Thumbs Up! Yay! Thumbs Down! Why?

[SEODinosaur]

Thumbs up on SEOmoz makes us as users happy. However when we get a thumbs down i think we deserve to know why... Otherwise how do figure out what the user disliked.

IMO anytime someone wants to leave a thumbs down they should also have to put a comment down explaining why.

[NakulGoyal]

Donnie, I think I agree, however shouldn't then this be also the case for Thumbs Up. Why did you like it or what specifically you liked ? But I guess you are essentially taking about transparency as in Facebook Likes (who did Thumbs Up and Who did the Thumbs Down). I think it's an interesting thought, but I am not sure where this could/would go if that was to happen.

Think about this - I have had some answers where I posted and got 1 thumbs up and 2 thumbs down. That tells me something is wrong. Maybe I am wrong. If you think about it, SEO is not an exact science....so everybody has inputs, they could both be right or they could both be wrong. So coming back to the "Thumbs Up" vs "Thumbs Down", do I want to know who did not like it ? Maybe...but it might be better if I don't. Coz if I do, then maybe it becomes personal. Knowing who liked it or not, might be good, but might bring negative energy into the community which is never productive in my opinion.

That's why there a Like button, but no "DisLike" button. Let me know what you think @Donnie.

[EGOL]

Some other forums allow comments for thumbs up and thumbs down - and show who left them.

I think that knowing who gives thumbs up is very important for credibility.  If spammers are giving the thumbs up then I know that I can ignore it.   If people who I respect are giving thumbs, I want to read why they agree or some additional detail that they add.  The comments left with thumbs up can be just as valuable as the post.

When people give thumbs down and add a comment it often makes recipients mad and generates argument.   I find that arguments can be some of the most entertaining and educational parts of a forum... but it's not the style here at SEOmoz.

[SEODinosaur]

Facebook is a place where people share everything or anything they feel like sharing and only their friends and friends of friends see it. Actually I have control over my Facebook Privacy settings.. I can control who sees my stuff.

SEOmoz is all web related/marketing and I have no control over who sees my posts.

You are correct, Facebook does not have a dislike button. However, SEOmoz does. If someone is going to give a thumbs down for something, how am I supposed to know what his/her thoughts where? How am I supposed to learn from my mistake or how are they supposed to learn that I am right.

[SEODinosaur]

I agree. Im on forums all day and I learn and teach the hard way(with argument). But at least I learn. This is business and in business we put feelings aside and nail the head with the biggest baddes hammer we can find. We are protecting our image/reputation/business, but at the same time we are learning how to improve our image/reputation/business.

I feel that if someone has to write why they gave a thumbs down they might not be so quick to hit it.

These rules should also apply for a thumbs up. We are branding our names on SEOmoz as well as any other place on the web. The fact that people leave thumbs everywhere without commenting dosent leave room for improvement on either parties side.

[SteveOllington]

I remember saying this before... I think that maybe when somebody clicks thumbs down there should at least be something that says, something along the lines of "Hey, thanks for letting us know that you disagree with this comment... you don't have to but we'd really appreciate if you told us why, we love constructive criticism!" <-- Or better written by somebody that got more sleep last night

[SEODinosaur]

Look at the image.. I want to know why... Dont you? Maybe im just curious...

K1XX8.png

[Boodreaux]

Since I am a newbie...most of my thumbs up are for what I "think" is good. So they are not near as valuable as an "expert" thumbs up.  Maybe they should weight the thumbs up by level of expertise.

[Boodreaux]

There are different reasons for thumbs up.

Being a novice and not able to determine the validity as much as others.......I personally usually just give thumbs up if I think there is a heuristic value to a question or comment.

[Boodreaux]

Given that most on here are SEO's then reputation management would be a big deal so many will not take the risk to be seen as "WRONG".

