What should I use it for?
In case of posts - should I downvote things that I don’t agree with? Or things that I don’t want to see in my feed (posts with low amount of votes fell more to the bottom)? Or things that I consider harmful/stupid/younameit?
In case of comments - should I downvote something that I don’t agree with? When should I use this button in case of comments. Or maybe I should not - cause what’s the point, actually?
Scores aren’t about objective truth, they’re about comparisons. If someone gives less stars than others on amazon, it pushes all the scores down, but the comparisons will still be the same. This is an old and refuted critique of range voting, of which approval voting (which this uses), is a subset.
What do you mean with “comparisons”?
Exactly. That’s the problem at hand. This happens even when the person giving less stars actually intended to rate the item positively, but he simply interpreted the system differently than others. The same applies vice versa.
Can you supply sources for that? The only sources I’ve read a few years back detailed the problems of such systems. Maybe something different was found out since then?
And there are many critics of that system. I’ve laid out some arguments against this system in this thread, and the other thread where I’ve asked a similar question a while back. The main argument would be the formation of echo chambers and an erosion of quality contribution.
That’s a very good point but it assumes that contexts are equal which not true at all. If you compare two identical products that might work but for complex communications to imply that they can be compared on a subjective basis is a bit silly.