The ability to up- and downvote posts and comments is useful but the score should not be displayed to the users and you shouldn’t be able to enable it even if you wanted to. This means both, posts made by you as well as by others.

Nobody wants to see their messages get downvoted. This is bad for our mental health as individuals but especially as a group. It’s like walking up to a person on the street, saying “I don’t like you” and then moving on. You’re free to not like (downvote) someone but they don’t need to hear it. If you really want them to know then write a message and explain yourself.

Upvotes on the other hand skews the reality and encourages groupthink. People say what is popular even if they don’t fully buy it themselves and conversely refrain from saying things they truly believe because they then dont get the upvotes and get downvoted instead.

Seeing the scores also primes the reader. When something is heavily upvoted for example you assume it to be true/good instead of using your own judgement to decide.

  • @[email protected]
    1•9 months ago

    yeah i kind of agree. unlike some of the edgelords in these comments though i do have some nuanced thoughts as well.

    1. top-level text posts and long format content should show all votes as well as the like/dislike ratio. this allows me to see if a 20 page article or :45 min video is worth my time as opposed to just trolling or bad writing. (looking at you, Youtube 😒)

    2. highly personal social content should have likes obfuscated so as not to be front and center to prioritize mental health. Instagram did this a while ago and I agreed with that decision.

    3. for comments, i personally like when upvotes only are displayed. having a downvote button that affects the algorithm is good but i think i get a more human social experience when the downvote button doesn’t affect the post score.

    4. when a comment gets like -20 downvotes the app should auto-collapse it and prompt me before i open it because it’s likely irrelevant if not downright hate speech.

    /disclaimer this is my opinion, im not a social media analyst, your mileage can and will vary/