Alright, I'm gonna "take one for the team" -- what is with the "downvote-happy" users lately?

Title. “lmao internet points” and all, but what is the point of participating in a community that sees assumptions and other commonly non-harmful commentaries/posts as “bad” this easily? Do folks in here are really that needy of self-validation, even if it means seeking such from something completely insignificant like internet points? I mean, if I wanted to have a “stepping on eggs” experience with someone (i.e “one false step, and everything breaks apart”), I’d look for a random chick to meet in a bar.

That, or “we reddit now”.

WalrusDragonOnABike,

One of the most common I downvote comments is including things like "Edit: why all the downvotes?" in topics that aren't about the voting system (instinctually downvoted this topic, but un-downvoted), . But also just downvote things things are spammy, *phobic, defending genocides, etc.

gerdesj,

How should someone who expresses an opinion - that receives downvotes - request feedback?

cybersandwich,

It’s the Internet. People who participate in good faith discussions probably aren’t downvoting willy nilly. Everyone else isn’t going to be swayed or give meaningful feedback anyway.

Downvoted get abused a lot where they exist. People dog pile pretty quickly. It seems like an image human characteristic. It’s just a fickle mob. The smaller the community, where members know each other by handle, are usually the best for actual discussions.

Draconic_NEO,

That’s probably the reason why instances like lemmy.blahaj.zone, pricefield.org, and reddthat.com chose to disable them. They aren’t constructive and more importantly they lead to people using them instead of reporting, which is really bad when it comes to enforcing rule violations.

roguetrick,

Don't worry about it. If you were really wrong someone would chomp at the bit to reply to you about how wrong you are. If they're not, you either have an unpopular or popular enough to be spam, opinion.

RandoCalrandian,
@RandoCalrandian@kbin.social avatar

The downvote is the feedback

If people are downvoting and not commenting there is probably an obvious reason why.

Usually you just said some type of heresy in that community, like going to a NASA forum and saying it’s idiotic to still be trying for manned space missions to the moon or elsewhere.

It’s so anathema to the community they don’t even want to engage in a discussion about it, they just want to say “you’re wrong/I don’t like this” and move on.

Far more civil than how religions used to deal with heretics, imo

MigratingtoLemmy,

Hard disagree, people are lazy and valid counter-points get downvoted without recourse

faintwhenfree,

People are already demonstrating by downvotes hahaha

MigratingtoLemmy,

Indeed. Mommy’s little snowflakes can’t take a little Internet fuse up them

sour,
@sour@kbin.social avatar

probably

fallacy of relative privation

WalrusDragonOnABike,

Most of the time, it feels like people are just saying "yall are just mad cause I'm right" but using different words because its often obvious why: an unpopular opinion or believed to be objectively false. These comments already have plenty of replies explaining why their comment is bad in some way. The only cases where there should be confusion about why is is if you are posting in a community that gets the same comments all the time and so its spam and you don't know it, or you said something that is being misinterpreted but for whatever reason you are unable to tell why and you haven't gotten any replies already (but for some reason are paying close attention to your internet points).

RandoCalrandian,
@RandoCalrandian@kbin.social avatar

So, what, people are only allowed to like your content? Can’t possibly be shit posts or anything like that, clearly it’s just all the downvoters who are wrong.

OR a downvote is as meaningful as an upvote, and it’s pretty childish to complain about them. (Especially considering that many instances don’t even count or display them)

sour, (edited )
@sour@kbin.social avatar

why is misinterpret

also rude ._.

RandoCalrandian,
@RandoCalrandian@kbin.social avatar

See? I didn’t consider your post harmful, but I did consider it worthy of a downvote, simply due to how I felt it contributed to the discussion.

And people who don’t feel like I’m contributing meaningfully can downvote my posts. Almost as if that was the point of the button, to give an indicator of how much readers liked or disliked the content.

Negative opinions are every bit as valid as positive ones. Even more so in a culture where criticism is considered “rude” and socially suppressed.

sour, (edited )
@sour@kbin.social avatar

rude

is about word choice not criticism

RandoCalrandian,
@RandoCalrandian@kbin.social avatar

It is criticism, and certainly from a subjective standpoint it’s very valid criticism

But I’m free to downvote criticism I don’t like or agree with 😁just like you’re free to downvote a comment you felt was rude, in addition to pointing that out. It would also mean something different if you didnt downvote but also commented that I was being rude.

Almost like the downvote was providing useful information

sour,
@sour@kbin.social avatar

how about no being rude

where criticism is considered rude

tsonfeir,

Username checks out.

DangerousInternet,
@DangerousInternet@lemmy.world avatar

deleted_by_author

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    RandoCalrandian,
    @RandoCalrandian@kbin.social avatar

    Beehaw is one, I think

    DangerousInternet,
    @DangerousInternet@lemmy.world avatar

    deleted_by_author

    •
    RandoCalrandian,
    @RandoCalrandian@kbin.social avatar

    The ones that disable the downvote button definitely all share similar characteristics, for sure

    pensivepangolin,

    How come? I don’t have a stake in it, I’m just curious any time someone has a strong opinion on an instance, especially since I just joined .world and never looked back/around.

