I used to downvote fairly often on Reddit as a sign to disagree or to push down really disgusting bigoted comments. And to be honest, it became a habit to just downvote without replying. However, now that I’m on lemmy and not Reddit I’ve been actively trying to not instantly downvote things and instead move on or take the time to reply. Has anyone else been trying to do this?

    • @[email protected]English
      3•1 year ago

      I bet that 99% of comments that are downvoted are not breaking any rules at all, and a mod would do nothing.

      I don’t know why people keep thinking downvoting is helping the mods… It really isn’t about anything other than pushing down opinions you don’t agree with. That’s how downvoting is used, upvoting is the opposite of that.

        • @[email protected]English
          6•1 year ago

          Yep also a valid usecase. I agree it’s useful for technical discussions but at the same time, it’s harmful for opinion based discussions.

          • @[email protected]English
            -2•1 year ago

            Which is why you shouldn’t downvote everything you disagree with. That’s not what it’s for, and we should actively discourage people from using it incorrectly. As Sisyphean of a task as that is, it still matters.

            • @[email protected]English
              3•1 year ago

              You cannot change how people use them, no matter how much you want them to use it correctly.