I can’t say I never downvote anyone but I get into these comment chains from time to time where really no matter what I post whoever I’m talking to downvotes every response but I generally shy away from downvoting even things I dislike. I don’t want to fall into an echo chamber where all I see are only the things I agree with.
You’re supposed to downvote. If something is off topic especially, but also if something is toxic or against the rules.
If there was a community where the joke was “you can only reply PANTS” and then someone started to comment about the downfall of capitalism, you downvote that shit into oblivion even if you agree with it out of context.
Off topic tends to be used very subjectively, particularly if someone just dislikes the comment. Particularly when someone takes one line from a comment that’s on topic to say the comment is off topic. Not always of course but it’s rare so far as I’ve seen.
Now as for breaking rules or just being verbally violent, most definitely.
I don’t think off topic is very subjective that often, and if you’re not sure just don’t vote. I gave an example of off topic behavior and, you know, it was too help you out. So you wouldn’t feel so bad about down voting. And then you tried to bicker with me about the details.
Commenting “as a man” in a women’s only community will get you downvoted even if it’s on topic.
Yeah human error got me on that one. I did apologize to everyone. I would have added an apology to the comment but I can’t 😕. Thankfully the mod was understanding I goofed.
Oh brother, this guy stinks
I feel the same. The only times I (intentionally) down vote are for things like spam or people throwing insults around with zero substance. It’s basically a button for increasing/decreasing visibility, and you get much more interesting discussions when it involves views you disagree with.
Nope, the points are made up and it lets me vent with the smallest possible impact. My voting ratio is highly positive despite not having any hesitation slapping that dislike button, because most things are worthy of up voting.
Yep. Same. It’s not that big of a deal, and it doesn’t even matter that you can go see what I downvoted.
Not really. I’m (somewhat) apprehensive to downvoting because all votes are public. So, I’m not gonna downvote someone who disagrees with me. I will (sometimes) downvote someone who is being an arsehole. If they keep doing it, I’ll block 'em.
Also, I don’t really get into comment chains to start with. If I say something and someone has something constructive to say, we might have a conversation. That’s fine. But if it’s negative, chances are I just won’t reply to it in the first place. If I feel like maybe I’ve been misunderstood, I might clarify, but I’ll only do that once. If the conversation isn’t going anywhere, I walk. It’s that simple. If you want a punching bag, I think these days you can get ChatGPT to do that.
Does it matter if people know publicly that you downvoted something? I feel like if I’m going to downvote I don’t need to hide it, but then maybe I’ve just got a confrontational streak sometimes.
I do know exactly what you’re talking about.
When you get 5 or 6 responses deep no-one else is reading along it’s just you and the other person. When each of your replies receives 1 downvote it’s obviously from the other person just downvoting everything you say. It’s just petty and childish and I’m not going to stoop to that.
That said, I do downvote comments that I feel deserve less prominence for whatever reason.
As an aside, piefed shows a user’s “attitude” on their profile. Your’s is 98%, mine is 62%. I think that means 62 of my last 100 votes were upvotes.
Exactly, also thanks for the knowledge. Still new-ish to the fediverse and unaware of all the differences of different locations. I could see that being valid to be public, like if someone is at 4% they’re just miserable.
Not sure why all your comments are being down voted?
Idk sometimes I’m reading a long a deep thread and someone who was arguing in good faith starts acting like a petulant toolbag. I will give downvotes then when they are 1-0, but I always kind of worry in the back of my mind that whoever I gave a downvote to will just think it’s the other guy. Other people read deeper on threads than you would think.
I use a Misskey platform to interact with the Fediverse as a whole (and especially with Lemmy and the threadiverse), among other reasons, purposefully because I can’t cast downvotes onto others’ contents. Even the “👎” emoji reaction, if I wanted to use it, doesn’t count as a downvote from Lemmy’s perspective.
Yeah, some things I see make me want to downvote, but I prefer commenting and replying as to why I’m disagreeing with that content, instead of treating human beings and their content as numeric computer variables (and as a former programmer, I’m well aware of how communication among living beings can’t be replaced by zeros and ones).
