I’m gonna echo some stuff, so be aware.

I think it isn’t just lemmings/lemmites/lemmizens/piefudlians/mbingos. It’s anywhere humans can show support or non support via visible means. Like/dislike, star ratings, whatever. I’ve not seen any more or less butthurt over votes here than reddit. Maybe less in focused communities where folks tend to directly engage more anyway.

But it comes down to feeling disrespected. Talk to folks in meatspace and ask them about this kind of thing, and if they care about those points, that’s what it often is. They feel like some stranger was rude to them.

Secondary to that, there is also he contingent that has an emotional investment when they vote, so they assume the same in others. In other words, they use voting as a dislike button as opposed to a ranking system. So, they think anyone down voting them is just dismissing them via emotional reaction.

Anyway, as long as there’s a sorting method based on votes, it has an effect beyond that, so you kinda have to be careful to keep it in mind. Me? Other than fat thumb mistakes, my down voting is for off topic, non useful, off-vibe, or otherwise ill fitting comments and posts, usually. Low effort comments will get one sometimes, if the post matters.

Up votes are similarly doled out, though I’m not above throwing one purely because I like it.

I always say you take the downs and the ups as they come. Don’t whine about it, don’t pretend ups mean anything about you or even the subject, it’s not like you win anything by virtue of votes. Hell, even mentioning them in a thread should be limited because it derails things more often than not.

I’m with you on sorting by new. It’s not the downside that you see posts in reverse order, so if there’s a dozen posts about the same thing, you won’t know it until after you’ve interacted with the newest, which may not be where the good interactions are. But it’s still better than the artificially placed sorting.