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Blåhaj Lemmy is a Lemmy instance attached to blahaj.zone. This is a group for questions or discussions relevant to either instance.

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Why can't I downvote posts? (lemmy.blahaj.zone)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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”.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

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?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 hours ago

Have a closer look :)

Oh! Fuck. To be honest, I didn't even want to take a look. That's definitely a relief and sorry for jumping to conclusions there.

As far as downvotes go I really get it. There's been one or two features that I've looked up and get the impression that development on this platform is fairly slow. I definitely get that this is the only way for it be implemented. Watch is a pity because it definitely has its drawbacks too.

Thanks for the response after I dug up this ancient post!