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Free Talk / Chat. (lemmy.ml)

submitted 5 years ago* (last edited 5 years ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 years ago (1 children)

Lemmy Instances can disable downvotes (I added this a while back), but I personally really like downvotes.

FB, twitter, youtube, all either don't have them, or removed them, with reddit one of the last sites willing to keep a dislike action.

But also, why does a downvote need an explanation, but an upvote doesn't? If someone doesn't want to tell you why they like / dislike your comment, they shouldn't have to.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 years ago (1 children)

But also, why does a downvote need an explanation, but an upvote doesn’t?

Because the downvote is for me like criticism. Something is obviously wrong with the thing and i want to know why. I want to learn from it and understand whether i should adapt my behavior or not. And this decision is only possible when i know the reason for every downvote.

Also, because upvotes are harder to explain. Usually there all something like "interesting, hand't thought about this before". When you have 20 upvotes, they are probably all very similar.

However, for downvotes it is different. You can downvote things because of:

factual errors (for instance when some number is relevant but wrong. -> I want to know which number is wrong and the source.)
missing contextual information (article is negative on topic X, but after knowing Y, it is not that negative anymore and understandable. --> I want to know that.)
information is correct, but because of bias/stereotypes, the person downvotes. The information in the article explains these things, but the person is too lazy to read that and downvotes before reading. I want to know that so i can ignore the downvote.

etc. So many different reasons to downvote. All of them are important to me.

For me downvotes are a feedback system. So i can differentiate good articles from ones with errors.

If someone doesn’t want to tell you why they like / dislike your comment, they shouldn’t have to.

But what should i do with this feedback? What if its because of bias, stereotypes? and the person is not interested in participating in the debate?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 years ago (1 children)

i find something that makes online discussions more fun and less frustrating is to learn to just accept the downvotes.. sometimes they make you want to lash out and say, "hey wtf did i say, do you not agree? if not why not!?" but at the end of the day.. just relax.. they are just internet points.. it's a lot more relaxing to just see the number, and say to yourself.. "damn.. guess i misstepped on that one somehow.. oh well".. and just move on. like the above poster says, no one actually owes you an explanation, after all. just remember that downvotes are part of the game, they are going to happen, and try not to let it get to you.

also, i'll add, sometimes you want to own those downvotes.. sometimes it's okay to have a dissenting opinion, and you should learn to role with that. "20 downvotes, i hit a nerve I guess, but fuck it I'm right and I'm sticking with what i said." I feel like going out after a bad-ass comment and asking for downvote explanations just takes away from any solid position you were trying to take.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 years ago

shout out to lemmy for not having aggregate comment karma