It doesn’t matter if the most upvoted comment is pro or against subject in discussion. All that matters is bolstering a comment that is minimally compatible with participant’s thinking and making it win against the opposite argument (competing and most voted one).

So it seems that the most satisfactory comment (for most readers) doesn’t really matter at all. What matters, before anything else, is visibility of an opinion that somewhat aligns with one’s thinking, rather than writing or finding the most corresponding comment for that subject, fully compatible with reader’s perception.

  • @[email protected]
    8•1 year ago

    Yeah, the issue is that early upvotes compound into more upvotes via visibility. You could have the best comment in the thread, but if it’s 10 days after the post was made and nobody else sees it, it won’t get any votes.

    • LemmyLefty
      9•1 year ago

      Well yeah, that’s just kind of the nature of conversations. That’s why a witty retort made an hour later just doesn’t have the oomph as a less funny one made in the moment.

      In order to facilitate conversation, comments need to function like conversations, and those things just aren’t set in stone.

      What it really comes down to is, when you comment, are you here to talk to people, to listen to them, or to get votes?

    • @[email protected]OP
      1•1 year ago

      so keeping tabs on posts by quickly downvoting/upvoting (in)convenient subjects, as well as slightly steering them away from what’s really being discussed, might be a pretty handy tactic for manipulating course of conversation, and also making them look like not sufficiently valuable or important to be worth one’s time?

      • @bleph
        1•1 year ago

        I never really did this on the bad place but if you browse new and fire off something snarky or heartfelt first it often becomes the top comment in my experience

        • @[email protected]
          2•1 year ago

          Honestly, browsing by new is one of the fastest ways to become a recognizable power user. I actually did it for a while back on the bad place. After a while, you’re able to pretty quickly determine if a post is going to take off. Then you just drop a quick witty comment, and it’ll have thousands of upvotes and dozens of replies in a few hours.