Hi everyone, we're considering making quite a big change to Pagebound and want to get the community's opinion - please leave your feedback here!

We have debated for a long while the merits of upvotes/downvotes vs a pure "like" system. We deeply believe in community moderation and community curation, and felt that an upvote/downvote system would provide the tooling for such community moderation.

In practice, we've also seen a lot of downsides with this system. While there's no guidance for how to use downvotes, many people use it as a "disagree" button which can make people with unpopular opinions feel unwelcome to share their opinion (for example, if you share that you dislike a beloved character, you may receive downvotes).

Moving to a "likes" only system would hopefully foster an environment where opinions are discussed rather than silently judged, and people are less anxious to engage in the forums.

In the past there have been some very strong opinions both for and against downvotes - let us know what you think below

I’m curious to hear about why you may or may not block a user? Do you use this feature? I’ve never been on a platform like this where it shows you comment unavailable to indicate that you are blocked.

I was recently chatting with another reader about the vibes of a book and they didn’t agree, but instead of engaging in further discussion (to which I would have loved to have heard what vibes they thought the book had) they blocked me. I’m kinda bummed and have never had that happen before.

I wanted to open the floor up to maybe understand better. I don’t think I would block a reader in that fashion. Maybe I would use the feature if someone was sharing triggering content related, but not to end a conversation. I’m just surprised and a bit hurt.

Edit: WOW. Thank you all for sharing your experiences, opinions, perspectives, thoughts. This has really helped me see this feature in a different light and was very helpful for me to read. I appreciate you all. 🫶🏻

It is the same here as everywhere else - if people even think you don't follow their reasoning, you get downvotes. This makes no sense and I think the feature should be removed. Especially as people can hide behind the anonymity of downvotes and don't need to think about it.

I am not sure people even try to understand what is written either, because downvotes happen (to everyone) even when they are saying the same thing from a different angle.

This is not how discourse or democracy work. If I can't have an opinion that's different from yours, then there is no point in talking at all. If you don't agree with me (or others) just don't upvote. Simple as that. By downvoting you are saying "your opinion isn't valued." Maybe that is what people want to say when they downvote. I don't know. Unless it is hate speech in any form or direct attack on someone, I don't see a reason to even think about using that feature.

If you happen to disagree, or you don't understand what is said, reply and explain or ask, please. I've seen people getting downvotes just for asking a question wrong or expressing some frustration.

My opinion is disregarded in the offline world often enough, I do not need people letting me think my opinion is worthless in places like this. It causes anxiety and confusion when I don't even understand why there would be downvotes to begin with. And I am certainly not the only one fearful of expressing opinions. Probably just the only one to say something openly, because that's me, expressing my opinions even when they aren't that popular. And I'm not pretending, like others might, that I am not affected by things.

So I won't be posting anymore unless it is in a book forum. And I know hardly anyone cares because you don't know me, or you will downvote this post because in your imagination this is somehow some sort of attention grabbing, or rage post or whatever. It is not. I'm frustrated, tired and disappointed, hurt and confused, as so often, and I think I have a reason to say so.

I hope eventually downvotes will be removed so everyone can talk without fear of being devalued.