We’re thinking about changing the voting UI to something less abstract and a little more opinionated. As we’re getting more and more “people focused” in the overall UI (following, karma, and soon friend vote overlays) it’s occurred to us that voting might not be the perfect core action of the site. Some alternatives:
@johnlbevan recommends “Evernote” as the best note taking app.
@actionless endorses unity as the best 2d game engine.
@frabrunelle likes Any.do as the best to-do list app.
@hethegreat vouches for Bioshock as the best PC game.
One of the things that I really think sets Slant apart is the built-in recognition that the most popular option isn’t necessarily best for everyone. The itemized pro’s and con’s give you a quick view of why people like or dislike something, so you can easily say “oh – that very common gripe doesn’t really matter to me, I’ll probably like this one more than the average user.”
Because of this, I think that whatever we pick for a verb, the subject shouldn’t be simply “…the best…” but instead “…among the best…” to explicitly recognize that one size does not fit all.
Okay, on to the actual topic. Do we want the same language for pro/con votes as for options? If so, I’d scratch “recommend” (doesn’t apply to descriptions) and “like” (good for pro but not for con). No problem with “vouch for” semantically, though the extra word might seem inelegant. “Endorse” is pretty solid.
Other suggestions: approve, recognize
alexlifeson approves “Rush” as among the best Canadian math-rock trios.
paulatishin approves “accomplished the mission” as a Pro for George W. Bush.
spiderman recognizes “Electric Company” as among the best childrens’ TV shows.
thewoz recognizes “lost without Steve” as a Con for Apple Computer, Inc.
(Heh, I got spamfiltered for making those actual @references…)
Because of this, I think that whatever we pick for a verb, the subject shouldn’t be simply “…the best…” but instead “…among the best…” to explicitly recognize that one size does not fit all.
Yes because Slant lets users vote for multiple options per question it makes sense that it wouldn’t simply say “frabrunelle recommends Google Keep as the best note taking app”.
It could say: “frabrunelle recommends Google Keep as one of the best note taking app”.
Maybe it should be possible to favorite one option per question and in addition to appearing at the top of a user profile it would also change the language to say: “frabrunelle recommends Google Keep as the best note taking app”.
Yes, I prefer “recommends” instead of “votes”, “endorses” and “vouches” because it’s very common to use that word when talking about products and software.
I also think it should say “What do you like about option X?” instead of “Why did you vote for option X?”.
The only consern I have is loosing some value for those who don’t have an account, haven’t found the right person to follow, or aren’t following someone with an oppinion on it.
I don’t think it would be worth keeping the scoring around though.
hrmm im not following sorry. We’re just talking about changing the copy from “vote” to something else, not getting rid of votes or only showing votes from followed users.
Guess I don’t understand where this change is happening. The byproduct of a vote is a count, this language sounds like the byproduct would be endorsements by people you know. If the change is just changing “vote” to “endorsement” or something, I don’t think it makes much of a difference.