I downvote when I think something is contributing noise to its community rather than signal.

I downvoted you.

they take it as a person insult, and use it as a person insult.

and some people mass downvote you, regardless of where/what you posted because they are angry at you because they think they are ‘punishing’ or 'getting back at you.

it’s mostly dumb people who take internet stuff way too seriously and have it tied up with their personal self worth.

I don’t get that - if a mod gets mad about downvotes they can hide them. They did that on the old NSFW, maybe it has to be instance-wide?

It’s not something that would ever have occurred to me. I suppose if the Cocktails was being brigaded by abolitionists, or Hair getting brigaded by salty bald guys or something I’d be touchy, but overall I’ve found Lemmy to be pretty chill, so it hasn’t come up.

I mean both in reddit and lemmy the concept of downvotes was never meant to be a “agree” or “disagree”, even “like or dislike”. It’s meant to be a “good for discussion” vs “hinderance of discussion”. AKA lets say we’re discussing linux distributions, I come across this.

Person A: I like linux mint, it’s much easier to install, I like the defaults and my printer just works with no setup.

Person B: “Linux mint is for noobs, arch ftw”

Within that, as I am personally a die hard fan of archlinux, so in the agree vs disagree system, I should downvote A and upvote B.

But in a discussion based voting, I’d perhaps respond to A with my pro’s or cons of arch (though in this situation probably agree if the user in question sounds to be a newer user, though I may still make a case for possibly the pro’s of using arch even as a starting distro.

Meanwhile person B, is hostile, gives zero details for WHY anyone should use arch, does absolutely nothing to open discussion or actually help anyone make an informed decision.

I think they call it “rejection sensitivity dysphoria”

I’m on team Scaled myself. I’ve seen the most harmless, kindest, neutral comments down-voted. I assume some people think it is mandatory to vote. Personally, I try to only use upvotes and only when it is something that I strongly agree with or like. Otherwise, live and let live. I guess my philosophy is mostly “if you don’t have something kind to say, don’t say it” but more so transformed into my voting philosophy.

Downvotes are a digital shame button. They are community signals for what members consider inappropriate for the community. Like a lot of other shaming techniques, they are usually frustratingly lacking in nuance, prone to pile-ons, and are as often deployed in bad faith as good. Maybe more; I’m not sure how to measure or even define “good faith” and “bad faith”. I have a gut feeling for it, but my gut is sometimes wrong.

Getting a lot of downvotes is the social media equivalent of your community telling you “your behavior is unacceptable, be better, or at least different, or shut up”. That’s a difficult thing to hear from a community; some people handle it more gracefully than others.

I’m gonna echo some stuff, so be aware.

I think it isn’t just lemmings/lemmites/lemmizens/piefudlians/mbingos. It’s anywhere humans can show support or non support via visible means. Like/dislike, star ratings, whatever. I’ve not seen any more or less butthurt over votes here than reddit. Maybe less in focused communities where folks tend to directly engage more anyway.

But it comes down to feeling disrespected. Talk to folks in meatspace and ask them about this kind of thing, and if they care about those points, that’s what it often is. They feel like some stranger was rude to them.

Secondary to that, there is also he contingent that has an emotional investment when they vote, so they assume the same in others. In other words, they use voting as a dislike button as opposed to a ranking system. So, they think anyone down voting them is just dismissing them via emotional reaction.

Anyway, as long as there’s a sorting method based on votes, it has an effect beyond that, so you kinda have to be careful to keep it in mind. Me? Other than fat thumb mistakes, my down voting is for off topic, non useful, off-vibe, or otherwise ill fitting comments and posts, usually. Low effort comments will get one sometimes, if the post matters.

Up votes are similarly doled out, though I’m not above throwing one purely because I like it.

I always say you take the downs and the ups as they come. Don’t whine about it, don’t pretend ups mean anything about you or even the subject, it’s not like you win anything by virtue of votes. Hell, even mentioning them in a thread should be limited because it derails things more often than not.

I’m with you on sorting by new. It’s not the downside that you see posts in reverse order, so if there’s a dozen posts about the same thing, you won’t know it until after you’ve interacted with the newest, which may not be where the good interactions are. But it’s still better than the artificially placed sorting.

I think most clients will have an option to display upvotes/downvotes separately.

Voyager certainly does, anyway…

I say what I’m gonna say, and sometimes I get downvotes and other times I don’t. I downvote bad takes, trolls, or other things that I feel I strongly disagree with.

Use it as a barometer. If you’re constantly getting downvited for your posts, perhaps some introspection will tell you why. Otherwise, don’t worry about it. They’re fake Internet points and some people just won’t agree with you. You can’t please everyone.

There are only upsides to going into your settings and hiding downvotes entirely. It’s pure masochism to have people’s boos broadcast to you in real time.

Although many people use a downvote for disagreeing with someone without actually adding to the discussion (lazy imo), upvotes were really originally meant to sort out the more important or relevant, or hot topic of the day vs. the regular posts, and downvotes for off-topic posts and replies. Basically a way to moderate the content of the forum without being one.

I’ve no idea, man, I thought made up internet points were dumb on reddit and I thought if they weren’t counted cumulatively, here, people would be less dumb over them.

but that was a foolish expectation to have, however grounded in reason it may seem.

Doesn’t bother me. In general I feel I’ve earned my downvotes. I can say stupid shit or phrase in an insensitive manner. Some cases can be good feedback and cause introspection.

By pattern I’ve think some individuals dislike something (or many things) I’ve said enough to downvote every post of mine they see. If downvoting me makes them feel good, I’m happy for them. The block button is right there though…