Before Lemmy I never really did social media. Lemmy is my first experience in getting ratioed. I notice a surprising amount of my posts get 50% or more downvotes. I never realized how divisive my opinions and communication style is.
Thankfully I’m in a good mental place in my life, so this doesn’t bother me… too much. But I can see how it would have a big impact on people testing their toes, and expressing their voice for the first time, that dopamine hit of validation is tempered by the lows of feeling unpopular social pressure.
I’ve notice other people getting downvotes, and they just delete their comment entirely. I leave mine up, since I believe in keeping the forum record open and transparent is more important then my posting history.
I keep posting to Lemmy in spite of it, because I know Lemmy is just at its starting point, and content is more important then my personal validation. (but it does eat at me some)
When you post something that gets negative feedback do you modify your post? does it change your opinion? does it impact your participation in the community?
My most downvoted comment on Reddit had something like negative 800 karma. I’m proud of it lol.
Ok ngl I do like getting likes, although mostly as an indication that people read what I wrote, and I wasn’t wasting my time. Especially important when it’s a post I put a lot of effort into.
Downvotes… It can be two things. Sometimes it happens that I write something truly idiotic - as a mistake or because of a bad day or whatever reason, that’s when I usually delete the thing to not confuse or upset people when I realise it.
Other times it turns out my comment actually turns out to be controversial. But if it’s something I stand by and believe is correct, it may bother me that a large portion of people disagree. I’m not any kind of extremist, so if people do find my opinions extreme, most of the time it’s just puzzling.