Social Media - Dealing With The Negative Vote - Bart The Bear Says

moxie-drive.com — We’ve discussed putting a little overlay up when someone does vote a story down that asks them to generate a reason why they are voting down. We just have to figure out the best way to do this...

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Comments (27)

- adam_
i think its quite good. doesnt take long to write spam and if your down voting it for nonspam reasons i think its useful for the submitter to know why.
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- PaulaB
You know if I don't like a story I will leave a comment saying why... but as you all know, I'm sort of chatty
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- TalSiach
A social media submitter deserve to know ! Voted Up since its a great post :)
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- cGt2099
This is good news - a good development.
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- Crni
Voted and Stumbled too, this article is what webmasters need to read.
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- robdiana
That would be an awesome feature, as I would love to know why a story is being voted down. It would help as a content filter, meaning people voting it down may mean people don't want to see that type of content.
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- teasastips
That would be great to know...as I have had that experience before.
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- KatFrench
It not only provides accountability for the person downvoting, it also adds a layer of credibility for mixx, and it offers really valuable feedback for the submitter.
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- SilentJay74
This topic has been covered before in the Mixxingbowl.
http://mixxingbowl.com/2007/11/25/should-i-really-vote-a-submission-down/

I really think people should not take down votes personally. Now if someone is trolling and down voting every submission then there might just be a problem.
Me personally I cannot stand blogs about blogs about someones SEO blog. That just drives me batty and I will vote it down.
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- fthead9
Couldn't agree more with the "accountability" statement. The almost automatic down votes that were going on at Reddit to virtually all new stories that weren't from top contributors became a major turn off for using their service.
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- BartTheBear
@joefowler3 - I liked what was written "If you feel that someone is abusing the negative button or any other aspect of Mixx, report them and let someone else deal with it."

On the other hand, it is kind of fun dragging our dirty underwear out in the public. Increases comments...

Joe, honestly I think "blogs about blogs about someones SEO blog" sounds like something carried over from Digg. That was the original point I was making about Lyndoman's article. It drew more negative votes than I usually saw and I asked why. I really did not know what a SEO blog was until I started reading him and that was just in the past few months. I ran into him over at Stumbleupon. I am into SEO, as well as social media, and do not understand the distaste or the reason for the attitude of separation everytime I read about one or the other. I like to think of them as pieces of the whole. Lateley I have been focusing on the social media side with a small percentage of SEO (Lyndoman). I assume you had some bad experiences in your previous social media life? Care to share?
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- exMixxer
I agree it sucks when someone down votes your stuff. And if you have a real "Down Voter", someone who goes and slams every single post of yours with a down vote, that needs to be reported. However, the current system is simple and effective. Mixx did what digg would not, they added who does the down voting. Which is great because it calls a person out. Now you want more?

Be careful what you ask for. First its going to be reason you down modded it. Next people are going to want limits on how many down votes a person can cast in a given amount of time. Then after a while, people are going to want a preference to allow you to select who can or cannot vote stuff down.

Adding a reason does not add more or less credibility away from Mixx. Digg has NEVER shown who down voted and up until recently all of you took it as pretty credible.

This isn't elementary school. Because some one made fun of your crooked house drawing with the squiggly yellow sun you went and told the teacher and she told everyone to be nice. Sorry this is Mixx and we're all adults, deal with it. People have different tastes and don't like the same things as you.

I have a right to vote up or down. If I vote down, personally I usually comment unless its obvious spam. In which case I report it. Now because someone can't handle criticism they want reasons for my opinion. More often than not, a person just didn't like the post and it would be great to know why, but not every thing is on a silver platter in life. Just submit something else and move on, and don't question it.

There are several people here who have a habit of down voting, allen_mvp, is one. You know it does F#$CKING matter. For every time he down votes a submission, 10 other people move him quickly down the list with up votes.

If you vote down something of mine, fine I don't cry. I simply say ok that person didn't like it.

The best compromise would be if you don't like something than just skip it, but as the community grows, that isn't a great solution. Many users here want to add top notch information to Mixx and inform others of things other than social media itself.

My advice:

Don't take it personally.
Move on.
Don't retaliate votes (be the bigger person).
And don't confront the person, it gives them the power and they'll down vote for spite.

If its a REAL problem, report them and let the Mixx guys be the arbitrators.
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- bellapria
@adam_ I agree, it would be nice to know why people do this.
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- bellapria
It makes sense for them to just have them comment why. It seem like good ettiquette
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- SilentJay74
@BartTheBear
No Bart, I have had no bad experiences with Social Media, actually I am quite fond of it. I am just stating that I do not enjoy blog about blogs about SEO blogs. That stuff gets ridiculous. While I quite see what's going on here Bart, don't think I am stupid. You have touched a nerve with some people and other are retaliating. It is smart on your part and my hats off to you, enjoy both of your conversation starter medals and increased traffic to your blog.
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- exMixxer
@bellapria

True, it is good Mixx-etiquette to leave a comment why. But there is a line between etiquette and forcing someone to do something. Its good etiquette to chew with my mouth closed, but no one can make me do it.

