Kill Switch update: We have temporarily Kill Switched the Forgotten Ruins Map due to an issue that causes players to become stuck in place. The Map will remain out of rotation until this is resolved.

http://dbd.game/killswitch

Feedback on bringing back downvotes

idk if this is how to do feedback on the downvotes but I feel that people are quick to downvote than upvote. Like people are Quick to talk smack about others but rarely compliment it’s the same here. Previously if you didn’t agree or like what a person said you responded through a comment and if people agree with you you “ratio”. Twitter and Instagram is like that I kinda prefer that because on Reddit it is so easy to just downvote with never needing to comment on why you disagree. Especially on a forum place where people often times are going to talk about complicated subjects that aren’t unanimously agreed upon. Just my two cents on that.

Comments

  • CautionaryMary
    CautionaryMary Member Posts: 808

    Yeah, that's the one thing I liked about the forums was the fact that there wasn't a downvote option like you have on Reddit - where you can get downvoted to oblivion.

    From what I gathered, it's to see how people interact with one another - even @Mandy has said that it's to gauge how others interact with one another and who are quick to downvote without actively engaging in formal conversation with the other.

    Even if I don't care for the downvotes, it doesn't really bother me too much. If a person downvotes, they downvote - I'll respond if someone tags me, but otherwise it's just an imaginary number just like the upvotes are.

  • Clevarz
    Clevarz Member Posts: 223

    Guys I saved downvotes

  • Rokku_Rorru
    Rokku_Rorru Member Posts: 2,804

    I'm torn about it, as it's somewhat healthier for me as I don't need to feel like I have to state what I dislike about the other person engaging with me if I don't enjoy the conversation, just as simple as pressing a button and moving on, same for people when it comes to me.

    coz usually it's like, you will only listen to my opinion and I'll repeat at you and say you are wrong, when all it needs to be is one post, and it turns into a one sided arguement. So perhaps it will be healthier.

  • smurf
    smurf Member Posts: 979

    I agree. The implementation of downvotes is likely to lead to less real engagement on this forum since people can simply downvote instead of talking to other participants, which is absolutely critical for a useful exploration of people's thoughts, feelings, and experiences.

    If I post something or respond to a comment, and then someone simply downvotes instead of commenting back, we have no way of knowing what parts of my thoughts they disagree with and what parts (if any) they agree with, and we have no way of knowing what their thinking is on whatever issue is being discussed. That means it becomes impossible to find out the real diversity of player/participant opinions on those issues.

    Also, as others have pointed out, this is likely to lead to some people not wanting to post at all because they know their opinion is likely to be in the minority. But those people also deserve to have their opinions heard. I might not agree with people who support early game tunneling, camping, or bully squads, but that doesn't mean that people who do support those things shouldn't have their opinion heard or be forced to endure dozens of downvotes. And we're already seeing that happen. If we want to indicate that we disagree with those opinions, we should explain to those people, and to BHVR, why we think that way.

    Interestingly, I like this forum much more than the other popular forum that has downvotes. That place has an unusually high number of people talking at each other and not with each other. People can literally just shout each other down there, seemingly without consequence. Part of what makes this forum better appears to be the result of the need to engage in discussion rather than simply press the downvote button. I honestly don't trust the dbd reddit to reflect the diversity of player experiences at all.

    Don't get me wrong, this approach could suppress some trolls, but it may come at a much greater cost than the small benefit we stand to gain.

  • fixblitzskin
    fixblitzskin Member Posts: 442

    I stopped trying to talk to people about the game on the Reddit. I only talk dbd here. Reddit mods take down literally any discussion worth talking. Downvoting in a place where topics can get heated doesn’t make sense imo

  • Iron_Cutlass
    Iron_Cutlass Member Posts: 3,866
    edited February 2025

    I like the downvoting system honestly.

    The strictly upvote only system was more of a "people like their opinion more than mine, but dont actively hate my opinion", which was a more moderate approach to things.