    DangerousInternet,
    @DangerousInternet@lemmy.world avatar

    deleted_by_author

    •
    Draconic_NEO,

    There’s quite a few instances like that that aren’t self-isolated prestigious hellholes. Here’s a list:

    • lemmy.blahaj.zone - LGBTQ themed instance
    • pricefield.org - LGBTQ themed instance based on “Life is Strange” franchise
    • Reddthat.com - A general purpose instance
    • Lemmy.one - A small general purpose instance ⚠️ Warning, They aren’t maintained well and have gone down for months ⚠️

    From what I can see the biggest things these instances have in common with Beehaw is that they support LGBTQ and they have downvotes disabled. So they’re not really that similar, closest one is blahaj.

    Karlos_Cantana,
    @Karlos_Cantana@kbin.social avatar

    Why are so many people suddenly worried about down votes? They don't matter. You get nothing for a lot of upvotes, and you get nothing for a lot of downvotes. If you're so concerned about votes, I think that's a serious issue that you need to overcome, or you're going to have a very hard time in life.

    Damaskox,
    @Damaskox@kbin.social avatar

    I'd argue that having a negative reputation could affect (some) people's behavior here as well.

    disheveledWallaby,

    Some people need external validation. Personally I don’t care about votes. However I do give upvotes very often hoping to increase participation. I often upvote comments I disagree with when their in the negative as long as they aren’t being a dick. I think differences of opinion are healthy. It takes no time to read an opinion I don’t agree with and maybe upvote it when they are riding the down vote bandwagon. I like diversity and think our differences could be more valued. I don’t like the whole reddit style popularity contest down vote thing some think social media has to be.

    I upvote posts that I have no interest in as well. I want people to feel welcome and create content. I’m far more of a lurker than a creator so it’s in my interest to have others creating content feeling happy about doing so even if I’m not their target audience.

    I really don’t hit the down vote button much, if I really don’t like what they have to say I just scroll on. I want Lemmy to be a more welcoming place then reddit. So I try to make it so.

    I have no issue blocking obvious troll accounts though.

    JubilantJaguar,

    It’s because some people don’t appreciate being told to shut up after they put time and effort into writing a thoughtful comment.

    That’s what downvoting is. It’s telling someone to shut up.

    doublejay1999,
    @doublejay1999@lemmy.world avatar

    You need to be much less fragile, or life is going to be hard. Really hard . I say this because you seem like a good guy.

    cybersandwich,

    Wasn’t the rule for one of the more popular Usenet groups: rule 1. Don’t be annoying 2. Don’t be easily annoyed

    Tbh, that’s a pretty great foundation for any interactions on the web.

    RandoCalrandian,
    @RandoCalrandian@kbin.social avatar

    I love those two rules, when taken together. Seems these days communities just pick one, and both are worse off for it.

    vzq,

    Downvotes? What are those?

    Signed, a blahaj account.

    snooggums,
    @snooggums@kbin.social avatar

    Australian upvotes.

    BlueEther,
    @BlueEther@no.lastname.nz avatar

    I had to give you a kiwi up vote for that one - well done

    x3i, (edited )

    “Do folks in here are really that needy of self-validation, even if it means seeking such from something completely insignificant like internet points?”

    But… is that not exactly the description of somebody who complains about downvotes?? As said by others; they should be considered exactly as valid as upvotes. If you feel like they prohibit you from voicing an opinion, I personally feel like that is a you-problem. Ask yourself of the content you posted is crap, if you feel it is not, simply ignore the downvotes and move on, they are just pixels.

    Edit: I checked your posts, most downvoted ones seem to be clickbaity or images that you posted to the linux community. This is not something that vibes with that type of community, I would have downvoted that too. The ones on your technical questions seem unjustified however. Posting a code snippet asking people to execute it… I think that crap should even have been deleted by mods.

    GustavoM,
    @GustavoM@lemmy.world avatar

    But… is that not exactly the description of somebody who complains about downvotes??

    There is “Stop downvoting me! You are making me saddie-waddie!” and there is “Why are you folks enjoying something so stupid and trivial?”. Which the latter is my point, and not a whine. (And yes, when a negative feedback is constructive and has a point to back up it = not a whine. And a whine = a simple emotional outburst.)

    JubilantJaguar,

    But downvotes are not “just pixels”. They affect reputation and above all they affect the visibility of the actual comment.

    So downvoting a good-faith opinion is not neutral. It’s censorious, it’s an expression of intolerance.

    x3i,

    By that logic, upvoting posts is equally as “repressive” as downvoting as it decreases the relative visibility of all other comments, I hope that angle shows the stupidity of that argument. I think we have a fundamental difference in understanding censorship, freedom of speech and intolerance here. If you want to play the self-victimization game, please do so on Reddit and not in the linux community on this platform.

