# On the Necessity of Up/Down Vote-Based Reputation Systems on Boards Involving Subjective Discussion **URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/on-the-necessity-of-up-down-vote-based-reputation-systems-on-boards-involving-subjective-discussion/41442 **Category:** Feature **Created:** [22 במרץ,‏ 2016,‏ 9:58pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/on-the-necessity-of-up-down-vote-based-reputation-systems-on-boards-involving-subjective-discussion/41442 "2016-03-22T21:58:05Z") **Posts on this page:** 1 **Showing post:** 2
### Author: ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/codinghorror/32/110067_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror) #### Post date: [22 במרץ,‏ 2016,‏ 10:11pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/on-the-necessity-of-up-down-vote-based-reputation-systems-on-boards-involving-subjective-discussion/41442/2 "2016-03-22T22:11:18Z")
You can view several talks I’ve given on this to understand the differences. > **[Presentations on Discourse](https://blog.discourse.org/2019/09/presentations-on-discourse/)** > > If you’d like a deeper dive into the philosophy of Discourse, the project – what it is, what it set out to do, and why it exists – I can recommend a few presentations and podcasts I’ve done over the years which go deeper on background than what... TL;DR: - systems of **fact, data, and science** can benefit from downvotes, because statements can be scientifically _proven_ to a reasonable degree. - systems of **opinion** do not benefit from downvotes and are in fact materially and seriously harmed by them, because nobody can prove an opinion. Empathy is the order of the day in opinion systems. On top of that be very aware that Q&A is not discussion, in fact Q&A are discussion are rather opposites. One is a classroom, the other is a restaurant. --- _[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/on-the-necessity-of-up-down-vote-based-reputation-systems-on-boards-involving-subjective-discussion/41442)._