Encouraging Good Discussion on YikYak

YikYak, the anonymous location-based social media app, can be used for serious discussion because arguments identities change from thread to thread. This article goes over the upvoting and downvoting guidelines I use to encourage better discussion behaviour on YikYak. Maybe you will agree with my decisions, maybe not. At the very least I hope my reasoning encourages you to consider how your actions affect discourse.

In serious discussions, there are some who downvote comments people based on disagreement alone. The problem is that YikYak has an automated filtering system that removes comments once they hit five downvotes. Only five downvotes is a tiny group of like-minded people to thought police a discussion into a useless echo chamber. So, I follow these rules when commenting on YikYak.

1. I hardly ever downvote. I do downvote needlessly hurtful comments. Comments that contribute nothing or comments advocating self-harm in posts where people are asking for help and advice.
2. I upvote any downvoted comment that is relevant to the discussion regardless on whether or not I agree with the statement. If a substantive comment has downvotes, then I upvote in response.
3. I upvote comments that I like, agree with, or find witty and that contribute to the discussion.
4. I do not downvote a comment that is addressing the topic of conversation even when I do not agree. I do not upvote these comment either.
5. I do not downvote incorrect facts. My reasoning is that if one commenter believes that fact then others might too so it is usually better to false facts with another comment. Thought policing a false fact out of the discussion misses the chance to change the minds of those that hold it.

Encountering uncomfortable opinions is an important part of a functioning democracy. While discussing issues, we learn about each other and find ways to live together in relative harmony despite differences in our beliefs. Platforms like YikYak enable people to discuss ideas openly. Please join in upvoting good discussion regardless of whether or not you agree with it.

A Question of Professional Ethics and Friends

Professionalism and ethics questions between two parties are fairly cut and dried. However, things can very quickly get murky when muliple parties are involved. Justice asked me to advise on a situation.

Justice works for DesignStudio and they have a large client account BigClient. Recently BigClient employed an in-house designer called Riley. Coincidentally Justice and Riley happen to be friends who both move in the same active social circles. One day Justice overhears the DesignStudio execs wondering why they are now getting less work out of BigClient than before. They are discussing the latest design outputs of BigClient and wondering where they are coming from. Justice knows from social conversation with Riley that Riley turned out better than BigClient expected so BigClient is giving more work to Riley instead of taking it to DesignStudio.

Should Justice tell the DesignStudio bosses or not? I would say no.

Telling DesignStudio bosses might win some brownie points and demonstrate loyalty towards DesignStudio. But Riley probably did not intend the information about extra work to go any further than the social group. If DesignStudio bosses acted on this information and spoke with BigClient then that might make things difficult between BigClient and Riley.

One could think that Riley should be more careful with what they say but add in a couple of drinks and people toasting each other's accomplishments for the week and it's easy to let things slip. Telling the DesignStudio bosses is acting in the employer's best interests but loyalty between friends should count too.

There needs to be some leeway and forgiveness between friends. Firstly it would be a sad world where friends could not privately discuss some aspects of their work out of fear of being taken advantage of. People need safe places to vent their excess emotions; happy or sad. Secondly this time Riley let slip some information, next time it could be Justice innocently doing the same. Friendship is not about one-foot-wrong and you get taken advantage of. A good friendship will outlast a job.

For these reasons, if I was Justice, I would not tell my bosses about Riley. DesignStudio's Account Managers will probably be told if they contact BigClient directly and ask.

(Scenario based on a true story, real names not used)