Given that others may be quick to thumbs down  without a sure knowledge they may want to save themselves from looking stupid.  Maybe an anonymous email  could be sent from the person explaining why they disagree.....this would allow them to save face if they are wrong.  (If someone does not choose to send the comment to you then one could assume it was a spammer.)

Then if you gain insight from the private anonymous comments you can add to the thread with the additional information.   If someone chooses to send a thumbs down anonymous comment the person would also not receive the credit for the new Insight that would have helped build their rep.  

Boo (Novice SEO)

[SEODinosaur]

I don't think that helps. The point is if someone's gonna make someone else look wrong when they are right, they should justify themselves publicly. Rather than cowardly. Perhaps they think they know better but don't want to embarss themselves and are afraid of confrontation. I think the thumbs down should be more of a I think this is wrong type button. After its hit you leave a private comment for an seomoz admin to justify it it's a worthy of a thumbs down. This way everyone gets educated, with consistent reliable advice and nothing goes unjust.

[Francisco_Meza]

I get thumbs down all the time, but I battle it with getting thumbs up in Q&A.

I do give a thumbs down "IF" someone in Q&A gives wrong answers. This happens all the time.

I normally get thumbs down when I sound negative. Sometimes I don't notice it until I receive a thumbs down and reread what I wrote. Here is an example: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/negative-seo-myths-realities-and-precautions-whiteboard-friday#jtc178305

As in any sales job, IF YOU'RE NOT GETTING ANY THUMBS DOWN, IT'S BECAUSE YOU'RE NOT PUSHING HARD ENOUGH.

[ShaMenz]

Hi Donnie,

I was going to say that all those people clicking the down thumb just to irritate are simply part of the deal and in the end have little effect...

Until I discovered 5 minutes ago that apparently they are rather more organized than I thought, having diligently ensured that every one of the 30 thumbs up on one of my comments have been negated  by exactly 30 thumbs down!!

LOL ..the only thing funnier than people being so inflamed by my offering dissent on that subject is the fact that there are those who would spend time making sure they negate the view of anyone who agreed!

Oh well...bracing for the next avalanche

hmmm...but then again, maybe it's just a strange bug in the profile page since they don't match the post ...I think the thumbs are out of control!

Sha

[SEODinosaur]

Yea I see that as well, on my profile page however on the posted page the numbers are different..  The real reason I want to know why I got a thumbs down, or someone else did, is to discuss the topic more in depth. Considering SEOmoz is open to all, maybe some of these thumbs down are rightfully/justifiable. I also believe users will hesitate to give thumbs up or down if they are forced to leave some type of comment.

This will benefit SEOmoz, and users.

Users will learn and gaining SEOmoz points will be more challenging.

IMO this would give the site and users (more ;)... ) great value

[KeriMorgret]

Hi Sha, we know about the bug in the profile and we're working on it, though it's not the highest priority at the moment. If you look at the actual comment itself, you'll see the proper number of thumbs.

Donnie (and others), I personally wasn't here when the decision was made to have a thumbs down without requiring an explanation. Having gotten thumbs down myself, I know how frustrating it is to not know why someone thumbed something down. However, I've also seen the positive side -- you can show disagreement with a post, comment, or answer without being required to add to a potential flame war. Craigslist forums work similar, where you can see the number of plus and minus points an individual comment has. Rather than a suggestion having three responses of "this sucks", three downvotes indicates people don't like the idea but do prevent name calling in the comments.

Another thing thumbs down are good for is alerting us to spam or comments that go against our guidelines. We do keep an eye on what is thumbed down, and that's an easy way to call out a potential problem to us.

[SEODinosaur]

Maybe have a check list of reasons that caused the thums down..

After a Thumbs Down maybe a small drop down comes out as follows:

Why thumbs down was it:

Spam

Wrong

Insulting

Grudge

Im just an Ass

After a Thumbs Up maybe a small drop down comes out as follows:

I like itI agreeThank you soo much!I like kissing Ass

Just because other sites don't do something specific does not mean we can or cannot implement new tech into our sites. Thats what makes a site unique right?