I read in lemmy support that this is a significant problem. I don’t get it. What does anyone gain in down voting without reason?
I read in lemmy support that this is a significant problem. I don’t get it. What does anyone gain in down voting without reason?
If you approve someone, you don’t need to explain yourself, you would just say “I agree with this guy”. There’s no substance to it.
However, if you downvote, you are saying “this is wrong”. Which is much different. When you accuse someone of being wrong, you should explain yourself, otherwise you’re being a dick.
It’s fine if someone already answered with what you were going to answer. You can just upvote that guy and move on.
EDIT: I’m absolutely in awe that this comment specifically gathered so many downvotes. And this is a good example of what I was referring to. Lots of people downvoted, and 0 ppl said why.
I didn’t downvote your comment, but I’ll explain why I don’t agree with it.
We should upvote and downvote based on whether a comment contributes or doesn’t contribute to the discussion. If I disagree with a comment but still find it thought provoking or worth reading, then I’ll probably upvote. If I agree with a comment that adds nothing worthwhile to the discussion then I won’t upvote and might even downvote. If a comment adds no value to the discussion then there’s nothing to be gained by replying to it.
I agree. Unexplained downvotes on posts that look like they’re in good faith weaken the platform - it’s slapping someone who spent time and effort writing their idea.
I’ve heard of other systems that require a reason (or comment) to go along with a downvote. That seems like a good approach.
People enjoy slapping other people.
And they don’t enjoy being slapped.
Other people don’t care how much time and effort someone put into anything, they only care if it makes them fell good or bad. And if you make them feel bad they want to make you feel bad.
A lot of the tech/rationalist lemmyites really don’t get how basic and rawly emotional most human beings are, themselves included.
Because they don’t have the intellectual capacity and/or the courage to engage with what you’ve said in earnest, since it might mean they’d have to agree with you and admit they were wrong (and these are not wise people who understand admitting you’re wrong is the path to being right). They’d rather just “e-boo” you without any more explanation and hope the other stupid cowards do the same and there we go, we were right all along because of numbers! Morons, lol, spineless morons.
And the downvotes on the post I’m replying to just gives what I’ve said here more credence, lol.