http://dbd.game/killswitch
DBD Forums Feels Unfair
Let me elaborate with my key frustration; The Downvote System.
Downvoting magically appeared in or around March or April 2025, and this has been thee worst feature of all time. Forums are places to discuss, not quickly disagree with a statement or Post without giving details or because you express bias towards another user. (thats running rampant on here AND in game)
So I'd like to propose some fixes that could be made.
Option A: Remove the Downvote system again, requiring users to actually converse and express their thoughts when viewing a post, or just not have a public impact or opinion by saying nothing.
Option B: Make Downvotes and Upvotes no longer anonymous. I would recommend this, mainly for frequent Forum users to see which users express Major Bias towards certain Topics and Other Users. Downvoting just seems like a tool to bully people when you don't agree with what they have to say, and when these stack up, it paints a false bad reputation on that User. This change would aim to expose people who do this, and can be disregarded for misusing Forums, without being banned and still giving them a chance to have fair conversations.
No clue why they were ever brought back. Quickly disagreeing with a massive post for example does not tell the OP what you dislike about their statement. People who do this and never comment should be seen.
Comments
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It's a little brutal for posts to just get straight up ratio'd by downvotes when they're just sharing their opinion, often in inoffensive ways too. I kind of share the same sentiment that anonymous downvotes and upvotes doesn't promote a very healthy forum culture. It pretty much means if you're gonna go out fo your way to post, you either have to not care about downvotes at all and sort of not care what people think which isn't a great mindset for discussion, or just post things you already know people will agree with. I'd imagine it's not very encouraging for people that would like to share how they feel to see that people find their opinions bad or wrong without even getting any feedback on what exactly they said that was bad or wrong.
If downvotes should be completely removed or not, I don't know. I will say it's interesting to see what kind of posts are put down even if you can't see who is voting down, so it's a way to engage with posts without needing to go out of your way to write something, which I don't think is inherently a bad thing.
Making votes public would force people to take accountability and ownership of their votes, not just throw them out when someone is saying something they don't like without engaging with them at all. This is actually standard in a lot of other forums. It would make votes go from feeling like an anonymous mass of people judging your post to feeling like you're actually getting engagement from real forum members, which is a pretty big difference. It'd also shine a light on people that downvote lots of posts without ever adding to the discussion like you say.
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People abuse both downvotes and upvotes. But you either have both or neither, because only having upvotes gives the wrong imnpression when people mindlessly upvote no matter how wrong or stupid the comment is just because they agree with it (and vice versa for downvotes voting against anything they disagree with even if its right).
Frankly if you dont care to actually post then you shouldnt have any influence on the discussion.
Post edited by Shinkiro on0 -
I used to frequent the Klei forums, and they had public reactions. Effectively, they did both.
Those reactions aren’t up or downvotes, they’re just thematic emoji’s and gifs, based on community memes.
I think you could even choose to get notifs of who reacted to your post, though that’s probs a bit much.
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As someone who only within the last month became more involved in the forum vs only reading, I am often so confused by the mentality here. My very first comment on a post was one advocating for kind discourse vs the belittlement someone was actively doing and it got VASTLY downvoted. I just don't understand the hate just for hates sake…
I think you have good suggestions especially the making the votes able to be viewed. Not sure it would solve the underlying issue, but as you said, at least we'd know who was doing it.
I honestly love this idea and think it would bring some fun into the mix.
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Without downvotes, upvotes are meaningless. The context of seeing both is what gives value to upvotes.
A lot of your points against downvotes are around the presumption of "bias" which you cannot actually know. Like just because someone upvotes a lot of posts that want survivor buffs does that make them now survivor bias? No, it does not, it could be just that they literally just logically think survivors need more help at the moment. "Bias" entails an "unfair" preference, of which you cannot know.
By your use of "bias" essentially anyone that's not a fence sitter on every single topic is now "bias" is whichever direction.
Also, downvotes allow people to express their opinion without engaging. If I hypothetically disagree with a topic but I can see most people posting are irrational, should I be forced to have a conversation with irrational people to express my opinion? I don't think so. Trying to rationalize with someone that's irrational sounds painful.
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Just remember, getting a down vote doesn't take anything away from a well made argument.
I agree with @Blueberry, in that some posts do not deserve a well-written response. If I see someone baiting community in-fighting, I'll just down vote it and move on. I'm not going to boost the thread, and waste time preparing a response for someone who currently resides under a bridge, and sleeps on a pile of children's bones. I'm also not going to normalise that kind of behaviour without showing some opposition to it.
In cases like that, a simple down vote is the appropriate response.
