mke

It helps people and discourse, so it's appreciated. Stalking and tagging downvoters is probably going too far, though.

While I dislike the way many people downvote in discussions, I don't think anonymity is necessarily the problem.

I believe the downvote currently conflates uses that it shouldn't, which is both a design flaw and a culture issue. Changing culture is difficult, but software can influence and shape it as the medium through which we interact. To improve things, it may be better to experiment with and iterate on these core features, not just expose everyone's actions. Transparency doesn't inherently a positive system make.

Admittedly, this is experimentation that Lemmy might be uninterested in, or outright incapable of.

Votes should be public so you think twice before downvoting something.

This kinda gives off the feeling of cracking down on people with some form of punishment for daring to be honest. I don't think that's a good mindset to be considering this topic in.

Wow, did I misread that badly. Thank you for explaining.

I wonder if they're aware, actually. From the linked issue:

Also noteworthy is that reddit and lemmy are unique in keeping vote privacy: mastodon, twitter, and most other platforms expose them.

What voting system on Twitter is he talking about?

I fear this, too, but I'm not sure what that'd look like. Would people tag someone who downvoted them and act like they're entitled to an explanation? That would probably(?) earn a block from me.

Edit: never mind, that's exactly the kind of thing that happens, it seems.

Maybe. There are likely both *bin users who agree and disagree. Even if they all agreed and removed it, though, there isn't much stopping others from running older versions, patching it back in, or even starting entirely new software that does the same. The fundamental issue, the false privacy of the voting system, remains.

I agree with the general point that privacy isn't a binary thing, but I don't think the bar is nearly so high, as it simply takes opening the post in the right kbin(/mbin?) instance. This requires neither technical skill nor admin privileges.

Sorry, what's an upvote spammer and why are they undesirable?

I've taken to replying in both cases :^)

When I have the time and energy, that is. A lot of my comments are just me adding what I hope is relevant context or correcting what I assume is accidental misinformation.

I understand reducing visibility of "bad" content, I'm just not sure the tool is worth its negative side effects.

Perhaps the value is in having something explicitly written in a book, so that we can actually throw it at them.

They won't catch all cases, but maybe the fear of slipping and becoming the unlucky company that gets caught and punished will have a positive effect on the industry.

I don't have a backgrounder in law, this is simply optimistic speculation in response to pessimistic speculation.

Hey, I agree that MV3 brings benefits (such as better security for the extension ecosystem) and has technical merit, but it's worth noting that uBlock's main dev themselves said it won't work as well. uBO Lite doesn't work fine, it works. It's also worse.

And the same fundamental issue that affects ublock (the new API limits) affects everyone else trying to do the same job using extensions.

The more I see how people use downvotes, the less I like them as a feature in general. I don't downvote things anymore.

• Everyone can upvote, which already brings the most popular content to the top. Why does the system need another dimension to it?
  • I often see unpopular comments at the bottom, with scores like +2 -9... The absence of downvotes wouldn't make a difference in content ordering, because the previous comment is simply +4.
• If I disagree with someone enough to act on it, it's my rule to explain why. A minus one is nearly useless as feedback.
  • Then, once I've replied, what's the point of downvoting? Everyone can read my thoughts.
  • Replies can be upvoted too, for people who think truth comes down to a battle of internet points.
• If I honestly believe something is bad or harmful to the community, it should probably be reported, not (merely) downvoted.

Downvotes as they are seem like outdated design on the human interaction level. They fail to iterate on years of knowledge gained since their inception.