i’m doing it because I want to make the fediverse more friendly place, in hopes of making it more welcoming for new users, and the nicer place in general. But I wonder how much is just less bots.

    • MegadethRulz@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      77
      ·
      1 year ago

      This is one thing I’ve been trying to figure out, I keep hearing this a lot. What exactly is different with the upvotes and downvotes? Do they not bury comments and posts or something? Serious question just trying to be informed

      • Whirlybird@aussie.zone
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        63
        arrow-down
        19
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        At least in the app I’m using there is no cumulative score for your upvotes/downvotes, so people don’t care about it.

        Also comments don’t seem to get hidden due to downvotes thankfully. That was always a stupid system.

        Tbh I wish that the comment voting system didn’t exist, or that to downvote you had to write a legit reason why, and everyone could see the votes and reasons. Shit reasons would take away your ability to downvote temporarily, extending further the more you do it. Too many people just use it as a disagree button.

        • Cyyy@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          37
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          Also comments don’t seem to get hidden due to downvotes thankfully. That was always a stupid system.

          i hate this so much about reddit. a lot of users abuse this system so much to hide your comments so nobody sees them anymore… they just vanish because usually users don’t click unhide.

          even if you are nice in the comment and are in the right… if someone dislikes your comment they can pull out their twink accounts and downvote it. and if a comment is at around -3 to -4 or similiar, most users just click downvote without actually reading it… because “others have downvoted that comment so it has to be right. downvote click

          its just so toxic on reddit…

          • nieceandtows@programming.dev
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            15
            ·
            1 year ago

            Doesn’t even have to be downvoted heavily. If you bash the admins/powermods, your comment gets magically collapsed, even if it’s near the top. I don’t know how that happens.

            • Cyyy@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              18
              ·
              edit-2
              1 year ago

              admins and mods working for reddit (the paid ones) have “tools” to do such things. thats also how /u/spez manipulated user comments who said fuck spez etc. - also how they manipulate /r/place currently. they just paint a huge black square or checkerboard over images they dislike.

            • zeppo@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              8
              ·
              1 year ago

              Some mods basically thought their job amounted to having a power downvote… they’d banish comments they just didn’t agree with, not abusive, but just something they didn’t like and control the conversation that way. That’s one thing if it’s really their sub, but pretty lame if it’s something like /r/Portland and you’re not allowed to disagree with whatever the mods think on a topic, or even discuss other viewpoints.

            • Whirlybird@aussie.zone
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              5
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              1 year ago

              Yeh I had this happen to my comment once, but it wasn’t even abusing the mods or anything, it was just not the circle jerk reply the mod wanted. It was one of the most upvoted comments on a post, and all of a sudden it was gone from the top. Lo and behold it was now collapsed down the bottom with a huge positive score. Absolute joke.

          • zeppo@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            11
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            Yep, reddit works with upvote and downvote bandwagons. Often (though not always) the first votes on a comment or post determine how the whole thing will go, especially with the self-reinforcing sorting. I noticed what you said about downvotes too, that if someone has an slightly hard to interpret, ambiguous or sarcastic post, once a few people downvoted it, other people will assume it’s a “bad” post and be more likely to down it themselves. Also you can post the same comment on similar threads in the same sub 2 days apart and the results might be wildly different depending on timing, placement, or just who saw it first.

            • Cyyy@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              13
              ·
              edit-2
              1 year ago

              i’m around 12 years on reddit, and votes & how good a post or comments gets welcomed by the communitys on reddit feels kinda random to me.

              you can post like you said the same thing at random times, and it will be either welcomed or punished to hell. i had times where i tried to find out if time & timezones have something to do with, but even when trying to post on specific times this didn’t changed much.

              after all this years, i decided for myself posting on reddit is like a dice. you roll and either win or fail.

              edit: sorry for the horrible english by the way. my motherlanguage isn’t english so i often have still issues with finding the right words for things :/

              • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                5
                ·
                1 year ago

                Ah, very Reddit of you to type a comment eloquently and then apologize for your English!

                (I say this in jest! First-language English speakers would use apologies to pad out their fake AITA stories. Also your writing is totally fine!)

        • TurboDiesel@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          20
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          See, I don’t see a problem with using it as a disagree button, especially since the count is useless on Lemmy. My client (Jerboa) does give a cumulative score, but again, in the absence of The Algorithm™️ it’s just notational. Sometimes a shit take is just a shit take, and it’s not worth fighting with trolls. Downvote and move on.

          I will say I 100% agree that I like that the up/down ratio doesn’t auto-hide a comment. It was too easy to manipulate the system on Reddit, and sometimes a (genuinely) unpopular opinion was insightful.

