Asklemmy

But keep in mind that nobody (ok at least me 🤣) downvotes you because I want to hurt your feelings or “to silence” you. Don’t get me wrong but I couldn’t care less. I don’t know you, I don’t know your past, what you do, your mindset, your attitude. All I see is a post I don’t agree with and by downvoting I’m just contributing to a statistic that let’s you and other users know how others roughly think about that post.

(I am not the OP nor the person to whom you wrote the above.)

I think downvotes are useful, but not as an "I disagree" with your view, but "I disagree" with how you chose to express your view. In my view, we should upvote someone who disagrees agreeably and intelligently.

In my view, receiving a mass of downvotes SHOULD cause me to pause and think about whether I said something rightly and kindly and on-topic to the matter at hand. A downvote storm shouldn't bully me into changing my niche position to theirs.

(upvoted, for the record)