Forum Reactions

[Harvey Gomez]

Is it just me or are there others that are bothered by the choice of reactions to posts on these Forums?

We have the choice of "Like" but not "Dislike."

"Love" but not "Hate."

"Haha" but not "BooHoo."

"Agree" but not "Disagree." Instead we're given "Respectfully Disagree" which in my limited experience here there are a number of folks that are far from 'respectful' with their disagreements. So why not just offer "Disagree" and let the reader decided if respect is present? Or what about "Disrespectfully Agree?" I would love to have that option as there have been a number of posts that I agree with in part but its not respectfully. Just like there are posts that I disagree with that are also not respectful. Seems wrong that we're forced to lie when choosing a reaction by suggesting that our disagreement is respectful. Why not just be honest and say "Disagree" or "Dislike?"

And don't think I forgot about "Helpful." Many, many post are, in fact, helpful. But many, many other posts are not. So why not offer the option of "Not Helpful" or "Unhelpful?"

Given my recent experience with Paradox on these Forums I think these changes should not only be considered but implemented. I think it would go a LONG way to clearing up any confusion that readers might have with feedback from others and prevent the kind of problems that I have had to deal with in recent days. (Per the Forum rules I am not allowed to state specifically what those problems are lest someone do something that is beyond unnecessary and [CENSORED].)

Thank you for your consideration.

 

[grommile]

Negative ratings are themselves a harassment tool. (So is one of the positive ratings we have, for that matter, but ehhh.)

Also, individual game forums are the wrong venue for threads about the forum as a whole

 

[Ikael]

Generally talking, I find negative votes (or "disagreements" or "hate reactions" or "whatever") to be of very little use for anything other than dogpiling.

I don't think that it helps too much at all since most people are always more prone to voice disagreement and complaints than agreement. The term "loud minority" tends to apply. I find it much better to go and explain and elaborate what I disagree with, especially on videogames forums, which are often prone to take "sides" on every little issue, and thus, negative votes are often used to express "I am against this side of the discussion" or "in favor of that" rather than anything constructive (let it be "I like strong espionage operations" or "I play wide" or whatever).

And as a user, whenever I give that type of negative feedback I feel like this meme:

 

[Borgratz]

The reason you can't disrespectfully disagree is because that's not allowed on this forum.
If there was a way to objectively check for respect in our posts, we also couldn't post a lot of the stuff we are posting, but there isn't. So checking our texts is done by humans (reports and moderators) instead.


The reason there is no "respectful haha" is that with positive reactions the respect is implied.

 

[DeanTheDull]

Is it just me or are there others that are bothered by the choice of reactions to posts on these Forums?

We have the choice of "Like" but not "Dislike."

"Love" but not "Hate."

"Haha" but not "BooHoo."

"Agree" but not "Disagree." Instead we're given "Respectfully Disagree" which in my limited experience here there are a number of folks that are far from 'respectful' with their disagreements. So why not just offer "Disagree" and let the reader decided if respect is present? Or what about "Disrespectfully Agree?" I would love to have that option as there have been a number of posts that I agree with in part but its not respectfully. Just like there are posts that I disagree with that are also not respectful. Seems wrong that we're forced to lie when choosing a reaction by suggesting that our disagreement is respectful. Why not just be honest and say "Disagree" or "Dislike?"

And don't think I forgot about "Helpful." Many, many post are, in fact, helpful. But many, many other posts are not. So why not offer the option of "Not Helpful" or "Unhelpful?"

Given my recent experience with Paradox on these Forums I think these changes should not only be considered but implemented. I think it would go a LONG way to clearing up any confusion that readers might have with feedback from others and prevent the kind of problems that I have had to deal with in recent days. (Per the Forum rules I am not allowed to state specifically what those problems are lest someone do something that is beyond unnecessary and [CENSORED].)

Thank you for your consideration.

Respectfully disagree. And if you'd like to read disrespect into that, feel free.

 

[DeanTheDull]

Negative ratings are themselves a harassment tool. (So is one of the positive ratings we have, for that matter, but ehhh.)

Also, individual game forums are the wrong venue for threads about the forum as a whole

Ah, but if he posted in a forum he knows no one casually hangs out in, he wouldn't be offended when one of his threads is ignored.

 

[Quinzal]

As much as I hate to say it, I feel like this is a non-issue.

Reactions are there for when you want to express a simple reaction without spamming up the replies of the post.

Anything more complex than "This is informative!" "I agree!" "I don't agree." "This is funny!" "I love this!" and the coveted "Cool!" should warrant a reply, not just a reaction.

