Why can't I downvote posts?
Why can't I downvote posts?
Sometimes I see a post that could really use a downvote, but I can't downvote it. I really think being able to downvote posts that are not great (rascism, tankieism, dumbass takes, etc) is a really cathartic experience and I miss having it from my old instance.
I understand wanting to remove downvotes to combat negativity, but I don't think it's a good idea. When YouTube removed dislikes, people missed having them.
Edit: A lot of people are replying to this saying that if someone posts hateful content, I should just block and report them. Which I don’t disagree with, but there’s always content that’s annoying enough to want to downvote, but not bad enough to go against the rules of the sub. I’d rather just downvote that sort of thing and go on my way than leave a comment saying “shit’s cringe, yo”.
Downvotes were often turned against trans folk on reddit simply because they're openly trans. I have no desire to see that repeated here, and so I disabled them when we were setting up the instance.
Given that lemmy still has plenty of transphobes, it's unlikely we'll change it any time soon. Ideally, it would be a per user setting that allows the admins to set the default settings for new users, but that's not functionality that exists at this time.
Hey there. I really hope you don't mind me replying to something ancient like this, I didn't want to make a whole new post about a subject that has already been fairly thoroughly discussed.
Personally, I basically never downvote anything and at first I loved that downvotes were disabled in this instance. But it also feels a little like having blinkers on, when everyone else is doing it anyway. Also, if a bigoted comment somewhere in a community in another instance gets 2 upvotes but 20 downvotes, does that mean that all I will see is the 2 upvotes? Wouldn't that give me the false impression that this particular community just doesn't care about bigotry?
Another thing is that I noticed there's a Truscum community here. Which I actually don't want to cause any wars over, so another reason that it's better I reply to this year old post. But based on a run in that I had on Reddit when I was still just starting to ask myself tough questions and address repressed feelings, the fact that they're here makes me uneasy. And probably attracts people from other instances here to downvote and spread the misery. I guess what I'm saying is that sometimes in horror movies, the call is coming from inside the house. So maybe it's futile trying to limit downvotes somewhere with downvotes baked in.
If I'm out of line, I apologise. I can see the value in this if you're only ever going to be commenting and participating in certain Blåhaj communities. So maybe that means that I still haven't found the right instance for me, personally. Which makes me sad because I actually love it here.
Just one last suggestion. Instead of making it a per user setting, is there no option to disable downvotes in specific communities? IMO that would be even better because it stops people from other instances downvoting too. Is this something to bring up with Lemmy devs?
If I could give people the option to choose to turn on downvotes for just themselves, I would do that, or if I could block downvotes from remote instances, but allow them from our users, I would do that. But I can't. The only option is enabled our disabled. So the downvotes stay off so that they don't get used against the openly queer instance.
Another thing is that I noticed there's a Truscum community here
Have a closer look :) It's an anti gatekeeping community that is very much anti truscum.
Unless there is a community I don't know about it. If so, please let me know which community it is, and I'll ban it with great joy.
Downvotes are the one thing reddit unambiguously got right. It is impossible to sort content well using only support and apathy. That's just feeding engagemagog.
Unless of course you're a member of a marginalised minority, in which case, downvotes will often be weaponised against you, when people who simply don't like you because of who you are, downvote anything and everything you say.
It's that specific aspect that has lead to them being disabled on an instance focused on trans and gender diverse folk
IIRC the idea is that hateful content should be reported so it can be removed.
Yeah, but there’s always content that’s annoying enough to want to downvote, but not bad enough to go against the rules of the sub.
This is a dronerights alt BTW
[I got a bot to automatically delete all my comments over 1 month old so you can't see this comment anymore]
Yeah, Blahaj specifically has downvotes enabled. It feels like most of the queer friendly spaces do. If you find a queer instance with downvotes enabled, could you let me know?
I'veen doing fine w/o downvotes. Reddit had too many spam bots that instantly downvote things anyways. Makes it too hard to get out of New
Sounds like a client issue. I have a working downvote button on this very post.
Because you’re on an instance that enables downvotes. Some instances like lemmy.blahaj.zone have them disabled.
Upvotes and Downvotes exist separately from each other and when Downvotes are disabled, just the Upvotes are being counted on our clients.
Same with any content that lives on our instance, if a federated user on an instance that supports them downvotes our content their downvotes just don't get federated, at all. The downvoted contend only recieves a downvote on their instance and all other instances won't recieve it, though only applies to content where the original is on an instance without downvotes.
However, because the post was made to a Blahaj Lemmy community, those downvotes will only be visible to folk on your instance, because Blahaj Lemmy just ignores downvotes that federate to us, and doesn't federate them onwards.
What's a tankie? Never encountered this word before Lemmy and now every other meme is about tankies
A tankie is an apologist for murderous authoritarian leftist, it's a reference to the Soviet & Chinese government's use of tanks against protesters. Tankies will generally deny, downplay, &/or justify genocide & political mass muder.
I think Ranger has a really good reply, I just wanted to add:
Other places on the internet/IRL don't really differentiate between groups of leftists (because leftists = evil communists always). A lot of us here are pretty left and don't tolerate apologia for totalitarian, oppressive governments just because they attempted to distribute wealth more fairly than American/Western capitalism.
There are many flavors of left. No need to tolerate mass killings and genocidal behavior. Abolish unjust hierarchy, in all forms.
I am unable to see any of the replies to this post's comments except for one reply. Is that a byproduct of moderation?
It's likely because you haven't set the languages correctly in your preferences. You need to make sure you have "Undetermined" selected in your preferences, as well as English and any other language you speak.
yeah, adding English to the list of checked checkboxes fixed it for me. Undetermined was already checked.
I don’t know, but something similar has been happening to me, where I can see a thread of replies to some comment, but I can’t see the original comment. It could be moderation, or it could just be the client that I’m using.
It's likely because you haven't set the languages correctly in your preferences. You need to make sure you have "Undetermined" selected in your preferences, as well as English and any other language you speak.
You can from other instances.
…I know. That’s the point.
I am talking about a problem with my instance, on a sublemmy specifically for talking about this instance.
sublemmy
It's called a community.