Is the 'thumbs up/down' answer rating flawed?

Deployed in a perfect world by perfectly reasonable people, the thumbs system is great. This probably looked really exciting and populist on a flowchart. The system is flawed insofar as it didn't adapt to the likely and eventual use/abuse of it. You can even get thumbs-downed on indisputable facts, which is nuts.

I was thinking about this over the weekend (...I know) and think that being able to rate answers out of three, four, or five stars might help distinguish between a "I'm going to add to a point made here" thumbs-downing, a "this made me sad" thumbs-downing, and a "someone else thumbs-downed me so I'm going to take it out on the rest of the answerers" thumbs-downing.

The option to add a very brief comment might help as well, but again, without any self-control on the part of the thumbser there might be no gain to be had.

I'd eliminate it completely except that it does please me to get a thumbs-up.

I agree with you. People abuse the rating system. If there's an answer that people don't agree with, they automatically give it a thumbs-down. People don't even look at the clarity of answers anymore or its quality. They just want their answers to get a thumbs-up. In the Adolescent category, there are so many people with multiple accounts so that they can thumbs-up their own answers and thumbs-down other people's answers. It's overly ridiculous how desperate people can become just get 10 extra points for something that they didn't even accomplish on their own. I give people ratings that have to do with the clarity and quality of their answers, as well as how helpful it was to the questioner. I don't base it on popularity or whether I like the answerer or not.

Totally agree with what you say. I got a thumbs down the other week for saying what my favourite meal was! I don't know where the answer lies. Maybe it could work if each user had a certain amount of thumbs down each week so they would have to be sparing with the thumbs down! Save them for something which really deserved it, something vulgar or distasteful.

If you are Q & A (ing) 15 year old girls and people about their IQ then it is all about ego. Yours and theirs. I get BA's with over ten thumbs down because I answered the question as to what the asker wanted, not what other posters thought about it.

peace and love

I agree with you that the Thumbs Up & Thumbs Down fail to rate quality of answers, but I would not say it was flawed.

I think the Thumbs Up & Thumbs Down are without merit and have no meaning whatsoever.

I sometimes give a Thumbs Down if the answer should be reported as abuse, but I don't care to report it. You know the ones... examples are "idk", "Huh?", "wtf?", etc.

I actually got 8 Thumbs Down for saying my recipe was a family secret and I did not care to share. I did give a recipe to answer the question tho.

definite i do fee solutions I fee solutions for all time, thumbs up if i trust the consumer or if the customers answer is super yet i disagree, i nevertheless supply him thumbs up thumbs down; to trolls, or an answer which sucks and that i disagree with WQ: Randy Orton will proceed to be WWE champion, until eventually Triple H returns. i'm guessing that Triple H will return at SummerSlam and could defeat Randy Orton @ SS RKO >>>>> Triple H - STARRED

yes. though sometimes even if u play into their question with your answer u could still end up getting thumbs down. its a variable in this game since u never know who or when they are being given.

This is the problem with making it democratic--the most popular answer isn't alway the most correct one. I don't see another way to do this, short of establishing a panel of Y!A judges to rate questions and answers, which is impractical and could cause other issues.

Yeah and I agree those IQ tests are inaccurate.

thumbs up/down pleeeeze. it's not like this is the Prime/Panache web site of questions and answers. so that little feature of thumbs up or down really doesn't matter.