    But now I feel like the downvoting system works as a self-governing way of dealing with people's egos, since it forces people to come to grips with the idea that sometimes you just say stuff that people dont like, and with how the Forums have been over the past few months, I feel like we've needed that with how rude or offensive some people can get.

    My only issue though, with what you mentioned, it leads to overall less engagement. It shortcuts the discussion in favor of pressing a single button. I think people will still engage, but it overall reduces the sense of community since less people will engage in conversation.

    I just like talking or engaging in conversations about more niche DBD topics, like audio layering or visual design, and posts like that tend to get ignored anyways so I really dont get affected by this change tbh.

  • WolfePhD
    WolfePhD Member Posts: 397

    I am torn, but my ultimate recommendation would be to keep the downvote system. I spend a lot of my personal time thinking about Dead by Daylight, and I like to post concepts, ideas, new mechanics, etc. I do this for fun, because I enjoy it. I don't mind if someone doesn't like my idea — I think it is important for me to get feedback on idea quality so I am remain aligned with the community. It's not very productive for the game's health if all the ideas that I suggest are not received or welcomed well by others. The point of posting feedback and suggestions should be to make the game a better place for everyone — not to make it perfect for me.

    It took me a lot of real life therapy to get to a point in my life where someone can disagree with me and it does not upset me — so I understand how the feature can genuinely affect some players on a personal level. But even with that, we also have to think about the busy professional or adult student that checks the forums and doesn't have the same time or dedication we do. Their voice still needs to be heard and likes/dislikes make that easier for them. Reddit is a dark, stinky swamp where you get penalized and socially humiliated just for daring to have an opinion. I personally believe the culture on the forums will remain professional and dedicated, even with the downvote system. Anyone that makes an account on here cares about the game to some degree—even the ones that are openly aggressive to the developers and share comments that should never be said in real life towards someone.

  • Nomade
    Nomade Member Posts: 329

    Feedback based on idea quality isn't just a number though. Being upvoted feels good but if you want actual feedback and discussion then people need to respond to your ideas,. Usually the community is pretty good about picking out interesting discussion points the pop up in a thread and replying to them. There are even a number of people willing to have more nuanced discussions on complicated topics. Far more than what you would normally expect in fact which is nice.

  • smurf
    smurf Member Posts: 979

    Exactly. I haven't read your proposed changes, but this is the problem with downvotes. If your proposed changes are agreed with by others, you'll get upvotes. No further discussion needed since that implies an agreement with what you say. But downvotes imply a disagreement while not saying what the disagreement is about and what others think is the right take on the issue. When that happens, we can't get any information about what the solution should be, so this really just makes the community more angry and hostile.

    Forgive the language, but downvotes are the equivalent of those people on Reddit who just say "That's a **** take." (I pre-censored to avoid breaking any forum rules because I'm over-cautious.) That sort of comment does the same thing as a downvote, in the sense that both make it impossible to have a useful discussion about the topic.

  • MissClove
    MissClove Member Posts: 94

    I like the idea of it downvotes and and it also helps the devs to see where everyone stands with ideas.

  • PleaseRewind
    PleaseRewind Member Posts: 351
    edited February 2025

    I think it would be good if it would show us who votes up/down comments too.

    Post edited by PleaseRewind on
  • PleaseRewind
    PleaseRewind Member Posts: 351

    Case in point what others have mentioned. I get 3 downvote but no discourse as to why people would be against this.

    I'll do it myself. My suggestion may be a bad idea because people would use it to target people who downvoted them.

  • Skillfulstone
    Skillfulstone Member Posts: 1,130

    You're not alone, this option doesn't add anything of value and merely removes potential interactions in the community.

    Not only that, but the very first day that this feature came back, you could see some people going "I'll downvote every comments and it'll be funny" (or something along those lines) in some threads. By default, people like that make any kind of data from this option unreliable.