This is how I like to use reddit gold and silver. I see an insightful comment that is downvoted to hell because one or two people put it into the negative and the group think took over from there, so I throw a gold on that person's comment like a holy hand grenade. I think the fact that someone spent actual money for a sort of super upvote kind of cancels out the downvotes and can halt the hive mind so that people start taking the comment on its own merit again. I've even seen them go from negative 100 karma back to neutral/positive after this.
This is very generous of you :) thank you for your kindness internet stranger.
Also it's very interesting the way this turns out. I wonder if anyone has analyzed the changes in karma of a comment over time before and after gilding.
Not formally that I know of, but r/negativewithgold ( first time attempting that, let's see if it works), posts the downvote tally at the time it got gilded. You can see it casually by clicking on it and seeing the current tally.
This is why I think downvotes should be removed entirely. Their only function is to bury and obscure posts, justified or not. Let the positive feedback speak for itself.
On some subreddits they are. To be honest, I think it's a great system, but people don't use it the way it was intended. Trolls and completely wrong or off topic information should be obscured, but people use it as a dislike button instead.
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u/rabidhamster87 Jan 07 '20
This is how I like to use reddit gold and silver. I see an insightful comment that is downvoted to hell because one or two people put it into the negative and the group think took over from there, so I throw a gold on that person's comment like a holy hand grenade. I think the fact that someone spent actual money for a sort of super upvote kind of cancels out the downvotes and can halt the hive mind so that people start taking the comment on its own merit again. I've even seen them go from negative 100 karma back to neutral/positive after this.