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Should I disable downvotes? (yiffit.net)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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It often makes me sad seeing some posts receiving downvotes, even though I know it's from random people across Lemmy instances who probably aren't furries.

I could disable downvotes which would make it so that they're ignored by the instance and the count would only reflect the amount of upvotes. But, that also means that Yiffit users wouldn't be able to use downvotes anywhere else.

What do you think?

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I personally am in favor of removing downvote entirely.

The downvote was meant to help stop both misinformation, and to help keep a topic on track. Like you start a topic on daily life in the furry community, but then someone brings up a whole offtopic subject about cars in that same topic. The downvote is meant to stop the offtopic post in it's tracks.

It was never meant to be a tool to show your dislike or disapproval of certain topics or certain subject matter. Like gay furries kissing or 2 ferals doing the deed.

Sadly, to many people today, especially coming from Reddit, they see the downvote button as such a tool. They have weaponized it.

I feel by removing it, it takes away the weaponization. And forces people to do what they should have been doing in the first place. And that is to grow up and learn to ignore the material that offends you and your sensibilities.

I mean, their are something's I do not like seeing posted, but I am not going to downvote anyone over it just because I don't like it. I simply ignore it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I fully agree with this perspective.

Downvoting is redundant with a report feature. Removing downvotes is less comparable to platforms like Youtube, since this place is actually moderated.

People use it primarily as an "I don't like this" button, when they really should be ignoring it or filtering it out. It encourages people to engage with content they don't like. It gives trolls something to feed off of (any attention is good to them). It encourages hive mind behavior, less people thinking for themselves.

Don't give people tools that can be easily abused and expect them to be responsible with it. Give them tools that are easy to use correctly.