Should FlightAware Change the "Thumb Voting" for Squawks?

FlightAware General
1

I feel that the “thumbs up or thumbs down” way of rating a squawk should be reformatted. I’ve noticed many good reads and informative squawks with over 10 negative votes. In most cases these squawks were given a “thumbs down” because it was sad news. For example: a current squawk, “Bi-plane Crashes at California Air Show”, is sitting at -7 thumbs. I totally understand giving it a thumbs down because you’re then stating, “It’s sad that a pilot died”. However, when a squawk receives thumbs down it never makes it the Popular Squawks page, FA main page, or in the newsletter. Therefore a sad article that contains great information will only be seen by few and for a short time.

So I propose that FA switch the rating to something like, “Vote Up or Vote Down”. Or award points to a relevant squawk, example: A statement that reads, “Is this squawk interesting?” then you can click “yes” or “no” and your relative points will be added or subtracted.

Do you all have any other ideas?

2

Voting for squawks and photos is purely subjective. Debate or concern over them should rank somewhere below the same level or concern for any member of a reality television programs… IMHO…

3

… which is exactly the point. Since it’s not important, it should not have the power to remove interesting items or affect where (or if) they appear on the site. Which is what the original poster was trying to say.

I agree that the thumbs up/down is being misunderstood and misused by people on the site, and if it affects the visibility of the squawk, then that function needs to be removed or reworded.