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AnnaSalamon comments on On Comments, Voting, and Karma - Part I - Less Wrong
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I don't think there's enough downvoting going on - in particular, comments of such low quality that I would not wish them to insult the eyes of new users judging us, are not successfully voted down to -4 and hidden. It seems we're wandering into a norm where 0 is insult enough, -1 is terrible, -4 is hardly imaginable.
Those of you who are not familiar with the literature on online communities should bear in mind that online communities die primarily as a result of failing to solve the problem of quality control, and that refusing to accept the unfortunate necessity of quality control is a primary reason. So there are broken windows and they attract hoodlums, and the higher-quality recruits encountering the community for the first time decide to go elsewhere. And this has happened over and over again since before the days of the Eternal September.
Here, the quality control is downvoting, but people are refusing to use it. It has turned into something awful, horrible, unspeakable, a punch in the nose that requires a full-blown court drama. No community can defend its quality standards in such a fashion.
Downvoting really should not be that awful. And so I hope that starting all comments out at 0 will encourage more downvoting, which will make a score of -1 seem less awful, which will encourage even more downvoting, and so LW will not go the way of so many other online communities that tried to be nice and refused to defend their quality standards.
IAWYC, and I'll start downvoting comments more. I've been hesitating because I'm reluctant to hurt peoples' feelings, to make participation a net downer instead of a net mood-lifter (because people are supposed to be more saddened by losses than they are boosted by gains), and to discourage participation from new users who might, if they hang around, long-term add to the community. But now that you point it out, yes, quality dilution is a bigger risk.
Is it worth trying to reduce the negative side-effects of downvoting that were making me hesitate, e.g. by placing signs everywhere that you should expect your comments to have an average score around zero and shouldn't be discouraged or feel you ought not participate if your comments are voted down, or by causing people to gain karma for comments even when those comments are not up-voted? I'm honestly not sure.
Part of the community's hesitation to down-vote may be caused by your posts on how we shouldn't be so afraid of cooperating and expressing approval. It might be worth clarifying how to be a warm, accepting community and have quality standards. I'm sure there are ways this can work, but I don't have a detailed picture of what they look like and how to help toward them.
Absolutely - that's one reason a lot of people are looking for a good 'about' page or FAQ that clearly explains things like voting and karma. But we need to decide definitively what voting is for before we can explain it to everyone.