Edit: obligatory explanation (thanks mods for squaring me away)…

What you see via the UI isn’t “all that exists”. Unlike Reddit, where everything is a black box, there are a lot more eyeballs who can see “under the hood”. Any instance admin, proper or rogue, gets a ton of information that users won’t normally see. The attached example demonstrates that while users will only see upvote/downvote tallies, admins can see who actually performed those actions.

Edit: To clarify, not just YOUR instance admin gets this info. This is ANY instance admin across the Fediverse.

  • theinspectorst
    8•1 year ago

    There’s been lots of discussion of this on kbin. I tend to like it. I think it encourages people to stop and think ‘why’ before they downvote things - compared to Reddit, where people tended to downvote thoughtlessly and often, and which contributed to a culture on some subs that was quite toxic.

    • JohnEdwa
      6•1 year ago

      Ironically Kbin might be the place where people will follow the downvote reddiquette correctly, something that almost never happened in Reddit itself:

      Please don’t downvote an otherwise acceptable post because you don’t personally like it. Think before you downvote and take a moment to ensure you’re downvoting someone because they are not contributing to the community dialogue or discussion. If you simply take a moment to stop, think and examine your reasons for downvoting, rather than doing so out of an emotional reaction, you will ensure that your downvotes are given for good reasons.

      • yip-bonk
        1•1 year ago

        So if we don’t like it . . . don’t . . downvote it?

        Isn’t that, y’know, what the downvote’s for?

        That’s cornfusing.

        • ElTacoEsMiPastor
          2•1 year ago

          No? The votes are for what contributes (or not) to a conversation, and deepens the dialogue.

          That’s why it’s infuriating when someone is downvoted when they have an unpopular but well-structured opinion, while a one-liner joke gets a million upvotes.

        • theinspectorst
          1•1 year ago

          No, that’s never what downvotes were for. It’s not a ‘disagree’ button. It’s just that Reddit got a bit toxic as it grew and the masses started treating it that way.

    • lackadaisy
      2•1 year ago

      I’ll probably be a lot less likely to downvote here, just because if something is so inflammatory that I’d want to, I probably don’t want to draw their attention to me anyway. But I’m glad to know early on.