I far prefer it to be transparent. But its good that instances can make the decision for themselves.
no, sometimes people suck and deserve to have their sentiment downvoted - at least on a site where voting has to exist
on proper forums where there is no voting, there are better ways to discourage behavior, like just ignoring the user / posts. but if the buttons are there you want to click them
No. Downvotes can help drive engagement as more people try to understand what was said.
People being downvoted doesnt necessarily mean it is hateful, it could just be incorrect or morally objectionable… it’s important that discourse is there, too.
But that’s the thing innit, it’s supposed to be a visibility vote, not an “I agree/disagree” vote, but people keep using it as that. Maybe we need more buttons.
Even as a visibility vote it’s somewhat flawed. If you downvote everything that’s wrong, then many people will miss out on corrections to commonly held misconceptions.
A practice like allowing or disallowing downvotes cannot on its own be judged “healthy” or “unhealthy”.
I really love that each instance gets a choice in the matter, and that we as a result also have a choice. There’s definitely situations where downvotes are abused, and other situations where they are insightful - as discussed by the other commenters here already.
As a result, we can customize our Lemmy experience to fit both scenarios just by having two accounts. If you’re looking for advice on car modifications, use a Lemmy account with downvotes visible. If you’re looking for a safe space to express emotions without the risk of feeling invalidated, use your account where they’re disabled.
We don’t have to choose one and commit to it. Instead, we can use the right tool for the right job, and have a better experience overall.
One-size-fits-all is for centralized forums, not Lemmings. 😄
If there’s an election but you only able to vote on one party, is it a democracy?
That’s how digg.com ended, removed mods and downvotes, and users left.I can post something that I think it’s funny or interesting, but other don’t, it’s their opinion to vote what it’s of their interest
imo we should 100% keep downvotes, how else would we shame bigoted opinions?
I think downvotes are ok as long as they show the real ammounts along the upvotes, besides there’s no karma here.
Also for those that say people could abuse downvotes to bury discussion, well guess what? People abuse upvotes too to increase their visibility, then we should disable upvotes so they can’t be abused either, right?I think it’s ok if an instance decides to disable them (or both) if they don’t want or can’t deal with being downvoted, but trying to spread it to other instances is just trying to create a circlejerk.
I personally feel like restricting downvotes is cutting off a vital voice that people may have so that’s why in my instance I have them enabled. If there’s something that the community disagrees with I feel like the community should be able to vote on that rather than only allowing upvotes and not allowing everyone to voice their proper opinion on something.
I like that profile view in lemmy does not show the total “score”. So when someone downvotes your comment, they downvote just that, the comment, not you. Which I think is good for mental health.
Speaking for myself, I feel that possibility of getting downvotes makes me more careful to not invoke negative emotions in others and instead keep more positive tone. In the long run that may be good for everyone’s mental health as well!
It depends on what the community is about. If it’s a community/instance that features a lot of opinionated talk, downvotes should be off to avoid those with different opinions being downvoted and hidden. On a note advice based/general community I think they should be left on.
Absolutely not. It is misleading like on YouTube. Before they removed downvotes everyone could see if a video is useful or not. “Best tips and tricks for car repair” … 15341 upvotes? Nice! Maybe it’s helpfu–… 98412 downvotes? Maybe not THAT helpful.
I like it today. Depends on how judicious mods are with bans. If there’s a genuine threat of being banned for not be(e)ing nice, it may not matter. That said, I think that if these communities ever reach the size of something like Reddit, downvotes may actually have a place.
I’m not a fan personally, I’ve never really cared about old Reddit cliches like “the hivemind” or “downvotes = disagreement”. I just really liked being able to tell bad content to fuck off without getting into a flame war. Beehaw’s moderation against hate speech is why I’m still with it despite the no downvote settings
No. Downvotes aren’t nothing more than gauge of the specific place climate anyway. Disabling them always looks for me like cheap try of enforcing positivity and openness in places where there is problem with it. Downvotes also help people find their own interests communities.
