Add "Unkind" option #663
Add "Unkind" option #663
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Add a new option "Unkind" when down-voting comments. As brought up here: https://lobste.rs/s/xnjo8g/add_downvote_reason_unkind Note: I used "me-too" as a search term to see if there are any specific tests for this, and the me-too case didn't see to have any. So, no tests here but happy to add some. Also, wondering if this requires modifications here? https://github.com/lobsters/lobsters/blob/d2963d4b80b47ac9f34bda65154a37cdde0a2174/app/controllers/mod_controller.rb#L33
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My 2¢ on this is that this may not actually be that useful. You can already downvote comments that are excessively hostile ("troll"). I think the key issue is tracking long-term consistently abrasive people. Everyone is a bit too abrasive sometimes, and that's kind of okay. The problem is usually a small minority who are abrasive a lot of the time. Also see my comments here:
So I would prefer a different patch which adds a new "unkind" flag mechanism. This wouldn't -1 a post, just track it so a user's profile page can show something like I know this is a bit more work, but IMHO it's also much more useful. |
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This seems to have quite a lot of support. One reason I think it should be a -1 is that we should rank objectively true yet unkind posts below objectively true posts that contain less toxicity. Avoiding a special case for this flavor of community-degrading content keeps the system easier to maintain and improve over time. |
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I ran out of review time this morning, will try to make time an evening this week. |
I agree with this. I'm not in favour of adding a special flag for unkind comments that avoids downranking the comment. I looked back through the meta posts to see what the next most highly ranked thread was. It was the passing the torch post from jcs over a year ago. Looking at the comment threads on the unkind downvote reason post, more people were in favour of adding this flag than against it, at roughly a 2:1 or 3:1 ratio. I do like the idea of showing a user their aggregate comment history and downvote percentages, possibly alongside the quartiles of active Lobsters commenters so you have some context to put the numbers in. However I don't think this needs to block this much smaller PR. |
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For what it's worth, I think that the value of a post is denoted just as much by how it affects people in as well as from whether something is true or not as well. Like your example, if there were two posts with similar true content, I'd hope that the person who isn't calling people "idiots" or being otherwise abusive would have better karma. Just adding my agreement, and I'd be totes happy to change it in whichever direction makes the most sense to y'all, though 💟 |
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@Carpetsmoker I think that "troll" is different than "unkind". Trolls are generally intending to aggro someone, while people may be "unkind" and not "trolling". I think that if we want "troll" to account for this, then maybe "troll" is a poor choice of words, but I can also see enough semantic difference that it may be valuable to separate the two? 🤷♀ |
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Meow? 😸 |
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@Carpetsmoker @arp242 @danielcompton Hey! Where is this at? |
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I think this would be a great addition to Lobsters, I’d love to see it added. |
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FWIW I think it'll just lead to abuse and damage the community, but I've covered that elsewhere. |
In the intervening time since filing, have we made any progress on the definition of the "unkind" flag? With that in hand it'd probably be a lot easier to carry it into a EDIT: To help this get better attention and input, created Lobsters survey. |
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Some kind of bug occurred - this isn't appearing. It's in |
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Hmm, this is curious. For others following along, this should be injected into the JS by: lobsters/app/assets/javascripts/application.js.erb Lines 12 to 13 in a6cd219 |
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...huh, this has gone live. First flag of a comment for being unkind happened at 2019-12-27 14:42:18. I don't know what would've unstuck this on that day, the code changes I merged + pushed were minor and unrelated. Maybe the 'bundle update' that would've gone with 57e0010 bounced unicorn and the constant wasn't refreshed? I don't like not understanding this. |
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I wonder what happened... Maybe it was a caching thing? 🤔 |
Add a new option "Unkind" when down-voting comments.
As brought up here: https://lobste.rs/s/xnjo8g/add_downvote_reason_unkind
As mentioned in https://lobste.rs/s/xnjo8g/add_downvote_reason_unkind#c_0lzrxb, this is maybe related to #376?
Does the phrasing need to be 100% figured out before any merging? The intent - which seems generally clear - seems important, and if it's being stored as a single character then we can easily adjust language as necessary later?
Note: I used "me-too" as a search term to see if there are any specific tests for this, and the me-too case didn't seem to have any. So, no tests here but happy to add some if people have ideas for what is testable here!
Also, I'm wondering if this requires consideration here?
lobsters/app/controllers/mod_controller.rb
Line 33 in d2963d4