They might also be meaningless internet points. Who knows.

  • d00phy@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    When I first got on Lemmy, there were a bunch of discussions about getting rid of downvotes, and I thought this was a bad idea. For the most part, they do a good job of allowing the communities to self-moderate. Sure there are trolls that downvote everything, and they can rot in Hell, but they’re a very small majority. Generally speaking, up/downvotes provide an easy way to sort the wheat from the chaff in both posts and comments.

    • Optional@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      remember the heated discussions about the “proper” use of downvotes?

      iirc there was a bloc of users who were very adamant that downvotes only be used for indicating the comment in question failed to adhere to the 1964 Chicago Manual of Style regarding commas or something, but everybody else was using it to say “don’t like it” and they were super-cheesed.

      • d00phy@lemmy.world
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        12 hours ago

        Damn! I forgot all about that! Maybe cause I didn’t take it seriously because no real publisher takes the Chicago guide seriously! MLA all day every day m-fers!

      • 1rre@discuss.tchncs.de
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        1 day ago

        Personally:

        Upvote = I like it or it contributes well to discourse

        Downvote = repeated trolling (first comment gets a pass, as do unpopular opinions, but doubling down on unambiguous and apolitical truths doesn’t), spam, scams, etc.

        • TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zipOP
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          1 day ago

          To me, voting is mostly a sorting tool.

          I may upvote to make sure a great comment is higher than the good comments around it. I may even disagree with the comment to some extent, but I’m still going to upvote, because I think it adds something important to the conversation and more people should read it. However, there are also situations when I upvote to show my approval.

    • TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zipOP
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      1 day ago

      There are also trolls who constantly say controversial things. Looking at the downvote counter tells you something.

      There are also people who… I don’t really know what’s going in the head of a person who intentionally insult everyone they come across. Did a nefarious little brother hijack that account or is that person really trying get some achievement about maxing out the downvote counter? Some people are a complete mystery. Either way, the downvote counter serves as a red flag.

      • d00phy@lemmy.world
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        11 hours ago

        Yeah, I don’t get it either. People who take joy in the anger of others are… a different breed.

        • TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zipOP
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          11 hours ago

          Most people play Minecraft to build stuff. Other people just fill a village with TNT.

          I guess those people also treat social media as a game of sorts. Instead of playing it the normal way, they try to find the most unorthodox ways to play it, and that results in a massive torrent of downvotes.