When I first found out it was an interesting concept that I was pretty neutral on but the more I engage/lurk with the community the more I enjoy it.

I generally don’t post/comment much on Reddit because I tend to be extremely sincere and that’s not always well received. Usually I don’t get much hate, but what I do get is a lot of non-interaction mixed with downvotes. And it’s just really discouraging when I’m just trying to share my thoughts.

But having no downvotes here is so nice because I’m not afraid that I’m going to get silenced into oblivion. Either people will actually engage with me (and maybe disagree, but in a meaningful way), or they’ll move on and not randomly share their disdain via downvoting.

It’s such a small change but makes a big difference. I bet a lot of people feel the same as me - it’s more comfortable to engage here.

  • wiredfire@beehaw.orgEnglish
    5·
    1 year ago

    I think it also fundamentally changes the conversation. Valid but “unpopular” comments can’t get buried in downvotes. The voting system on Reddit was based on a sane logic that totally neglected to consider how people actually behave… the idea of up and down votes to crowd-source relevance and quality of content makes sense, but all anyone did was use it as an agree / disagree button which broke the idea entirely.

    • mrmanager@lemmy.todayEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      That’s my experience too. Downvotes are not supposed to be for disagreeing but they are used like that since people can’t handle someone disagreeing. :)

    • Kindajustlikewhat@beehaw.orgOPEnglish
      0·
      1 year ago

      Absolutely. Your only choices for not getting downvotes was to say something everyone will agree with, or cloak yourself in 1000 layers of sarcasm and jokes so no one can shut you down anyways.

      And as I mentioned I am extremely sincere and don’t care for defensive irony. Not for me.

      Always just stuck to the smaller, interest/specific topic focused subreddits as a result.

      • icesentry@lemmyrs.orgEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        I’ve seen a lot of comments that were against the grain but still upvoted on reddit. I’m not saying they never downvote comments they don’t like but if you are getting downvoted consistently and without interactions it might be more than just being sincere.

        • Kindajustlikewhat@beehaw.orgOPEnglish
          2·
          1 year ago

          I’m not saying that I got downvotes consistently. Just that it has happened for really innocuous reasons, and in general the threat of downvotes keeps me from engaging much at all.

          I can understand how you might think that not knowing who I am, but I assure you I really do try to be genuinely nice and don’t court controversy (I haven’t the energy for it). It’s fine if you don’t believe that though, I’m just a random person on the internet.