          Though. I really would like to know who that one user is that seems to just downvote everything. I think almost everything I’ve seen lately on Lemmy seems to have exactly one downvote. I like to imagine there’s just one super angry dude like NO on everything.

        • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          14
          ·
          1 year ago

          There was a time when Reddit showed not just the sum of upvotes and downvotes, but the counts of both. The best comments were always the ones with hundreds of both up and down.

          Then they hid that, and you needed to use RES to resurrect the downvotes. Then they removed the separate downvote count entirely, replacing it with the controversial tag. Problem is that the flag didn’t differentiate between 5/3 (+2) and 5000/4998 (+2).

          That was the end of Reddiquette, and the beginning of Reddit’s decline into mediocrity.

            • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              10
              ·
              1 year ago

              They started inflating upvotes for sponsored content, about six years ago? It’s around when /popular/ became a thing. Posts with +1000 suddenly had +7000 or more.

              • Z4rK@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                5
                ·
                edit-2
                1 year ago

                Could an instance on Lemmy go commercial and try to do something similar? Let’s say .world continues to outgrow the others and in a year or two it’s time for them to capitalize on their size.

                I guess at some point some instances will go “rogue” in one or more ways and it will be interesting challenges to the fediverse to deal with it.

                • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  5
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  Honestly I have no idea! Can instances fake numbers like Reddit did? I mean, they could use a bunch of bit accounts to fake upvoting and downvoting I suppose, but it’s all public info here instead of all being hidden.

        • MegadethRulz@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          10
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          I agree with the dislike button thing. I’m using wefwef so it’s basically an Apollo clone so I can see my cumulative stats so I guess to me they mean something. I guess everywhere has its own system so it’s a side effect of decentralized community.

          Edit: removed a word

          • Cyyy@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            8
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            but… do most people actually care? i stopped caring about my cumulative amount after a specific amount (currently i’m at 319.056 Post-Karma, 91.827 comment karma). its just too much too care anymore for me. if it goes down or up… i don’t really feel it anymore or even care. i think the whole cumulative score of votes isn’t really fullfilling anything purposefull.

            how do you feel about such a cumulative score? does it triggers dopamine for you? for me it is “meh”, so i’m interested in how other people experience this.

            • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              8
              ·
              1 year ago

              It’s a tale as old as time:

              you do something and number go up? Dopamine

              you do something and number go down? nopeamine

              • Cyyy@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                3
                ·
                1 year ago

                if you get too much of something fun, it stops being fun after a while. same as with drugs… after a while, the same dosis isn’t having the same high anymore as the first time.

                • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  Very true. Moderation and responsible use with drugs is key.

                  Number go up will never stop feeling good hahaha

            • MegadethRulz@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              6
              ·
              1 year ago

              Doesn’t matter much to me as far as high score type fulfillment fluff but as someone who likes stats and something to reference information about where I’m at is interesting at least and appreciated for the sake of being knowing. I always love video games that had a full stat page on the options like gta

        • scottywh@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          7
          ·
          1 year ago

          Comments weren’t originally hidden due to downvotes on Reddit either… That’s a relatively recent change and it sucks.

          I don’t really take issue with downvotes being used as a disagree button as a general rule but I can also see room to improve the system someho, too.

          • Whirlybird@aussie.zone
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            6
            ·
            1 year ago

            As long as they never add any “punishment” for being downvotes then I guess it doesn’t matter. On Reddit downvotes we’re used to reinforce the echo chamber and to essentially silence differing opinions.

          • Tag365@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            Wait, posts showed both upvote and downvote rates at one point and they didn’t collapse by default if they got too many downvotes until recently?

            • scottywh@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              1 year ago

              They never showed both total up and downvotes individually like some Lemmy clients do… Only the sum of the two.

              But, they didn’t used to collapse regardless of the sum going negative.

        • zeppo@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          1 year ago

          It would be nice to not have drive by downvotes, though I don’t always have the energy to explain or reply to someone. About the shit reasons though… how is that determined? Do we have to uh, vote on the reasons too?

          • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            1 year ago

            Do you mind naming the forum? I like that idea.

            I’ve been on some forums you could recognize people with “You did good, have a number” buttons, but having to justify a “you did poorly” is a great concept to me.

            Most of my downvotes here and on Reddit are “irrelevant and basically spam comment”, far more rare here than Reddit. Here I’ve scarcely seen a

            “this”

            On Reddit, I downvoted 80% of the comments I saw, they were all “this” or “I wish I cud giv u AWARD” or “play stupid games” or vapid bullshit like that. Bonus points for the tenth person to comment the same response to a thread because they didn’t bother to read any comments before screeching their “I AM CLEVER FOR RECOGNISE MY REFERENCE” to the void.