In fact, if anything, the "Respectfully Disagree" stands on uneven ground, as disagreeing with something should prompt you to say why.

The reason there is no "respectful haha" is that with positive reactions the respect is implied.

Well, there has been at least one time where the "Haha" was used to laugh *at* a point I was making, which was made clear by the individual's next reply.

Things can be implied till the Tiyanki come home, but that won't stop humanity from wielding it as a tool of harassment.

 

[Derp Throat]

What happened to the angry reaction?

 

[A2ch0n]

I would like to see some special reactons like "sad" or something to complement the existing ones. But i thing we don't need more options in case of agree or disagree. What i really would sometimes prefer is to encourage others to have a real discussion. I do much more prefer to answer a post and say "i disagree, BUT" to explain why i'm against or in favor of a post. The behaviour of just "voting something down" isn't the right way in the first place.

Sure repeatedly the same arguement without thinking about whats said is a reason to use a vote reaction over a answer to bring a discussion to an end. But opinion posts or suggestions are a topic to discuss. Dev posts are sometimes a thing for me to use reactions because it helps to get an overview about the (of course only forum active minority) playerbase.

In any case should reactions never help to insult or harrass others and thats is the main reason our reactions are limited. If you're opinion differs from a given statement and is not depicted in a reaction, make a post and share your opinion. The worst thing that could happen is a discussion that give you a different point of view.

 

[Imperator Knoedel]

Corporate toxic positivity.

 

[grommile]

Corporate toxic positivity.

Negative feedback is most useful when it consists of words that can be engaged with.

 

[Borgratz]

Well, there has been at least one time where the "Haha" was used to laugh *at* a point I was making, which was made clear by the individual's next reply.

Things can be implied till the Tiyanki come home, but that won't stop humanity from wielding it as a tool of harassment.

right, I meant "are supposed to always be respectful", but you are right, toxic people tend to find ways to abuse loopholes like that.
People spamming "good game!" emotes in Hearthstone, when they actually mean "you have already lost, stop trying!" comes to mind.

 

[ASGeek2012]

I think this is more appropriate for the "Forum Help / Issues / Rules" forum rather than Stellaris (disclaimer: I am not a mod, just a helpful forum user).

 

[Kim the Mindcaster]

I want to be sad at these forums sometimes but that's all I'm missing

 

[InvisibleBison]

In fact, if anything, the "Respectfully Disagree" stands on uneven ground, as disagreeing with something should prompt you to say why.

Not necessarily. If someone else has already made a post pointing out the same issues you have with a post, I think it's better to just agree with them rather than repeat what they said.

 

[StellarXe]

I want to be sad at these forums sometimes but that's all I'm missing

yeah something like sad, dissapointed, frustrated like that

 

[ZomgK3tchup]

I was around when they changed disagree to respectfully disagree.

Shockingly, people used to (and still do) use negative reactions to harass people they disagree with. They changed disagree to respectfully disagree to minimize people using the rating for obnoxious purposes.

Making the negative reaction sound silly is just a way to minimize the obnoxiousness of somebody going through every post you’ve ever made and spam-rating disagree.

Broadly, social media platforms rarely have as many negative ratings as they do positive ratings because the purpose of these platforms is to keep people active and engaged. If you receive a positive reaction, you’re more likely to keep posting whereas if you receive a flood of negative reactions, you’re less likely to stick around. This forum doesn’t rely on thousands of people sticking around (on the contrary, we likely cost Paradox money), but the same principle applies: more people is better than less people and that means more ways to engage them than deter them.

 

[HFY]

In some other places where I post, which have Like (and/or other positive reactions) but no negative reactions, they have a policy reason for it:

Like reactions cut down on low-content "Me too!" type posts.​

Disagreement is always more nuanced than simple agreement -- there's always a reason why -- so people are expected to post what they disagree about, and why.

Then, if you are neither of those posters, you can Like (or Agree or whatever) the disagreement post. Or if that person is also wrong, you can correct both of them, again by posting your thoughts and your reason why.

 

[CocoCincinnati]

Back in my day, if we wanted to react to something somebody said, we had to write a letter and mail it to them. And walking to the mailbox was uphill both ways in the snow. And we had to buy a stamp which meant one less game of Galaga.

 

[Silvanel]

When I first came to this forum I was astonished by the amount of reactions we can use, including the "Disagree" button. I mean, some forums dont allow reactions at all... And "Disagree" (respectfully or otherwise) is enough to signal to poster that he is "wrong" somehow.