I see the system as being a passive aggressive jab at a user, or to rail against an ideology (Pick any religion related video at random).

Whether Videosift (yes I speak of it as an entity) likes it or not, the voting system is at the mercy of competing website and their rule-sets. Let's look at YouTube for an example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2ziO6gSQ1Q

Don't worry about the content of the video for a moment, with the exception of the first card of the video (specifically disclaimer no.3). It states:

"3. I will disable voting on comments - not because I mind certain comments being thumbed up, but because these people have a habit of thumbing down their opposition's comments to the point where they don't show on the page unless you click them. I want all the comments to be visible in the section."

So what happened next; the users / haters who could no longer down vote a comment / video now marked comments as spam , as a more seditious form of censorship. The YouTube users are also the same users that visit videosift (a blanket statement, my aim is not to say all sifters are horrible). They have already a pre-conceived rule-set in their mind and apply it to videosift.

There are videos and ideologies that I don't like. I as an atheist, do not have a problem with Christian / Muslim (whatever denomination) pro videos getting published / sifted. In fact, these videos can spawn some great discussion in the comment sections. What I won't do is down vote it; to prevent it from getting published.

One could make the argument though, by me not voting for the video; is also an attempt to prevent the video from getting published. I see the contradiction in the argument and choose to ignore it

Now let me play devil's advocate for a devout Christian (I physically patted myself on the back, when I wrote that sentence): I wish to sift / publish the works of the bible, because I believe other sifters may enjoy them. However, every time I submit a video it gets down voted including my comments (however respectful they maybe (case example: shinnyblurry, he/she consistently get's down voted. All I see is a difference of opinion)). What is the motivation in my continuing involvement, in the 'sift' community? My personality and point of view is clearly not welcome.

Taking all of this in, the system is made worse by high profile video sift personalities (@ant, @mintbbb, @Zifnab, @Issykitty and @NetRunner; calm down I'm not hating on you guys ). If I was to disagree with any of the said personalities; I am now at the mercy of the @ant army (once again, I physically patted myself on the back, when I wrote that sentence). Followers will come to the defence of said people, as if I was a heretic. A problem of which is created from a cult of personality.

All of this a say with a grain of salt. Removing the down voting system will not stop haters from hating. What it will do however, is stop haters from punishing other users for submitting videos and people who wish to view them.

My aim of this blog is to see how we can all help the sift community flourish, with a wide variety of people and different points of view, with a better quality of discourse.

Regards,

ZDM

P.S. I understand that in my arguments above, that they sounded pedantic and that videosift was infested with a rampant virus; but it was an attempt at illustrating a small point. I also take issues to the extreme point, which may or may not have happened in the past (I've only been here for a year). I'm not saying "This system must be removed, for I am ... ZDM!", because this is @lucky760 and @dag train set (I'm sure there are others who I am rudely ignoring). Nor am I calling for the user ban stick to be waved around. I'm just putting a thought out there.