I downvoted maybe 3 posts for being “unwise”, but I guess that’s not allowed. Looked up the mod and they banned a wave of people, all for “…”. Good stuff.
This “banned for using the functions of the website” shit is really getting out of hand. Unless it’s unequivocal support for every post, you’re out. It’s ridiculous out here.
Also! We still can’t block communities we’ve been banned from? Wtf?
Downvoting is a feature purposely implemented in Lemmy that can even be completely disabled on a per-instance basis.
Is getting run over a feature purposely implemented in roads that can be just disabled with the flick of a switch?
My thesis is about downvoting as a sociological phenomenon. If there’s a technical fix, that’s great.
Blocking downvotes has a very real downside. For example, Youtube did this (actually, they hide the downvotes).
The result is that it’s really hard to spot misinformation or bad content.
Take for example a laundry machine repair video that shows a wrong procedure that will permanently damage the machine.
With downvotes the video has 2 upvotes and 50 downvotes. This gives you a clear picture that the video is probably not helpful. Remove the downvotes and now there’s 2 upvotes and nothing else. This then looks like a decent but not very well known video.
Similar story with content on Lemmy. If there’s a post linking to misinformation or propaganda, people can downvote it to flag it as not helpful.
One important thing to keep in mind: Downvotes on Lemmy have no consequences. If your content gets downvoted, it does not affect your overall karma (since there’s no such thing). It will not lead to your content getting removed and it will not lead to your account getting suspended. There’s no consequence to someone downvoting your post apart from the post getting less visibility.
And this is the last point why downvotes are important: the score informs the algorithm which content is good and should be shown to more users. Downvoting as a mechanism allows uninteresting, misleading or plain wrong content to be sorted lower, so that better, more interesting content can bubble up.
If you still don’t want to accept that downvotes should exist, just move to an instance that has downvotes disabled (IIRC, Beehaw is one of them, but I am not sure). On an instance with disabled downvotes you will not see any downvotes at all, no matter in what community you are currently at.
Sure, but surely you see the vast potential for different interpretations of all these scary adjectives? How many downvoted posts are really misinformation or “bad content” (according to who?), versus simply opinions - often expressed in good faith and politely - that the downvoter doesn’t like?
I’m guessing you just haven’t had the experience of social media that I have. Possibly for the simple reason that your opinions happen to chime with those of the majority.
Vast majority IMHO.
Well, bad, misleading and uninteresting content does exist. That’s a fact.
Nobody stops you to sort by “controversial” or to click a down-voted post.
Again, downvoting has no real-life consequence. And freedom of speech doesn’t mean that everyone has to like your opinion.
Edit: I had a look over your profile and you don’t have a lot of downvoted comments. Those where you got downvoted are those where you got into fights with other people and used less-than-polite language. Which, imho, does deserve downvotes. So if you don’t want to get downvotes, I suggest stop attacking people online.
So, no “misinformation or propaganda” after all? Just the language some halfwits didn’t like?
You downvoted my comment, which, by your logic makes you a halfwit.
Misinformation and propaganda were not the only criteria I mentioned, but apparently halfwits can’t remember more than three words at a time.
Read again. Slowly.
I said that halfwits downvote posts because they don’t like the language. You said downvotes in such scenario are justified so that places you firmly in their camp.
Which other criteria you mentioned would change the sense, sweetie?
Not really. People downvote posts they don’t like, doesn’t matter how factual these are.
Yes, there is a lot of propaganda downvoted but that’s because people don’t like it, not because it is a propaganda.
Then upvoting is just as problematic, because the abscence of upvotes achieves the same thing as a downvote.
If a no-vote is the same as a downvote, then a downvote is effectively double voting.
That’s true