The same applies in the other direction: I’m fond of people who disagree with me by actually stating what/why they disagree, instead of clicking a numeric button. If you ever disagreed with me and took the effort to try and tell me what you disagreed with and why, my sincere thanks for being a human being towards another human being!
After all, we’re gathering on a set of social platforms whose main feature is discussion board and, IMHO, numbers can’t possibly contribute to a discussion, especially open-ended discussions and artistic expression… if social interaction is to be replaced with numeric reactions, communication and content creation becomes pointless: why should I, as a content creator, spend the effort (sometimes I spend literal hours on the same reply/post/comment) composing something if the reaction will be numeric?
Your comment reminded me of this quote: “Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.” - Bertrand Russell
Thanks! I didn’t know about Russell’s ten commandments (maybe it’s widely known but I didn’t know until now), got to learn about these through your comment.
Social feedback is important. It’s not supposed to feel good, but it IS vital to building a healthy community. You need a sense of social awareness to evaluate your own ideas, even if the responder can’t clearly articulate their opposition.at the very least it says your presentation needs work.
Dialog also isn’t free. It’s easy to demand someone defend their position for you, but real, thoughtful articulation takes time and effort. Many will offer it freely, but not everyone can afford to entertain you and not every argument is worth the effort. Their rejection of your premises stil matter.
A world with only likes should terrify you. It’s the world of the executive surround by yes-men driving his company and the world to ruin. Human life requires friction. Every dislike is your ideas coming into contact with reality.
I don’t downvote (at least not intentionally - the buttons are right on the edge of my phone’s screen, and I have fat fingers). I don’t really see a benefit from it. I often wonder though about all the non-offensive, opinion related posts with one or two downvotes. Like are people really bothered by someone enjoying different things?
Some people abuse the voting system, an example being users that get upset they lost an Internet fight and go downvote every comment and post on someone’s account.Also yes, there are some people out there that are miserable seeing others happy.
In my experience here people are very active with voting both up and down and indeed any divergence from the narrative even if it’s just questioning is met with downvotes.
Never accept criticism from someone you wouldn’t take advice from.
I’ve been here 2-3 years and have up or down voted like 5 times. I just don’t care about it and don’t look at the numbers. Seems to work
Votes don’t matter. Upvotes can’t pay your rent or buy food. Downvotes won’t put you in prison.
Vote however you want, that’s why it’s here.
It does depend how we are defining what matters. By your definition very few things matter. As a location for discourse it matters in how people related to said discourse in that votes can help push or diminish narratives and craft a location that is or is not an echo chamber. We’re all aware what people see shapes their views and their views shape their actions and their actions shape the world. So I’m not sure I agree that the culture of a platform, the content that is pushed doesn’t matter.
It depends on how an individual consumes Lemmy. I don’t see votes and my client neither buries nor highlights comments based on votes. I only browse by new or active.
This means that votes have little to no impact to what I consume or interact with.
As I’ve said elsewhere. I don’t care if you downvote, I’ve seen what you upvote.
I do once in awhile but honestly I hate public voting. I would not mind a private ranking system for the feed that worked the way trustcafe works. I mean peoples public voting won’t effect the way I peruse the feed but yeah some things are bad enough that I feel I should hit the down arrow. I upvote practically everything though as it marks it as read for my feed view.
Yes its stupid because nobody uses them correctly. Its turned into a disagree button instead of “this doesnt belong here or add to the conversation” button.
Mad you got told off in womensstuff?
So mad that he DMed me to make sure that our mods apply the rules equally. He was very concerned about our community turning into an echo chamber.
Oh damn. “Echo chamber” is usually the last cry of someone without an argument.
I goofed with the comment, I apologized to who I could. I would have added an apology but I can’t. So either way, sorry again.
Mad?. Not at all. I actually apologized to who I could. I would have added an apology on the thread but I can’t.
You sure as hell seemed concerned about us for someone who isn’t upset.
I mean I’m mostly sorry for breaking the rules which is why I apologized, I goofed, human error gets us all from time to time. That circumstance totally makes sense and I’ve agreed time and time again that rule breaking deserves downvotes in this thread alone. Honestly I was thinking about other experiences I’ve had, particularly with some very verbally rude individuals.
