Replace Upvote/Downvote Actions

No. 3 seems like a more modern solution to me. The current up / down vote system has basically become valueless because people click agree/disagree and move on, no meaningful discussion occurs 99% of the time. Similarly, people downvote based on username alone for a lot of people, so it's essentially lost any meaning on N4G.

1. agree (SSO verified) 2. still allow downvotes since users are logged in but look for patterns where users ONLY downvote and revoke those users voting rights with a message that says "you only downvote. to be fair, you'll need to to maintain a 2:1 upvote to downvote ratio. your voting rights will be restored in a week" or some such policy. 3. Don't do option 3. It's too 'customer service-y'.

Having upvote/downvote is a blessing because it allows users to express themselves without having to comment on each and every comment thus increasing interactivity with the site while also giving feedback to viewers about whether a comment/commenter can be relied upon as credible. Some users who want to troll or derail conversations are pushing to take this system away so that their conduct isn’t visible to the rest of the users. The upvote/downvote system allows self-regulating by the users because commenters who derail conversations or troll will generate a reputation among users, without having to rely on policing of the comment section. We should keep the upvote/downvote buttons.

1) this sounds good
2) this is not a good idea
3) just bring back the bubble system with some improvements

QUICK THOUGHT:

Allow marking specific sections of comments with votes/icons/emojis. People who write a decent amount in a comment can have the whole thing disliked because of one small part at the end. Perhaps allowing specificity would let good parts of comments to still get some positive recognition, while also letting people know what is being disagreed with specifically.

Thoughts on proposed solutions:

1) Didn't even know guest accounts could do that, removing that functionality seems a no-brainer. If they can't comment, why can they vote?

2) Don't remove downvotes. There are scenarios where I think it gets a little abused, but in general taking away a quick way to both cast your opinion, or see what comments are getting traction (in either direction) would be a poor solution that would weaken interest in general engagement.

3) I don't think they should be replaced, but I think having those options as augments would be a fine option. Besides, if you removed the votes, people would gravitate towards using like a check mark to be upvote, and an X or clown face to be downvote.

Upvote/down vote needs to stay.

It's not always pretty but it does work. You don't always have to comment to express your opinion and a lot of regularly down voted comments aren't worth replying to.

Option 2 should be avoided, do not follow the Youtube dislike removal strategy as that has universal disdain to the point a browser extension was made to bring it back.