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this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2024
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Earnest question- what is it supposed to be used for? I don't downvote people very often, but I think I've only ever seen it used express approval or disapproval so that the score reflects community sentiment
How is it supposed to be used?
In addition to what others said, in comments the down vote is meant to be used on comments that don't further discussion in good faith.
I used to subscribe to that idea, but I've since changed my mind. If the far majority use upvotes to mean agreement, then me upvoting a controversial, but well structured, opinion will likely be viewed as agreement as well.
It's a nice idea to think the voting system is meant to promote discussion, instead of homogenise opinions in a community.
Yeah, that's kind of the nature of communication I think, and ultimately votes are a form of communication :/
If people understand them to mean agreement or disagreement, that's the message they'll recieve regardless of whether it was the message that you were trying to send.
I guess if I wanna convey I appreciate someone's contribution even though I don't share their perspective I can always leave a comment; that seems like something I'd appreciate seeing in my inbox so maybe it's worthwhile for me to make that a habit
Yeah that's something I do sometimes as well. I usually just don't vote on a comment as a third option for when I disagree with them, but don't want to punish having a different viewpoint ^^
when a post doesn't fit the community purpose or is generally inappropriate
Isn't that where you use the report functionality?
I suppose it depends on how bad it is. e.g. if it's a community for "videos", and someone submits one with unmoving text that is basically an audio file, you could downvote it then for not matching.
Some software - like PieFed and some Lemmy apps - have automated features that rely less on human moderator intervention and more community feedback, to either auto-collapse or even auto-hide replies with downvotes below user-set thresholds. You can ofc disable these, but if you want them... they are there for you. Also they are immediate, as opposed to waiting until a mod wakes up and finds time to render a decision on everything reported since the last time they checked in.
I guess that's usually also the basis on which I disagree with someone 😅 most of the time if I'm downvoting someone it's because I think they're being unkind, which I consider being inappropriate
Thanks for sharing your perspective with me :)
This post does not present the requisite context, which is that this community is a bit special in comparison to others. Read the sidebar text where it explains more how the mod wants people to use it differently. On Reddit there were some others like that, e.g. CMV, and had different-styled icons to help people realize that - before the days where people just expected every single sub to function identically so that they could bother not reading the sub rules before posting or commenting in it.
e.g.:
Ok but even if its for something else everyone else is still using it for that. And on another note, why shouldnt i use it to show disapproval?
It's a tool for curating the content, upvote posts you want people to see, and downvote those you think should be hidden. So stuff that's irrelevant, factually incorrect, pointless, inflammatory etc.
Thinking that something should be hidden just because you disagree with it is problematic.
However you want to use it.