They get a lot of exposure if they are good snippets. I think this just goes hand-in-hand with the "like" functionality. Introducing a dislike feature might just create a whole new source of conflict. Stackoverflow uses a vote down system effectively, but that's better suited for a question and answer type of system. It is something to consider, but maybe its not too crucial at this point in time.
I agree with SunnyD on both counts. Even though numerical scoring is subject to a certain kind of abuse, when used fairly and honestly, I feel that it provides a much more accurate representation of the overall accepted quality of a code than an - in my opinion - 'one-dimensional' "I like this", "I don't like this" or "I feel neutral about this" type of system ever could. The numerical system, I feel, is simply much more beneficial to the coder overall.
@Hawkee A mobile CSS layout would serve as an application in and of itself. I know you're going for a social networking feel, but evaluating snippets and code blocks alike with solely like and dislikes would by no means be a suffice evaluation method. However, I've always looked at "liked" snippets to be of a higher quality than most other snippets. In any case, I'd like to see the scoring mechanism stick around, but ultimately the choice is yours.
@sunslayer You can sort the snippets by "Recently Liked" on the snippets page. Those are sorted by the point in the time that they reached a certain "like" threshold.
I believe the like system is best to remove abusive ratings. However, I think that either A> moderators show have the ability to score/rate or B> some method of accelerating the really good snippets to take search precedence over the ones that are just liked. (Maybe another version of like 'did you find this useful?' based upon search)
@extremity You brought up a good point. We need to improve the snippet search results. A good way to do this would be to balance the relevance with a score determined by likes, comments and pageviews.
mmhmm people do like to score others' snippets as 1 out of spite. tis happened to me lol. when i look through snippets these days i don't even pay attention to the score of it. i saw one that was rated a 2 once but was really nicely done. and as hawkee said most people don't +like and +score its one or the other so getting rid of the scoring may be the best bet.
Why even bother with a rating score, people seem to write there rating in the comments and as to why they gave a low or high rating. despite people giving low score's due to hate or just plain abuse the system, dosent make a difference they will say it in the comments. as for the likes it's ok But I would have to agree with extremity moderators should have the ability to score, and be more in tune with the forums. and snippet section, as I dont see much of them around on here. eithier way like the work thats being done on here Hawkee !!
A dislike button might help as well. Snippets with a lot of likes might just mean they've got a lot of exposure. It'd be easier for the common user to judge snippet quality from the search if they got an idea of what the ratio of likes to dislikes are.