The problem here is they do want a nice etiquette between users and I'm in total agreement with that, but making someone do something they didn't want to do serves to drive them away.

There are great posters here that down vote and don't leave a comment, and to force them to may make them leave.
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- BartTheBear
@Bdog2g2 - On the other hand, I prefer not posting material that does not stand a chance of some level of acceptance with the social site population. Some of usare learning and need the feedback so we do not repeat our mistakes, continue to make fools out of ourselves, or repeatedly submit from the same domain (spamming), especially with a population so heavy with Digg veterans.

Here is the newsflash...I am a Digg veteran, banned as well. I used Digg over a year ago and got banned while learning how to use it not realizing that what I was doing was considered spamming. I have a new userID, but am still not able to submit from my main domain. It took about 1 month to get banned. I don't do anything small. I finally realized why, they were not forthcoming as to the reason which is the pattern lateley that is the lack of communication, until I was also banned from Netscape (now Propeller) for the same reason. You are not supposed to only submit your own domain all of the time. I have had some luck over at Stumbleupon, where I learned what I call the basics of using social media, 1. content, 2. tagging if available, 3. friends, and have used them on Mixx and other social media sites, including Digg, since November, it seems successfully so far. I even had a couple of posts make page 1 of Digg. With all of the controversy over Digg these days, I prefer Stumbleupon and Mixx.

So now I read about 80 blogs and try to pick the articles that will fly, with some that don't. The majority of social media newcomers do not understand what and how to post to a social media site and, when they get their stuff voted down, they will not understand, stop using it, and leave.

I think Stumbleupon handles this the best with their automated spam filter that will prevent you from repeatedly submitting the same domain.

I think any solution that Mixx offers will be superior in any case because they are new, small, and can change quickly.

For those that would say I have submitted from my blog excessively, the post from today is my last for awhile. I am tired and taking a break from all of this...the bear needs to hibernate for awhile.
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- BartTheBear
@joefowler3 - So what would you think about blogging about a social media blog? Just curious.
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- jansie
i nearly voted this one down. but it's too good.
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- exMixxer
"For those that would say I have submitted from my blog excessively, the post from today is my last for awhile. I am tired and taking a break from all of this...the bear needs to hibernate for awhile.

We'll see.

As for being a Digg veteran, I am as well, been a member since 2005. I came close twice to being banned for submitting too much from the same domain. After not submitting for a while, I quickly realized why its not good to tickle your own ass and submit only your content. Just because you think its great, doesn't make it great.

What I find funny is many of the "digg veterans" claim they got banned for not knowing the rules. Well on more than one occasion I had people commenting telling me my error. So I find it hard to believe that no one did the same with you. Not only that, if you found that people weren't digging your stuff, there was probably a reason.

"prefer not posting material that does not stand a chance of some level of acceptance with the social site population."

The same 30 people don't count. Social Media is a eat or be eaten field if you want to do the job of submitting and trying to front page. Please don't tell me that's not your goal. Your comments on posts that didn't make it suggest otherwise.

Most of those who band around you and other SEO "heavy-submitters" are also victims of other social media sites pushing you out for one reason or another, explained or un-explained. It sucks and for those I'm sorry it happened to. But just because the current population supports all submission, and it does so graciously, be careful and tread lightly, for the grace period may be sweet and it may be short lived as more people come to Mixx.

I agree that EVERYONE here is submitting to inform people, but when you submit material that you KNOW people are against on some level, stick it in groups and be done with it. If you want to interact and help other SEO/Social Marketers create a group and invite them to it and have a party. You even have a Soapbox to toot each others horns to.

Edith01 explained it perfectly on you other post

"I think if you took the time to read through the entire comemnt thread, you'd realize that the couple of people who voted this down didn't do so because it was SEO.

A lot of SEO stuff makes it to "popular" here. But there are some folks who don't find SEO stuff interesting or worth recommending to others.

I for one wish we had more "hard news" or opinion about "hard news" making it to popular. I mean, the whole Barack Obama story in Iowa, and potentially tomorrow in New Hampshire is sort of amazing and potentially groundbreaking. Would I recommend THAT to someone else? Yes. Another SEO post? Eh, not so much.

Its all a matter of personal taste, and you slamming people who don't like SEO is as bad as those who vote something down just cause it *is* SEO."

