Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

I think we should encourage this voluntarily. I've been meaning to add something to the FAQ about this.

I think actually we may have gotten to the point where we need a "Commenting/Voting Guidelines" in a similar style to the Posting Guidelines. Feel free to give us some input here on what should go in it. I'll make a draft document in the next couple of days and post it here in the blog, for comments.

I don't really see how a guideline would help. Maybe if you stated how, I could give a suggestion.

Although on the subject of down voting, I think it's important to be able to say that I think something is offencive without it being lost in a sea of posts. Maybe posts for specifically the purpose of noting offence could be marked or shown red or something.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

Well, I think with the posting guidelines, members have used them and quoted them when discarding videos - so having another set of -- don't want to say "rules" --- "points" on posting comments, would prove useful in correcting negative behaviour.

eg. avoid ad hominem attacks.
Don't make fun of someone's avatar,
explain down votes where possible,
etc. etc.

I had never thought of making fun of people's avatars until now... look what you've done, dag!

What horrible forces have you unleashed?

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

yeah, I've been meaning to ask you about that car ... ;-)

Next we'll be voting on avatars . . .


Running, ducking, grinning . . .

If you must know, it's entitled "(Mazda 3 in an) Industrial Wasteland"

you can make fun of my avatar, if you want to. you can also call me flower.

I say you shoudl learn from the mistakes of others. Most importantly, only a small minority of people will ever read guidelines.

On a related topic, why can I click the down vote even when I'm not allowed to use it? As someone who's used reddit and Digg, that is kind of frustrating. Linking it to the FAQ is also confusing, as I have to read a paragraph of text to see why I even ended up on that page. I'm more likely to just click "back" and assume that some kind of error happened. This is a video site, how many visitors would voluntarily read a seemingly random paragraph you place in front of them?

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

Josh, that's a valid criticism on the down vote, but we want to explain to people who haven't attained bronze star level what they need to be able to down vote. We want to show it as a feature that exists.

We think that people will click on the down-vote once, get the idea, and refrain until they are bronze star level.

why not make the downvote button "greyed out" instead then? this way it will look as if it's there, but you can't use it yet.

on that note, what about putting a small rectacgle in between the voting buttons that says, "HELP!" or something of that effect, to link to the faq.

sorry, i know this should go in another thread, but it would interrupt the continuity of the thought.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

We could do that pho3n1x, but I bet we'd get comments and emails along the lines of "hey, how come the down vote button doesn't work ;-)" That said, we're rethinking how all of the elements of VideoSift fit together - so expect some changes in that area soon from everyone's input.

Yes, I understand your reason for linking to that page, but when I am linked to that page (http://www.videosift.com/faq-en.php#voting) the heading is "How does voting work?" For me that didn't really relate to the button I had clicked. I've used other sites like Digg and reddit before, so I don't really need to know how voting works. I was more puzzled as to why I had ended up on that page. Having a seperate FAQ for "Why can't I down-vote?" would be a little more clear.

I agree that people should give a reason when downvoting...

It is a courtesy to others in the community, but reasons for downvotes should remain voluntary.

I just don't know how valuable requiring comments such as "I hated this crap video" would be. If a person had radical and inventive reasons for downvoting such as "Stephen Colbert molested my kittens", then I would support mandatory reasons for downvotes.

I do favor continuing to limit the downvote power to people with continuity in the community (bronze stars or above).

From the home office in Scottsdale, here is deathcows top 10 reasons to downvote:

10) I didn't like your video.
9) Your avatar sucks.
You cant spell and after a while it grates on my nerves.
7) You comment way too much.
6) You're new here and too big for your britches.
5) My boss iritated me this morning.
4) There was no milk for my coffee this morning.
3) I haven't gotten any for 4 or 5 days.
2) I think you're a republican.

and the number one reason
1) My basset hound got another diaper out of the trash last night.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

LOL, all very valid reasons DC.

lmao @ deathcow!!!!