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I don’t really personally care about downvotes and upvotes a lot, as well as in Reddit, X, all these media are considering really specific and narrow audiences, and there aren’t actually showing whole community
But that's simply true many people would use it as arguement that they are right. If you suggesting downvoted to go, it would be reasonable to remove upvotes as well. And I think many people might be upset to lose it.
If people reading some nonesence you aren't agree with and it is not worthy discussion from your opinion, just not commenting this post may be kinda enough. If post dies quickly, than its not in demand
For me personally the forums are always a place of engaging and news. If they don't want to engage in discussion, maybe no point to express opinion as well, because people might simply don’t understand your actual position
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Downvotes need to go
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Not sure if you're a "redditor" or something like that, but downvotes are not hate.
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Upvotes need to go
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Thats the goal. A Forum is meant to be a place to discuss whatever Topic is brought up, and quickly disagreeing with a Post defeats that principle. You're not giving anyone any feedback by just downvoting and moving on, you need to explain your thinking. (not to sound like a school assignement or something but thats just common sense and human morality) If I saw people who had little to no comments on their account and a bunch of downvotes, I'd know to just disregard that person since they're not actually participating in a Post. They're making their own Opinion unclear, unheard or just irrelevant by not actually saying something.
Take the devs with the Anti Slug and Anti Tunnel PTB Dev Note. People would massively downvote a huge post without actually telling BHVR what was wrong with those systems. That doesn't help them, that doesn't help us players in getting them to fix it faster for in game. It causes a chain reaction of negative events, all because people aren't giving feedback. Downvoting such a specific and long Topic does not help anyone, its pointless and its literally just used as a tool to make a users opinion seem wrong or worthless. That is not what a Forum is for.
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I wanna use this post as an example rq. So this post I made around when Krasue released, and I just wanted to share my experience of never being able to find her. Why is that getting downvoted? What is there to downvote in that post? Its a brief statement talking about me never playing against the new killer. There isn't a single opinion in that post, its just a factual statement from me who's played like 20 hours that week and only seen a Krasue twice. And I know different people can have different experiences, but Downvoting facts is just stupid, I'd really like to see who votes on these types of posts, cus they definitely should be disregarded. Downvoting that was definitely done by people who have a vendetta against me.
I am known for posting very big, somewhat controversial change suggestions, mainly cus I'm a comp player and I am pretty informed on the game's mechanics as I've been playing for 11K+ hours over the past 6 years. Now obviously I can't prove that without sharing another social like Discord, but its true, someone like me actually cares about the game and not just playing it. Also I'm a Game Design student in post secondary who actually wants to work on DBD in a few years, so I do have some elite ball knowledge in the subject.
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I'm fine with both coexisting, but they shouldn't be anonymous, and for that exact reason. People who don't care to speak their mind in alot of posts should be disregarded as not contributing to a Post, mass downvoting killer buffs and upvoting posts about Survivor buffs type of people. Those are people who are usually uninformed, and thus I'd like people to just disregard them when they happen to leave their mark on a post without actually saying anything. People might actually begin giving feedback, where as if you keep getting bullied by a specific user(s), you know its just them and to ignore what they have to say.
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I would add and say the posts they have downvoted and upvoted should be on their profile for others to quickly scan them for bias or hate against another user. Would save time for those who actually care to give their opinion and thoughts.
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I'm not fussed by downvotes tbh. They don't mean anything to me. Having said that, more engagement on here is preferable and i hate the thought that some folks might be too scared to contribute because of downvotes. As someone who downvotes on occasion (but upvotes far more!), I can assure you there is no bullying intent behind it. I see it simply as upvote = agree, downvote = disagree. And on the topic of major biases, I will say that most folks I see with alot of downvotes do tend to hold a pretty strong bias to either survivor or killer. I feel most players here play both roles so strongly one-sided takes will never be popular.
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I don't think anyone should be forced or policed into having to reply to you in any thread in order to justify their downvote or upvote of your post. They don't have to answer to you. When you post, you are acknowledging you are throwing your opinion out there in a public space & people will likely find something to disagree with you about.
Best advice is learn to not care too much about it. Say what you want to say but don't expect anything from anyone, no one owes you a reply or an explanation.
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I would say that comes down to being informed on how the game actually works, which isn't the greatest mindset, since naturally low hour players won't understand that survivor is actually better than killer and has been since the game released. Specific killers are problematic, but for the most part all non top 5 killers should be getting outed on paper. The stats are overinflated since Abandoning doesn't count a match towards personal and collective stats. Killer isn't actually better, its just that there are far more survivor players that are inexperienced compared to competent and decent survivors, leading to MMR and killer struggling alot with chases, plus the already ridiculous gen speeds possible. When a new player starts, killer is more easy to play then survivor, most new players will be scared to do anything, leaving you to just find them and kill them with no gens being done.
