Nevertheless Duke said it was causing people problems so I guess if it's bothering them that much then I'm glad they made the decision.
It was, and I'll take the hate from those of you who oppose the decision. I enjoyed the function disagree gave, but the negative sides have been always in my ear. I don't like seeing users getting hundreds of disagrees all because of some personal disagreement. I do see the value in negative ratings, I was the one that introduced them.
I want diversity to emerge, and accurate ability to rate posts. Unfortunately, that was spoilt with users abusing the system, we as the moderation team came to the conclusion that it just wasn't worth the effort and we were getting too many complaints. We were and still are under the impression, that the majority of the users support this decision.
The disagree button is gone? You can't disagree with things anymore. Basically, this is the site owners a big middle finger to anyone who has a different opinion than someone else.
I'm sorry you feel that way, I value the community's opinions highly, and in saying that, it is a massive blow.
I get excited when someone posts in the 'Site Support/Suggestions' area, it doesn't happen as often as I like, but whenever it does, I'm usually happy at what I see. I enjoy fixing user's issues, and improving the forums for the community. But when I get responses such as I have been with the rating system, it really dampens my joy for the forums. Especially when it comes from some of the users I value greatly in the forum community.
Perhaps the disagree rating still has hope here, perhaps we should revert to just likes, but testing it and responses from you guys (nice responses if I might request), is the best way to find out. We're still a new forum, and we need to experiment to find the best solutions and features.