I’ve mostly been using the Sync app (which shows a downvote option everywhere), so I didn’t notice the lack of downvoting until I was spending a lot of time on desktop yesterday and saw there are actually no downvote buttons anywhere 😮 on Reddthat.
I’ve since tracked down what seems to be the Reddthat policy discussion around this issue, which also made clear that even if I downvote content from another instance through a 3rd-party app like Sync, because I’m doing it from an account on Reddthat (which has downvoting disabled), my downvote doesn’t go through!
This sucks. 🙁 Downvoting is an essential tool for users to help keep their communities on-topic and discourage bad behavior. It lets people take action against ignorance or bigotry without feeding the trolls; minimize people trying to derail discussions or be obnoxious in the comments; and prevent memes, sensationalism, and low-effort posts from flooding communities meant for thoughtful discussion.
It’s unfortunate that lemmy doesn’t support disabling downvotes just within specific communities yet, so this wouldn’t have to be such an all-or-nothing policy, but as-is this means making Reddthat my home instance has restricted my options and given me less of a voice everywhere within the lemmyverse.
@ticoombs@reddthat.com, is there any chance this policy will be reconsidered? So many comments in the previous discussion seemed to agree that downvotes are a valuable and desired feature. It doesn’t seem like that feedback has resulted in any kind of policy change yet though. Was a specific decision made after that discussion to keep voting disabled, or has it just been stuck in a wait-and-see state? Would it be possible to change this?
Upvote/downvote is irrelevant and a dumb idea. Just interact with people and don’t worry about it.
Thats like playing battlefield without being able to see you kills / deaths. Not that I care that much about up and downvotes but seeing no downvotes when other instances can kinda sucks imo
If you choose to look at how you interact with people that way, I suppose it can be like that. Most people just talk with one another and not worry about it.
Have you been online for more than ten seconds? Half the content is bots and half of what’s left are trolls. Neither of which can be reasoned with, you’ll only lose brain cells trying.
So which of them are you?
Two thirds Liechtenstein propaganda, one eighth smoothbrained comedy, and quick maffs five twentyfourths ill informed and irrational opinions that I will defend till my last breath.
I too think that is the case. At the end of the day I think people forget that there are other humans on the replying end and they say things that they wouldn’t in everyday life.
I would also say a majority of people chose to move to Lemmy instances thinking it was a replacement for reddit and want it to be exactly like reddit. Except it isn’t in some cases. That is what I’ve chosen for Reddthat.
I also find it interesting that the only commenters here are from other instances so far 😁
Well now I’m conflicted because I want to upvote your comment, as I also agree. So I’ll interact AND upvote! Because I won’t conform to what you tell me. Also, I hope you have a lovely day
Aww! You have a lovey day as well!”