I should've said it before, but you should also be able to see what posts a user has downvoted or upvoted on their profile, that way you can quickly scan them for lack of worded thoughts and bias, and disregard them for misusing the forums.
Expressing your opinion without engaging is fine if the topic is super broad like "Revert the Pallet Density Update" or something, since its kindof a yes or no sorta post, theres really only 2 stances you can have, so a quick response through voting is warranted and justified. When it's a massive post talking about adding Anti Slug and Anti Tunnel, created by the devs, and people are out here downvoting these massive topics without actually saying what they think is wrong is exactly my problem. Downvoting without explaining doesn't help the OP, and if you keep doing this, you should be disregarded and ignored, since you are just refusing to participate in the Forum at that point.
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Its hard to determine what you disagree about in a massive post like the Anti Slug and Anti Tunnel dev note for example. Like what part of the expected PTB changes do you dislike? You need to tell BHVR that, you can't just downvote the post and expect them to know whats wrong.
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Then those people shouldn't be on here, as that defeats the purpose of a Forum, to discuss. They don't have to reply, they can continue to spam votes, but the thing is, if they keep doing that without comments to follow, it looks like they have biases or vendettas against certain users, and thats when people who are doing that should be known and disregarded.
Learning to not care what others say about your opinions is actually bad for your conversing skills. If you refuse to accept another person's side of an argument, just continuing to say their wrong or just not acknowledging them, you're reinforcing your own bias since someone opposes your opinion. You should want Feedback, not a downvote that tells you nothing.
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I understand. I personally am not against the anonymity being removed - I wouldn't mind seeing who is disagreeing and agreeing. But no one should ever feel like replying is mandatory.
A small chunk of people may be malicious with it but I think you may also just be reading into something a bit too much. Sometimes, people just want to be able to move on quickly but make their opinion known through the vote system.
I didn't say learn to not care what people say. I said learn to not care too much about it (referring to downvotes and upvotes system). If you are in a good faith discussion/debate and both parties are open to changing their minds about things, then of course absolutely listen to what they have to say.
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Moving on quickly from a massive topic doesn't help or provide Feedback. Honestly, when creating a Post you should just have the option to allow downvoting. I want Feedback to my massive posts, not a single button press from someone who didn't even read the post and then they just move on.
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Yes but you can't have upvotes without downvotes. The feedback is through the vote system. Like Nazzak mentioned, its just a simple matter of upvote = agree, downvote = disagree. Its convenience. What you're asking for is an explanation or reply from people who downvote you b/c you are assuming they either don't like you, have ulterior motives, haven't read your post fully, etc.
Again, I understand your point and I welcome promoting discussion but forcing people to reply to justify their reasoning isn't the way.
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Why can't posters accept that others may disagree with their opinion? A downvote is just a much of voice as an upvote as or a long winded rebuttal. I don't have time or the energy to sit here and argue schematics with a bunch of people who demonstrate consistently they think they know everything.
Consistently repeating false claims over and over again doesn't magically make them facts.
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Hi friend, maybe I should've clarified this, but I wasn't saying the downvotes were specifically hateful. I was talking about the specific context of the post I made prior that was hated on. If you read the whole post I made, you would've seen I was on board with keeping downvotes but making them public.
But you exactly proved my point that people will be mean just for the sake of it so thanks ig? Not a redditor… never have been. Just passionate about DBD and trying to remain positive in a really difficult community to be positive in apparently…
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Then tell them that. If you're just downvoting, how are they gonna know what you think? Also if you're going to keep doing that, forums is not the place for you.
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If you dont like downvotes then do a downvote on every single post you see, including the ones you like/agree with
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u can't just disagree with a massive topic, You need to say what's wrong. No one knows what you're disagreeing with if you just downvote, unless its a small specific topic, then that would apply to both votes
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Their needs to be something done about people with like 5 and 6 accounts just to down vote, to vote on anything TBH it kind insane BHVR hasn't weeded these people out yet
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Idk if people actually do that, but if they do that is definitely annoying and problematic. Haven't ever seen evidence of someone using spam accounts before.
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What in the protesting rally is this gonna do? Most people actually have good and interesting things to say. I'm not tryna start a movement, I just want people who spam downvotes to be dealt with
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Downvotes are only warranted as a way to quickly disagree in a yes or no sort of post. If you make a massive post talking about Anti Slug and Anti Tunnel and people are downvoting it, how are you gonna know what they dislike? They didn't say anything or give any feedback. Its a major flaw in conversation on the forums and defeats the whole purpose of a forum. And that example was of the dev's own post talking about the sinister grace PTB. No one knows whats bad about it if you don't give feedback, the devs need to see patterns in frustrations, and if everyone just downvotes, they don't know what needs to be fixed or changed.
