We are introducing a new DU feature that people have been requesting for a long time. (EDITED)

[Skinner]

We have finally upgraded the DU Recommend function to allow people to "Unrecommend" as well.

Why Are We Adding This Functionality?

If you have spent any time on DU, you have probably noticed that under our old system -- which only permitted positive recommendations -- there was a tendency for highly polarizing topics to climb to the top of the Greatest Page. We believe that giving members the option to unrecommend topics will help insure that the threads at the top of the Greatest Page are those threads that have the broadest appeal to our members.

We do not expect that this will be a huge change for DU. But we do hope that it will put a little more emphasis on the topics that unite us, instead of those that divide us. Of course, you are still free to post discussion threads on highly polarizing topics. You just won't get the positive reinforcement of seeing them at the top of the Greatest Page.

How It Works

If you look in the bottom left corner of any discussion thread, you should see something like this:

Recommend 0 votes Unrecommend

I think this is probably fairly self-explanatory. You click the "Recommend" link if you want to positively recommend a thread, and you click the "Unrecommend" link if you want to register your disapproval. The number tells you the thread's net score (calculated by subtracting unrecommendations from recommendations). A positive score indicates that the number of recommendations is greater than the number of unrecommenndations.

As part of this upgrade, you will now see your vote added instantaneously when you click either "Recommend" or "Unrecommend". You won't be taken to a new page after casting a vote, and you won't have to click the back button to return to the thread. (Note that you will need to have Javascript enabled in your Web browser in order to use the system.)

When a thread gets a net score of +5 it appears on the Greatest Page. The thread posted in the previous 24 hours that has the highest net score is listed at the top of the Greatest Page. (If a thread's net score falls below +5, it will disappear from the Greatest Page, but if its net score returns to +5 it will re-appear in the same spot it held previously.)

If a thread's net score falls below 0, it will appear as "<0". You can continue to recommend or unrecommend these threads, and your vote will be tallied. But if the net score remains below zero, it will continue to simply show as <0. We decided to do this because the purpose of permitting unrecommendations is to improve the content of the DU Greatest page -- it is not necessary to show extreme negative scores in order to achieve that goal.

Comments And Bug Reports

We understand that there are some potential downsides to this change, as there are to any change. We are going to closely monitor this new system, to make certain that it actually does what it is intended to do, and to ensure that it makes DU better for most of our members. We welcome your feedback about this new system, and while we understand that there are likely to be a number of threads about the new system over the next few days, we hope you will post any comments or bug reports in this thread.

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we implement this change. And thank you for being a part of this community.

Skinner, EarlG, and Elad
DU Administrators

ON EDIT: We have decided to remove the total number of votes, and only show the net score. It was apparent that showing the total number of votes was confusing to readers. It made it appear that you could simply subtract the net score from the total votes to get the number of unrecommendations, which was NOT correct. I apologize for the confusion.