this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2023
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Relaxed section for discussion and debate that doesn't fit anywhere else. Whether it's advice, how your week is going, a link that's at the back of your mind, or something like that, it can likely go here.
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Honestly I like the idea of downvotes, but the way the reddit community has implemented them is just toxic. But that's the great thing about Lemmy and the fediverse: Don't like it? Go to an instance that's disabled it!
If downvotes had been used as originally intended, they would be perfectly fine. But the cultural shift over time on the site from "downvote things not adding to the conversation" to "downvote what I don't agree with" made their existence more toxic to conversations. Weighing down unpopular opinions in the sort feed made it even easier for echo chambers to build up. Having a way to give comments that are productive a bump is enough for effectively sorting things.
I was on kbin for an afternoon and got downvote brigaded for calling out a highly updated post for spreading false info. I probably I could've worded my comment all fluffy and nice, but I was frustrated at the op for making things further confusing for everyone and the tone of my comment reflected that. I since deleted my kbin account and hoping that downvote brigade trend and hivemind stays on kbin.
off-topic but since you mentioned kbin: I'm using both platforms right now (beehive/lemmy and kbin)...from what I'm seeing so far I really prefer lemmy's implementation of pretty much everything. Kbin itself is not any more or less complicated to sign up and start posting, but its organization is definitely more convoluted. Speaking of threads vs. microblogs etc. I read a FAQ posted there and it barely cleared things up for me.
When I looked at it briefly, I saw so many posts with no comments at all. Maybe I just didn't know how to search it? But it felt dead, compared to here. I'll try again though.
I don't think it helped that there were incredibly salty people (or even bots) in some of the smaller subs that would just downvote everything.
I frequented a few subs where honest questions or helpful answers would sit on 0 votes.
I think nobody has the same feeling for how much a downvote or upvote weighs, too.
One might person might think, hmm, I disageee mildly = downvote, and the downvoted person might see that and think "oh, they hate this, why are they so mad?" and then you get the useless little argument about votes after that sometimes.
Especially with negativity bias making 1 downvote feel worse than 1 upvote, to most people.