Rate up/down

[Duelle]

There are many sites that use this feature, such as Digg, Reddit and even FFXIAH. Basically, a button where you rate a person's post up and down.I think it would be a nice addition to the site.

No thanks. Rating systems are basically popularity contests and give way to hive mentality. You think contrary to the hive, your posts get rated down into oblivion. The way these forums currently are have actually allowed me to post on things using tones that I cannot in other sites because the hive basically sees my post, nukes it to the ground and leaves whatever I said unviewable.

If you want a way to control trolling, all you need is really a report option, which these forums already have.

Maybe some posts will get "silenced" by the "hivemind." The alternative is that everyone gets effectively silenced because nobody bothers to listen to anything said in the entire forum. The only possible difference is that, in the former, nobody gets their precious sense of self-importance hurt by seeing that nobody else cares about their "me too!" post with their 800 pixel tall signature graphic.

It shows that you've never posted on topics that were considered "controversial". I'm a big melee Red Mage enthusiast. I used to get chains of rate downs the moment I brought up melee in a Red Mage thread because no one wanted to talk about it. The hive was happy with their back line role, while I was part of a group that wanted to improve front line quality of life and couldn't because the "hive" wouldn't allow it. Not to mention rating gives trolls more power over what gets posted and how they affect discussion threads, not less.