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I'm sure that the pallet density thing made that more obvious that people are doing this
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I don't feel like you really addressed my points about why removing downvotes is bad though.
Also, generally speaking everybody tends to think they know the game best and anyone disagreeing just doesn't understand it. We all think we know how the game actually works lol. Tends to be human nature I find.
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People do that for defending the change? Cus im pretty sure majority of players want it reverted, and its by a much larger ratio compared to those spam defending
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You're right about Removing them being bad, though both votes should definitely be made no longer anonymous if Downvotes are gonna stick around.
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I'd be fine with that personally.
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They were brought back because they want to reddit-ify the forums. I'm sure it has nothing to do with this little option, nor its default setting:
I feel they're supposed to be used as some attempt to have the community "police itself" regarding outlandish topics and posts, but like most tools its just bleeding further into the Us vs them mentality some people refuse to shake.
Edit: for reference, mass downvoted posts would stop bumping after a certain point, making it a way to bury topics even when active.
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To make downvotes pointless and contribute to their removal
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Hi friend, I did indeed read that, and that's why I said, downvotes aren't hate.
and it got VASTLY downvoted. I just don't understand the hate just for hates sake…
You got downvotes, and you associated them with hate, that's why you literally used the word "hate" after "VASTLY downvoted" (and I can also find occurrences of the word "hate" in your reply to me: "hateful", "hated on"). I think it's pretty clear. If things have no relation, we don't put them next to each other. If things actually have a relation, we put them back to back. It's a simple linguistic concept.
And just to make it crystal clear, I'm not arguing for or against downvotes with you. This is about you seemingly wanting to associate downvotes with hate. Votes express agreement or disagreement, not love or hate. Hate, that's just an interpretation, and I don't share that interpretation, even if it's just for the specific context of a post.
But you exactly proved my point that people will be mean just for the sake of it so thanks ig?
Also, would you care to explain how I "proved" your "point that people will be mean just for the sake of it"? Please quote the part where I was "mean". I only wrote one sentence anyway, so that should be very easy.
Just passionate about DBD
Passionate about
DBDthe forumand trying to remain positive in a really difficult community to be positive in apparently…
It's actually quite hard to always see just negative things, unless that's the personal modus operandi. So my recommendation would be, try not to always see "hate" in everything. It's unhealthy.
Here's a healthy 🍏 for you
Cheers
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Not him but my issue with anonymous downvotes and upvotes on a forum like this is that there are indeed users that mainly upvote or downvote but never interact. And I think if the votes were made public, it would shine a light on who these users are, and you'd be able to identify who is agreeing or disagreeing with many posts without ever explaining why, even to simple posts that would be easy to voice an opinion on.
I also want to point out that a lot of people do actually use downvotes for more than just disagreeing, not everyone shared your viewpoint of them being purely used to disagree or agree with a post. Some simply use them to say "I like this post" or "I dislike this post". I don't think them being purely about agreeing is mentioned anywhere so what they mean is up to interpretation. Maybe interpreting them more positively or objectively is beneficial, but if everyone has different views of what downvotes mean then that leads to issues too.
For example, I've noticed that if someone has a post in a thread with many downvotes, and actually humours another opinion, a lot of people will keep downvoting them for that entire thread regardless of what they're writing, even if they're playing devil's advocate against their own argument. So if the person is expressing different opinions and exploring different viewpoints in teh same thread, shouldn't the amount of upvotes and downvotes they get vary? It's clear sometimes that there are people that go through threads to downvote everything they dislike without adding input. It's jarring to me and it doesn't improve the quality of the discussion, which is why I think deanonymizing votes could be eye opening, hold these people accountable and in my opinion lead to better forum culture.
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I'm not sure why you're wanting to have a back and forth about your misunderstanding of my post rather than what this topic was about. I said you misunderstood the context and then you still proceeded to continue to pick out words and partial phrases to try to prove something that isn't at all the point. I'll make this easy.
I make comment about be nice in old post. It get many downvote. It get comments that not nice. I not understand. I remember.
This post talk about downvote. I remember old comment that have many downvote. Remember negative discourse. I remember not understand. Know in brain not all downvote = rude, hate, mean etc. but THAT ONE did. I mention first because similar topic.
Then make point downvotes should stay anyway.
Hope that clears things up. It would be nice to keep the topic on the health of discourse in this forum with downvotes in their current state. My interpretation of one single old comment you had no involvement in is an unnecessary tangent.
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