New Badge Idea: Willing to Sacrifice

Question

First post on meta, so go easy on me here . . .

My thinking is that I downvote a lot of answers that I don't think are good. Downvoting costs reputation. I love that DVing costs reputation b/c it keeps the trolls(Edit: poor word choice) at bay, but I also get really annoyed when I see a post with 2 answers, one of which is obviously incorrect, that both have a score of 0. I would prefer that the bad answer have a -1!

So I think a badge that marked you as having sacrificed some quantity of reputation would be cool. Perhaps:

• Willing to Sacrifice : Gave up 500 100 reputation to down vote poor answers
• Some name : Gave up 1500 300 rep to DV
• Some name : Gave up 5k 1k rep to DV

I know some people get annoyed at the concept of badges that advocate down voting, but I think that DVing is a critical part of SO, and that there are a ton of users who downvote but are not trolls - they are just trying to help keep the community organized

Edit: Perhaps 'trolls' was not the best choice of word. I am basically trying to point out that I like that the downvoting-costs-reputation is a check on the abilities of a user with a ton of reputation. I like that downvoting costs reputation, because it helps to prevent certain users from downvoting other answers that might be valid. Otherwise a user with 10k rep might hang around on new questions and attempt to downvote an answer that was correct in order to replace it with their own. (To be fair, the math is a bit off now. There is a chance that someone can downvote a valid answer on a new question, provide an equally valid answer, and receive a surplus in points because their answer was at the top of the list of answers and was therefore chosen as the accepted answer). So while I am recommending that we slightly encourage downvoting, I do not think it's a good idea to heavily encourage it by removing the reputation cost.

Also, obviously not all users go after all badges. Some badges fit your style and some don't. I simply think that there is already a small group of people who attempt to hide bad replies by downvoting them. I think this is a good service to SO, and those users could be rewarded with a badge that reflects this. Obviously etiquette would be to also mention why you are downvoting the post (I mean, there is a dialog box every time you downvote asking you to comment...).

Answer 1

I don't think encouraging down-voting is a good idea; but encouraging constructive down-voting definitly makes sense.

Perhaps if the badge took into consideration if comments are accompanying down-votes? Perhaps something more along the lines of...

Has down-voted and left a comment on 50 questions

Or - to "require" quality comments and not jargon - something along the lines of * deep breath *

Has down voted 50 questions/answers, leaving a comment with a score of 2 or more on each.

... so at least two other users have to back up your reasoning.

Answer 2

I love that DVing costs reputation b/c it keeps the trolls at bay
Trolling isn't a problem on SO, is it?

but I also get really annoyed when I see a post with 2 answers, one of which is obviously incorrect, that both have a score of 0. I would prefer that the bad answer have a -1!
Why won't you give the correct answer +1 instead?

Personally, I think that commenting explaining why answer is bad will help community a lot more than downvote. A lot, lot more. It will help 'answerer' to realize his mistake instead of alienating him for no apparent reason (the reason why answer is bad may not be obvious to everybody).

edit
Richard JP Le Guen has really summed up my philosophy about downvoting: "Reward the good; ignore the bad and only punish the terrible."

Answer 3

How about a Warns First (or Sheriff) badge for leaving a comment that gets one or more upvotes followed by a down vote 24+ hours later 50 or 100+ times?

I think down voting is great (eh..... wait, that didn't come out right), if it's constructive, and the main way for down voting to be constructive is if it's accompanied by a comment.

The most positive way of doing it, that maximally coddles the neurotically sheltered and thin skinned (and people new to the site) is to leave a comment explaining the problem first, then later, only if the problem remains unfixed, to fire a down vote.

This allows posters to fix their problems and lean without getting sullied and traumatized by down votes. Only the unrepentant are brought to the down vote gallows.

Answer 4

We have a badge to encourage voting in general. I don't think we should encourage upvoting or downvoting. You should vote as you see fit.

Answer 5

If one really thinks that downvoting should be encouraged than it doesn't make sense to make every downvote cost 1 Rep. In that case they could simply remove the Rep cost.

That will increase the number of downvotes but it might produce a more hostile environment. It might reduce the number of newbies around who will get downvoted. Experts however might be encouraged when they are able to down vote stuffs they consider to be wrong without cost.

It think the more hostile environment would be worth the cost because at the end of the day the average quality matters more than quantity.