Old habits die hard, but there’s Reddiquette which needs to be revived, and some which needs to die.
Many “golden-age” redditors remember a time when downvoting was reserved for hostility, not a different opinion. For the sake of our growing community I would like to implore everyone to be awesome to each other.
However, this place is not Reddit.
- We don’t measure in bananas here.
- We don’t need to append “edit: typo” to edited posts and comments.
- if you see something which is worthy of a downvote: down vote and move on! Don’t engage with it and feed the algorithm/engament machine so other people are exposed to it when sorting by active.
This argument never really made sense to me. Anyone who is being deceptive is not going to tell people they’re editing their comments.
It’s the result of nothing more than a moral panic. There aren’t roving bands of keyboard warriors rolling around making comments and then editing them to make others look stupid.
And even if there were, they could just include “edit: typo” and get away with it. Unless someone takes screenshots.
I think it says more about the community that everyone is expected to prove their innocence. Let’s have a little faith in each other, we’re better than that.
It makes sense to me and I’ve been editing comments this way since the early 2000’s. For some, it’s a cultural practice that’s probably decades old.
If the platform didn’t state the comment was edited, I probably wouldn’t bother but if it does, there is always a thought at the back of the reader’s mind about what happened. Leaving a note about editing negates the thought. Leaving pointless edits less so.
I find it more ethical and transparent, particularly in discussion threads where debates are being held.
I get it as a cultural thing, but it makes no sense epistemologically.
An unethical person would not state they changed their comment, and a malicious person would state their edit was mundane. Those two factors alone render the practice of proving your innocence in advance moot.
I think it’s sad that people reflexively assume the worst. I used to engage in some heated debates on Reddit, but I was never accused of, or assumed the other person edited their posts to make me look bad. It seems like paranoid behaviour to me.
Strangely enough, if it became the norm to correct typos without stating it, the default assumption would be that the edit was a typo correction.
I didn’t downvote you.
I agree but like the premise of the argument is that there is trust issues, a edited reason makes it more trustworthy on a scale rather than nothing. I agree with that usually typos don’t require a reason but reddit? gave you 5? mins before an edited notification was placed on the comment for that reason.
Bad actors are always going to act bad.
I don’t even think downvotes need to exist to counter other aspects of the OP. I would rather a statement as to why this was a bad comment or post so as to make it a learning experience, an educational tool rather than a down arrow that could mean anything. I’ve been downvoted for adding relevant posts to the community I manage. What the fuck is that supposed to mean? Was it the content? Someone holding a grudge? What?
As I just replied to another user, paraphrasing this: downvotes might be perceived as the community self-policing, but if you visit r/vegan you’ll see how that can make a community hostile. I’m a vegan and I can’t fucking stand that place. If you have an alternative opinion, prepare to wind up on the top of controversial, where the mob has a field day.
I think some sub’s had the right idea by limiting the lower voting karma to 0. Another downside is it essentially paints a target for the community before an individual has formed an opinion. It generate the hive mind we should be avoiding.
In that case, downvotes should be invisible. The sorting algorithm can see them but people can’t.
I don’t believe that tiny communities and instances should have them on until a threshold is reached and they become “sortable”.
Being visible is an aggressive moderation tool. It doesn’t foster discussion. reddit devolved into downvote heavy as time went on and I hated it, most of the time it didn’t make sense why things were downvoted. They work better for memes and pics, not comments (unless they are horrible) and discussions. Bad actors use the downvote for bad acting.
I got nothing more to say, you hit the nail on the head.
It reminds me of grading movies. If someone says to me its an 8/10, that is useless information. If they tell me it has some action, I’m intruged. Then they tell me it’s a Marvel movie, and I lose all interest.
However, I will say that it was entertaining as fuck to see /u/spez’s comment karma tank - but he’s not really a member of the reddit community, just the warden hearing the prisoners shout “fuck you!” before starting a riot and a partial breakout.
You’re being really thoughtful and this is a good discussion.
I read through all the other comments and I’m disagreeing with a few other viewpoints from others pretending like aggressive downvoting/brigading is an individual’s problem.
Perhaps a feature request to Lemmy could be an option. Rather than a binary choice.
Votes as is, upvotes visible/downvotes not visible but measured, up/down not visible but measured, no downvotes, no votes at all.
Discussion instances could work around what works best for sorting and discussion, general could work what’s best for them etc.
Forums didn’t have upvotes for years and it worked just fine.
Its a much better discussion than the one I’m having elsewhere, that’s for sure. I sure do love being strawmanned. I was hoping it would be more than a week before I encountered this lol.