The red thumbs on this site do more harm than good.

a) it's anonymous. If you disagree with a post you should write a reply. At least that way the offending party has a chance of responding. Red thumbing doesn't let the poster know what was wrong with their post.

b) red thumbs spread hate.

c) red thumbs deter people from posting. Especially for those making their first steps onto the forum, if all they get is red thumbs they may not know why and be less inclined to post again. Forums are about different people's perspectives so we need more people posting, not less.

d) red thumbs are redundant. Other than to spread hate, what do red thumbs achieve? I think they once had a purpose but that has been superceded by the "flag" for offensive posts.

Lets vote to get rid of red thumbs for good!

(keep the green thumbs though. Spread the love)

I was going to make a comment about brown thumbs and their particular nastiness,
but I would probably get red thumbed
so I wont

noo, you would cut off the trolls food supply

Hey Leech,
You win some, you lose some

I just wish i was anonymous

What do you mean? .... I have a black screen with green writing on it so all the thumbs are green

I'm using Winders88 I think

I have a thumb, stuck up my ...

but then again there's generally a whole hand there as well.

Doesn't really matter whether its red or green

poor relative said...

elmo said...

I have a thumb, stuck up my ...

but then again there's generally a whole hand there as well.

There is a reason hardie calls you slack arse eh?

Yep it's normally around that time that I get Re-Bushed

I'm think on leech's side on this one, I rarely agree with a red thumb.
I think they're over used, and used inappropriately.

well looking at the amount of red thumbs leech has had for this topic, it seems the good old Australian sense of humor prevails.

i think the thumb system is great, encourages people to not take things so seriously on here and helps to keep the forums entertaining.

i like to think the glass is half full.

I think the most equitable solution would be in the form of a compromise....
ditch the red thumb, keep the green.


PS-I sense this is about to get a barrage of red ones

Just had a stupid thought - what if, just like the total number of posts are displayed below the avatar, so to are the total number of red / green thumbs one has made.
[As I know nothing about computers wouldn't it be easy to implement by just pressing a few buttons and writing "GO TO 25"]

I think Leech has brought up a very good thumb, oops, I mean point here
Ditch the thumbs

I kinda feel the same about red thumbs. I've been noticing a few threads lately where every post (or the majority of them), have just one red thumb click.
But on the other hand, it can be used to show when something is really disagreed against. And also to annoy people who say they don't want red thumbs
But sometimes they are really good, and others they can be not so good. Maybe a feature where 25,50 or 100 posts are needed before thumbing can begin? That way people have to contribute, before they just click on thumbs...

I can't believe that some idiot red thumbed my post on "square" as I thought it may have been a dubious picture originaly, and I was not the only one to think this. Merely an opinion, not bagging anybody, pretty gutless I think. I took it as someone has a personal problem.

If respose was has to be measured why not try a numeric scale, for and against 1 vote and with a maximum of a hundred, as said before 5 red thumbs and you can look like a complete idiot. If we are going to make people feel like idiots why not do it properley and give them a count up to 100.

no mr user i dont stand around discussing the relevance of thumbs!

i often suggest that the graphs and forums on seabreeze are often informative and sometimes funny and i more often than not get a negative response to the forum side of things, i don't actually give a rats arse about how laurie runs this site, i just gave my opinion.

Downtheline said...

i haven't posted here much due to the flaming I see when people reply to a thread. to me that shows lack of respect to the person who is just excersing his freedom of speech which forums on the internet allow. also an opinion, experience or actual facts can be shot down with the thumbs option. being anonymous allows people to hide in the dark which reminds me of a trolls charactor. i enjoy looking at other forums that dont have this feature. they seem more close nit and dont bag each other but rather reply and discuss topics. the way forums should be. a big let down to this great site.

I agree with the flaming part, that must turn some people off. And the thumbs: Especially when you post irrefutable fact and somebody (not just one person) red thumbs it. WTF!!???
But when comparing other forums you have to be aware that this site, being an Aussie one, is very very different. We Aussies take the p!ss something terrible.... compare to the Seppo forums particularly where some of the very minor p!sstakes here would result in flame wars, a divided forum with people taking sides and some people even not talking to each other in person at sailing spots anymore.
I think that is what is really sad, I saw it on rec.windsurfing I thought "what... if I said that on seabreeze the boys would laugh, call me a &^&*& %&**%(&%*%$ and move on"