I really don’t see this playing out like this for a few reasons. First off, there is a huge amount of grey area between adding a DISLIKE button and ceasing commenting.
- People generally like to voice their opinions.
- Topics here are nuanced, and will always require discourse.
- The presence of a
LIKEbutton - We are a community tasked with billions of dollars worth of assets, enough people grasp this and understand that discourse is still necessary. In the event someone does not grasp the gravity of our responsibility, I would prefer a dislike to a comment.
There are some specific reasons why I believe a DISLIKE button is necessary on the Uni GOV forum:
- It would provide a quick and concise visual of the
LIKE:DISLIKEratio of any particular post. - We are a collective governance mechanism that has the potential to set a standard for decentralized forms of government. If we do this right, we have a use-case that challenges the integrity of every form of democracy up until this point. We don’t want to make this community like the systems we are trying to replace. For this reason, I think the UI should reflect democratic consensus and user choice from the highest level to the smallest in every way possible.
- A
DISLIKEbutton would help filter out low quality posts that may otherwise devolve into arguments or become generally negative. - If someone doesn’t have a well thought out solution to something they disagree with, or someone has already said it better, they can still express their opinion without repeating existing content.
- Preventing clutter in “hot-button” topics. As you can see from this forum and others, an issue people are divided on can quickly result in a thread that is a near infinite repeat of the same complaints.
- A
DISLIKEbutton also allows for responses that are removed to be converted into a dislike instead. Negative content is removed, but is still able to reflect the community’s feelings on an issue.
People already write posts to express dislike without expanding on the idea at all, maybe having a dislike button can fulfill that need to state your opinion and keep things more civil at the same time.
In the unlikely chance a thread turns into only likes and dislikes, it is up to the community to rally and get dissenting ideas and productive solutions into a thread. The same way we need to do if a topic turns into a garbage pile due to low quality posts.
Let’s take a look at how the like button is used. What generally happens on a post when someone is really in support of it? Two things (in either order):
- User likes a post they agree with.
- Same user (might) posts an affirmative reply.
But we do not worry that the LIKE button will cause a thread to turn into everyone just agreeing and not talking, I haven’t seen that concern brought up once, yet it is exactly what we are talking about here.
I want to wrap up by stressing the gravity of what we have all been handed. To those arguing against the DISLIKE because it is “rude”, “hurts feelings”, or similar. When we come in here, we need to check not only our offense, but also our capacity for offense, at the door. What we’re doing is bigger than just us. We must be as respectful of others as possible—we are all in this together—and I think knee-jerk reactions to something perceived as negative is not helpful either.
Together we will be voting on decisions that will impact the financial security and prosperity of many, many people. At a certain point, things need to be put concisely and bluntly, offended parties need to be the bigger person, and we need to have a common understanding that regardless of opinion we all want Uniswap to prosper.
The most highly engaged forums have the ability to dislike a post, because it simply makes sense to have. Sometimes the press of a button really is all there is to say.