly notice (although evidence of this is scarce).
Why don't you try making a post suggesting introductions? Many other websites have just such a section. I'd certainly up-vote it.
Why don't I make such a post? Because it wasn't my idea.
But I see your point about abuse of the suggestion box; unfortunately I have no solution for it. :/
- 1989
Because it wasn't my idea.
There is, to my knowledge, no intellectual copyright law covering suggestions to improve Duolingo...
I would beg to disagree with you. The -9 votes makes me suspicious of votebombing. You could argue that many people were reading the post and decided to downvote it, in a very short period.
I think one person votebombed the post with -10 votes. I can't prove it, that's what it looks like to me.
- 1989
-9 can easily happen naturally at popular times; posts are only hidden when the discussion page is refreshed, and most people don't refresh it very often.
Had it been -20, then I'd be more inclined to agree with you.
Besides, there is no motive for votebombing; this was a very unexciting, uncontroversial post from an otherwise-unknown new user. Why on earth would anyone bother making ten new accounts to down-vote it?
It was at -11, I believe. But now it is at -9.
Edit: It's at -11, again. Probably the people who are downvoting this post are downvoting that one.
- 1989
Natural forum dynamics are still much more plausible, in the absence of any other evidence and the apparent lack of motive.
Although I agree that -9 can happen, I disagree that it would be necessary to make new accounts to votebomb a post by a new user. Old accounts would suffice, created when someone had some motivation more compelling than downvoting a new user.
Oh my gosh! This is awful! QUIT ABUSING THE DOWNVOTE BUTTON, PEOPLE!!!
- 1377
They should just get rid of the downvote button it only causes drama it has no place on discussion forums.
I did my part to make duolingo a better place: I upvoted your discussion and the discussion you showed in your post that was an hour ago.
i guess people who down voted felt guilty and either up voted or un-down voted because i only saw on down vote.
wow. Im really disappointed in people now. :( How could people be so mean? That person didn't say anything objectionable he just said, "hey im new". I guess people were feeling really mean yesterday.
People seem to be downvoting a lot of posts lately, regardless of their content. XP contests and introduction posts seem to be the worst victims of this.
yeah. Its seems that on the internet people always want to show the worst sides of themselves...
