Downvotes can be a useful tool to shape a community, but one of the main issues brought up in the post I made is when several people start downvoting communities they don’t even participate in. Which I want to emphasize is NOT the correct way for downvotes to be used.
First id like to start off with an apology to those who are upset about them being enabled. It may seem very clear to you that downvotes weren’t wanted, but as an admin I get complaints for basically every decision made on this site, so what the “right” choice is, is sometimes hard to determine.
I’ve been getting complaints about downvotes being disabled for awhile now, so it wasn’t clear to me. Even now, the opinion is still very split. Which is why I enabled them quietly to see if it would cause any issues. It did, so I made the initial post to see if people think the issues created by downvotes outweigh the benefits, and what peoples’ other opinions about them are.
This is my opinion based on what I’ve read and the results of the poll:
I think at a later time when lemmynsfw is larger, downvotes may be viable, especially if lemmy implements a custom home feed so that not everyone sees the same posts. This would help mitigate the issue of people not in communities downvoting posts. But as it stands I think the best option is disabling them again. Frequent posters, which are kind of needed for this site to survive, don’t seem to like them, and the poll is split almost 50/50. I have to try to balance enjoyability of posting and enjoyability of consuming content on the site, and it just seems like downvotes really hurts posters and only marginally helps consumers.
So with all that said, downvotes have been disabled again. Sorry for all the confusion and back and forth.
Why don’t you disable upvotes too, then? Or at least hide the vote count–it is meaningless when it’s one sided.
I disagree. One-sided upvotes clearly have meaning - it means more people like a thing or think it has merit. Downvotes also have meaning. Disabling downvotes just says if you don’t like something we don’t care, just move on. I don’t mind that at all.
That’s not a world I want to live in. Moving on. Good bye.
You’re not a train. You don’t need to announce your departure.
I would like your permission to use this line somewhere, good sir.
It’s not mine. Feel free
Great news TBH. I think Lemmy is better off without users who think douchevoting is that important. Enjoy reddit!
It’s only one sided though so it doesn’t have the meaning you think it has, that’s a major problem.
It has exactly the meaning I said it has.
lol not at all
many sites have this problem seem to have this problem, like Youtube. They go around disabling negative feedback and then have trouble with garbage. And it also seems to me that a dislike being an option makes the like much more meaningful.