Ok, so on a technical level, no it does not stifle free speech. It stifles unpopular speech.
KultofCows, there's been a lot of discussion about how downbids turns debates into a popularity contest, and I am not the only one that feels that way. Please allow me to present it from another perspective. What value does downbids provide other than to simply penalize unpopular opinions?
I suppose this might be to remove duplicates or truly malicious posts. But this is not how it is being used by the community.
Couldn't its intended function simply be replaced by threshold, bury system?
I have lost over 100 thousand simply by having the decency to debate my fellow game industry nerds in discussion over the course of 3 months. I feel thats inappropriate and can be more aptly described as stifling the overall community and its wisdom, as opposed to "free speech" as I put it originally.
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Ok, so on a technical level, no it does not stifle free speech. It stifles unpopular speech.
KultofCows, there's been a lot of discussion about how downbids turns debates into a popularity contest, and I am not the only one that feels that way. Please allow me to present it from another perspective. What value does downbids provide other than to simply penalize unpopular opinions?
I suppose this might be to remove duplicates or truly malicious posts. But this is not how it is being used by the community.
Couldn't its intended function simply be replaced by threshold, bury system?
I have lost over 100 thousand simply by having the decency to debate my fellow game industry nerds in discussion over the course of 3 months. I feel thats inappropriate and can be more aptly described as stifling the overall community and its wisdom, as opposed to "free speech" as I put it originally.