Currently, almost anyone in the Fediverse can see Lemmys votes. Lemmy admins can see votes, as well as mods. Only regular Lemmy users can’t. Should the Lemmy devs create a way to make the votes anonymous?
There is a discussion going on right now considering “making the Lemmy votes public” but I think that premisse is just wrong. The votes are public already, they’re just hidden from Lemmy users. Anyone from a kbin/mbin/fedia instance can check out the votes if they are so inclined.
The users right now may fall into a false sense of privacy when voting because the votes are hidden from Lemmy users. If you want to vote something and not show up on the vote list, please create another account to support that type of content and don’t tell anyone.
At least NOW I can find out exactly who can call me out for saying something stupid, and thank that person for providing me with valuable information and knowledge.
Downvotes are actually kinda useful, even I benefit from them.
In LiveLeak all votes were public. What happened was a lot less downvoting, but also aggrevated users would stalk your page and leave mean messages if you downvoted their comment.
On the other hand, it was really easy to spot trolls trying to manipulate the narratives, Hasbarah and Russian trolls were really active on LiveLeak. This allowed me to block them and keep them from bombing my comments anytime I said something critical.
I actually didn’t notice that it could REALLY go wrong.