As this site isn't commercial or profit oriented like Facebook, I don't see any reason why there shoudl not be a "dislike" button here.

However, "like" seems to indicate that a person agrees with what is beign said. I think that a "dislike" button should require that a person state their reasoning for not agreeing or why they dont' like what was said, rather than just being generically contrary.

Not sure because sometimes an answer is sarcastic and short. We shouldn't be editing comments. Length of answers does not determine points. Trolls and baiting are handled by we the members-we support other members when they are being trolled. Just recently a 29 yr old girl from NY trolled me and another female member. I reported her and I think she is gone. We look out for each other here.

I like that idea !

Especially as I have noticed a flood of inane, trivia cropping up.

Just if I could have the power to read what I want to read and let others decide on their own what they want to read because here nobody I know other than "Admin" is forced to read everything. Oh wait, I got that power. Too bad others don't think is within their power! I never minded calling a troll a troll. a princess a princess, a king a king, a god a lie... Disagreeing is how I ended being an atheist in the first place.

My actual intention for the dislike button is simply as a quick measure of whether the post is considered to be click-bait or a valid thread open for discussion.

For example, posts (or comments) similar to "Are men better seamstresses?", "Are women better navigators?" are very obviously click-bait. They are there only to generate reactions rather than as invites for actual discussions. And as an actual example, search for the post asking which sex is the better driver.

I don't want posts (or comments) like those examples to be the norm in this new social media site. And I doubt many of us do.

Of course, its easy to ignore those posts. But they do generate comments.

And in extension, they generate points. Because points is a measure of our profile's "trueness" (and validity), imagine a troll gaining enough points so that, from the perspective of new comers (or new critical thinkers who do not have the same experience as others in regards to whatever the discussion is about), their comments "look" valid instead of there only to generate comments (likes, and points).

Are these valid concerns?

I like the idea.

I agree. More reaction-click-options would be cool.

I feel dislike button would cause censorship. The great thing about this site is we can share different opinions not accepted by so called mainstream. I understand there are a few minorities that will troll or disrupt, but a report button with options might solve that.

Excellent point. A thumbs-down may improve the realism. BUT - only one allowed per post.

We don't want to be facebook right? We want to be different from the paid sites and unique among the free sites. We have to realize this is early and on a paid site all ground work and kinks are done for before the site comes up. I don't know any of those involved in this site but I know they are working hard to make this happen. We cannot have expectations of a pay site or a site supported by ads and commercials. "This is our little world for the rest of us." It will grow with time but... "we may don't want facebook here or popularity and political contests of I vote for you if you vote for me and we won't vote for this one because didn't voted for us kind of thing". We may be enlightened but we are not immune to that bug. Just my humble opinion guys.

I've seen other places where if a threshold is met by the number of dislikes, then the post is hidden with an option to reveal if the viewer chooses.