Meta (lemmy.one) @lemmy.one Provoked Gamer @lemmy.ca 8 mo. ago

What is your opinion on the lack of downvotes?

I’m not from Lemmy.one, but I was wondering what you think of not having downvotes. Do you like having the ability to downvote, or not being able to downvote and why?

20 comments

I like downvotes because I’m petty
- I like downvotes because I don't like seeing shittakes be uncontested. Truth isn't democratic, but humans are social animals and consensus matters to us even if it shouldn't.
  
  You'll see outright fascist dogwhistles posted to instances that dont use them with nothing but upvotes. Do people know what they're supporting? Are they just upvoting because they see a comment that's apparently uncontested?
  
  The worst combination is some instances using it and others not.
  
  Hell, you dont want the negativity? Want people to approach comments on their own merit?
  
  Get rid of the public display all together. Maybe give junkies a little private dopamine counter if you must.
  
  This is where I'm coming from. I can block accounts that are clearly trolls, but if I block them in one instance I can't watch for them in the communities I moderate. So effectively, I can't block them and I can't do anything to discourage them from broadcasting disinformation. There's no option for negative feedback other than to feed the trolls by replying to them.
  
  I'm finding it has consequences that were most likely unintended, enabling the worst people to appear as though their toxic opinions are praiseworthy.
I'd downvote it. I sincerely dislike the lack of downvotes.
I like it, allows you to take posts at face value without any downvote bias
- This is probably the main reason I’m considering switching to lemmy.one. Whenever I view a comment or what not, I can feel that I have a bias towards the person being upvoted instead of the one being downvoted. It seems to make it harder to take the post/comment for what it is.
  
  Not only this, but I sometimes end up worrying if I’ll get downvoted for saying something, so I feel like no downvotes is the way to go. Do you know if any Lemmy clients support not showing downvotes if your instance doesn’t have them enabled?
  
  Memmy and Voyager both let you hide the downvote column, or select total votes between them which results in the same thing if you’re on a downvote disable server. Other apps may also allow it.
  
  Be aware we don't have an active admin so you probably can't create an account (assuming the server doesn't just die one day!)
I'd rather have downvotes, although I do see the argument that it may lead to worse interactions. I don't feel super strong either way, but I tend to use my non-lemmy.one account more often for this specific reason.
I like that getting down voted here doesn't timegate your comments. Downvotes here are mostly pointless and are just visual representation of agreement
I prefer it, because something that regularly happens on reddit is browsing through the replies and finding one that’s been hidden by downvotes because it contained an alternative, non-misinformation solution to a problem (etc) that simply didn’t toe the line everyone else was promoting, as if there’s always one correct way to approach a situation.
I really like it. Downvotes always feel like we're part of a petty power struggle or debate, and I don't come here for that style of toxic discourse.
Reddthat also doesn't have down votes. Honestly, it doesn't really matter. I don't think down votes really add that much anyway
I don't think we can even see downvotes. So that can get kinda bothersome sometimes. Is everyone agreeing with some guy being an asshole around here? Or are they downvoted?

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