          • Whirlybird@aussie.zone
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            6
            ·
            1 year ago

            I think it would almost instantly solve a lot of the issue with the system tbh. Making people not only have to justify their downvotes, but have those justifications be visible means that their bullshit and brigading would be seen and called out/dealt with.

            • linearchaos@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              7
              ·
              1 year ago

              That’s actually another thing I’ve seen here, if you do get brigated there’s a pretty good chance people will come by and balance you back out . And read it once you had a couple people shove you on a box nobody ever saw you to come take you back out.

        • DrQuint@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          I wish the system existed as is but was 100% hidden except for the OP.

          It’s cool to know that a topic got a hundred thousand upvotes and was the highlight of the day.

          But there’s literally no reason to know if someone is currently being brigaded or boosted, it just preempts and primes what judgement they receive. Remove that, and ragedownvotes are gone as people who do it will exercise no power and no influence.

          Lemmy already has another improvement: We can see who’s downvoting you. Every downvote is public and comes with names. So if you personally brigaded, you can go to the admin with evidence and those people will get their vote rights removed, or will get outright banned. But I still think that’s not enough. The “this person has a bad score, I’ll downvote then” is bad and should really not be a thing, I wish we just removed it.

        • Rikudou_Sage@lemmings.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          5
          arrow-down
          6
          ·
          1 year ago

          Well, I downvoted you because I disagree. Who’s on the committee to decide if this is a shit reason? Also, which committee decided that downvotes are not for disagreement?

          • Whirlybird@aussie.zone
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            5
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            Well the rules on Reddit specifically say that the downvote button isn’t a disagree button. Haven’t even looked at the rules on them here tbh, I assume it’s different per instance.

            Mods could decide which were shit, but the good thing would be that even if the mods were shit at least everyone could see who was downvoting in bad faith. It would also showcase shitty mods.

      • SinningStromgald@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        1 year ago

        While third party apps do track total up votes there is no “karma”. So unlike Reddit having 60bajilliondie points means nothing to anyone but you. Don’t even think I can see someone else’s points.

      • blanketswithsmallpox@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        8
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Sorta yeah. Comments seem to mostly be sorted by new to old. Upvotes do matter… But not as much as ‘Boosting’ does to push content to your frontpage.

        Why everyone just doesn’t hit boost is beyond me but eh. It feels like boost is meant for those especially relevant and nice posts you definitely want others to see vs casually clicking.

        • scottywh@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          New is definitely the default comment sort that I’ve seen at least using Jerboa with lemmy.world…

          I’ve never seen this boost option you’re talking about though…

          I see now that you’re on kbin so I wonder if that option only exists there.

      • everythingsucks@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        1 year ago

        From my new user experience it seems like active comments get placed higher regardless of upvoted. i.e. comments that are still being commented on or new ones.

        • MegadethRulz@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          1 year ago

          I like that system actually. Sometimes an unpopular opinion on Reddit would get downvoted and buried but it sparked an interesting discussion where the rest of the thread would be quality content. I like seeing some heavily downvoted comments sometimes and hiding that isn’t necessary. I feel like the user should have control over what way they get their feed and how upvotes and downvotes effect that.

      • donut4ever@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        They certainly did to a lot of people to the point they were afraid to state their opinions so they don’t get downvoted

        Edit: I just noticed your username 😂 fucking epic.

    • DrMango@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      18
      ·
      1 year ago

      I get what you’re saying - that we don’t have a “karma” score associated with our username - but the votes do drive what people see first when they view a particular community or the “front page” so they do matter.

        • egeres@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          At least for now, maybe in the future lemmy starts to integrate instance-based plugins (or god know what) that makes more use of up/down votes

    • scottywh@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      1 year ago

      They didn’t really mean shit on Reddit either except to the high score obsessed and people who intended to sell their account to be used by bots and scammers.

    • Thorny_Thicket@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      I don’t really feel like they meant shit on reddit either. As far as I know high karma doesn’t give you any additional benefits but perhaps bragging rights if it’s something one is proud of.

      • donut4ever@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        I felt like it made some people feel like elites or something. Some folks took them so seriously that they don’t even reply to anyone. I also felt like karma limited some people’s freedom to express what they felt because they’re afraid of being “downvoted to oblivion”.

    • Empricorn@feddit.nl
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Come on, they didn’t mean shit over at The Bad Place either… Sure, there’s extreme examples of accounts racking up crazy amounts of karma, and being able to sell them, but… If you’re not using bots, that still means 99.9% of people didn’t profit in any way from upvotes…