As joe hinted to, your tactics aren't for the betterment of the community, they're for the betterment of the Bear and moxie-drive.com. Is that what you want traffic for? Well here, let me help your Google standing some.

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You like to egg people on so you can get comments to your threads so you can get CS awards. You like to act innocent and like a "dumb ole bear" but you only fool but the naive of naive. And while you have good posts, they aren't great, and not all of them are good. In some cases the headline and the description on Mixx contain all the info.
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- BartTheBear
@Bdog2g2 - "I find it hard to believe that no one did the same with you." It is the truth. I didn't get any comments or at least at the time, I was not paying attention to them due to my own ignorance. I was new. One of my good friends in the social media arena, I will not name names in this case because I am certain he would not appriciate it, was there and helped me in understanding what it was that I had done. Even smart people do stupid things.

CS awards - no, not important. Kinda fun though.

My Google standing - Doesn't need any help

http://www.seodigger.com/request.php?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.moxie-drive.com&base=google&step=50

3,775+ unique keywords and the traffic shows. Guess I do know something about SEO even though I do not read the blogs, except Lyndoman's. His is the first. I do read SEO Made Easy and use SEO Elite which is DIY. And man did I make a lot of mistakes learning this. I don't pay a penny for the traffic. So now, yes I think my constituents would say that I am SEO savvy.

Typing "http://moxie-drive.com/blog" doesn't help SEO, at least the way I understand it. How many people search for http://moxie-drive.com/blog?

My constituents also are saying that I am social media savvy. From the Warrior Forum - " LOL....that was pretty funny Len...I signed up for your feed as well. This way I can learn more from the social media expert!"

I like to think of it as a learning process that could continue for the rest of my life.
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- BartTheBear
Speaking of constituents, one of mine just posted the following comment on my blog:

"Bart, you seem to be reading my mind. I was just thinking about this today as I was Mixx-ing it up. I've only down-voted one story - because I didn't like the subject matter. Someone called me out on it (rightfully so, I suppose, as it was a decent article). I felt guilty...and now rather than downvoting, I find myself ignoring.

Of course, the opposite has also happened to a story I submitted when someone downvoted what was in my opinion a good news story on the satellite radio industry, and commented "what's satellite radio?"

I would like accountability and can't wait to see it. It would also encourage healthy (I hope) discussions."
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- exMixxer
@BartTheBear

Mixx has enough accountability, many times more than Digg ever provided. As I've stated before, people need to get over the down votes. As I stated to onreact.com, most of the people who bitch about it are the ones were their own blog was down modded. If you down vote something I submit, you're simply stating that the author of that article, in YOUR opinion, wasn't worth your vote, not me.

What you want Bart is a way to make it harder for someone to down mod your submissions so the up mods can out pace them. Tells me you can't handle criticism well.

As Greg and others have stated, its a free country, free site, I should not have to justify my vote, up or down. If I want to down vote you because I think your avatar sucks, that's my right. Because yours, and others, tender feet hurt when treading the social news site grounds, doesn't mean everyone should lay down mattresses for you to walk on.

"Rains only friend is a tough skin to roll on" ~ Chinese proverb.

No one should feel guilty for a down vote, as long as you have your reasons for it. The mixx system is simple, effective, and best overall.

Everyone has been spoiled by blind up voting that they think an angel dies when they receive a down vote. If anyone has a user that does nothing but down vote EVERY submission as a way to get back at you, then report them, let Mixx handle it.
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- BartTheBear
@Bdog2g2 - Wrong again. Did you read the whole article?

"We’ve discussed putting a little overlay up when someone does vote a story down that asks them to generate a reason why they are voting down. We just have to figure out the best way to do this..."

Apparently whoever is running Mixx seems to think an adjustment is necessary.
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- BartTheBear
It has been nice chatting with you all, but I am a Trekkie and it is Star Trek night.
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- peterpumpkinhead
Wow- you guys are taking voting way seriously!

Here's what I am going to do- if the title looks like something I wouldn't like or have no interest in I just won't vote. If it looks offensive but I don't want to check it out I won't vote. If it looks offensive and I feel like checking to see if it is and I think it is, or if it is obviously spam I'll vote it down.
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- harrynads
Spam is one thing, but submitting original content from your own site is another. Some people aren't able to differentiate the two and will vote down any story from people who submit their own content. It's childish, especially when they get their friends to join in on the act.

In my opinion there's not much difference between submitting your own content and having a digg button below your article so that your readers can submit it. Either way, you're trying to get exposure. The bigger problem is voting fraud and this is what Digg is cracking down on and I say good for them.

I voted for the article because it's an interesting take on the state of social media news sites but I don't necessarily agree with the author's arguments.
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