    JubilantJaguar,

    What I want is for thoughtful and interesting opinions to be visible. What you want is for the right opinions to be visible, and the wrong ones to be hidden. That is the difference between us.

    danielfgom, (edited )
    @danielfgom@lemmy.world avatar

    I typically never downvote anyone. I’ll up upvote a post if it’s saying what I was already going to say.

    I don’t even check vote counts, not my own nor others. I’m just here to share opinions, others and mine.

    I couldn’t give a dime as to whether people up or downvote me.

    I don’t think it’s a healthy system. And I agree, as Linux users we should support community and different opinions, not squash them. The disagreements can often lead to a better solution for all.

    makunamatata,

    Same here. Does not make a difference, and it is amazing that people’s egos are hurt or happy about it somehow. But upvotes and downvotes is what drives all other social media: egos want more likes, more subscribes, more “friends”, they want that tribal approval. I find the fediverse to be less infected with FOMO. Drama doesn’t go long around here, doesn’t stick because there are no stupid algorithms feeding more FUD. I am starting to believe that this is where the top 1% of the social media hang out and chill. Here there are people that stick around for interesting conversations as opposed to “look at me”.

    library_napper,
    @library_napper@monyet.cc avatar

    Mostly I downvote people who post screenshots of headlines or tweets instead of posting a link to the source. IMHO we need better moderators to delete that crap, but I do my part.

    Draconic_NEO,

    You should report them as well, downvoting doesn’t do anything to accelerate them being moderated, but reporting definitely does.

    Max_P,
    @Max_P@lemmy.max-p.me avatar

    I expected this to be “another one of those” but actually from what my instance has about you, you were indeed correct. Gaming distros with exclusive features lmao.

    IMO that’s some of the gamer logic bleeding over in the Linux side, now that Linux gaming is taking off. They’ll do anything including install dubious Linux distros barely hanging together with duct tape for a perceived extra 2 FPS. Download software exclusively distributed on Discord? Hell yeah. I’m sure at least one of them boots with mitigations=off and it’s not clearly indicated that it does.

    We’re seeing the same thing on the Windows side with modified Windows ISOs like the whole AtlasOS, that rightfully made some security experts sound the alarm. Some did things like completely strip off the updates, antivirus and firewall. Unless your system is exclusively running Steam and firewalled off the network, this is a certified bad idea.

    I’d probably trust Nobara because the guy clearly knows his shit, but some of them really are just some other guy’s riced up Arch snapshot. They may give the impression everything just works at first but I’ve definitely seen examples of it falling apart. Even bigger distros like Pop_OS! had major snafus like the whole Steam uninstalls your DE thing, and Manjaro still fucks up something basic every now and then. I tried some of them in a VM and they didn’t even install or boot correctly. Oh my fault that one only works for NVIDIA graphics cards not AMD, my bad.

    It’s not worth arguing, it’s a user base with vastly different goals than I do, just let them have their Bedrock Linux completely blow up in multi package manager hell and soon enough they’ll come running for a saner more reliable distro.

    1984,
    @1984@lemmy.today avatar

    I just post what is true to me. Let people downvote. But yeah, lots of downvotes sometimes because some topics are just “we must all agree or else”.

    Large instances are like reddit now, yes.

    GreyFalcon,

    I vote down stuff I don’t want to read. Nothing more than that.

    notonReddit,

    I downvote because it makes me hard

    Mars2k21,
    @Mars2k21@kbin.social avatar

    Unfortunately, this is a problem that can't really be resolved. As long as there is a downvote button, it will always be viewed as a dislike button by some people (and I don't know if removing it is a good alternative for such a large social network). It's a problem that would eventually arrive here from Reddit as the community on the Fediverse grew.

    There's really nothing we can do about it.

    MNByChoice,

    True.

    A case can be made for a large number of buttons. I wonder if the extra complications of multiple buttons would have a good payoff.

    livus,
    @livus@kbin.social avatar

    You're on kbin though, which doesn't federate downvotes.

    JubilantJaguar,

    This problem absolutely can be fixed.

    Slashdot fixed it.

    Hacker News fixed it.

    The problem has technical and cultural solutions. It’s the second of those that looks hardest here. Seems that non-specialist communities always devolve towards bad faith and bad vibes, IMO.

    rufus, (edited )

    Heavily depends on the community. I see lots of communities with few down-votes happening. But it’s definitely a thing in -for example- the political/news ones.

    ParkedInReverse,

    Not isolated to this community either. I’ve been noticing it in a few others as well. Kinda bothersome as it snuffs out posts worth climbing to more visibility. Not sure if voting is still visible on some end, but maybe someone will look into it and figure something out eventually.

    Good on you for taking one for all, lol.

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