> While downvoting might make sense on Yelp or Amazon, it’s disastrous for any platform hoping to foster thoughtful dialogue. This isn’t democratic debate, it’s digital silencing. Dissent isn’t engaged, it’s deleted. Downvoting doesn’t improve quality, it makes a person feel good about eliminating opinions they do not agree with.
Someone shared a Reddit thread recently asking parents if any of them regretted having children. It was on /r/seriousconversation so they were looking for serious replies.
The top voted comments were variations of “I’m not a parent, but I know most parents regret having children”
If you switched the sort order to Controversial, you found pages of actual parents saying that they did not regret having children, though many shared different degrees of challenges they faced to add some context. And they were all downvoted into negative numbers.
On Reddit, the downvote button is used for comments people don’t like, don’t want to hear, or just want to push down lower than their own opinions.
I don’t know how you solve this problem. There are a lot of comments that are truly wrong, meant, or actively harmful that need to be downvoted. Yet it’s also weaponized by people trying to make their opinion rise to the top.
I don’t know if the thread I referred to would be different if the actual parents’ opinions were not downvoted because the non-parent opinions were so upvoted, though. I think the real problem is that Reddit’s active commenter user base has largely become toxic over time and drawn a chronically online, cynical type of person and they have more time to comment and vote-police threads than anyone else. It has driven away most people who don’t want to step into that cesspool of negativity, doom, and gloom.
whycome•6mo ago
Maybe there legit needs to be a third option or something.
The "i dont agree with you, but this is a reasoned comment"
I think reddit got rid of awards? That was actually a cool indicator of substance/quality -- someone used their limited capital to make sure something stood out.
I don't think the comments that are "truly wrong" need to be downvoted necessarily (at least not to the point of disappearing). I think there's value in having the comment exist so that people know the opinion or though exists. And then replies can contextualize or refute it. When we just eliminate or push down things that don't align with us it just reinforces bubbles.
I have to say I really like the innovation on X of allowing 'community notes' as a crowdsourced way of contextualizing even wrong/bad posts.
I'd like to see Reddit experiment with some things. So far they're pretty opaque when it comes to their design decisions.
potato-peeler•6mo ago
Earlier many subreddits used to get featured in r/all and r/popular. It was a good way to discover niche and engaging forums. But now it’s just low effort or a handful of subs, particularly American focused which make it to r/all.
I mostly have to change the geo to some specific country to discover interesting content.
Reddit has been promoting mediocrity ever since it went public.
Aurornis•6mo ago
Someone shared a Reddit thread recently asking parents if any of them regretted having children. It was on /r/seriousconversation so they were looking for serious replies.
The top voted comments were variations of “I’m not a parent, but I know most parents regret having children”
If you switched the sort order to Controversial, you found pages of actual parents saying that they did not regret having children, though many shared different degrees of challenges they faced to add some context. And they were all downvoted into negative numbers.
On Reddit, the downvote button is used for comments people don’t like, don’t want to hear, or just want to push down lower than their own opinions.
I don’t know how you solve this problem. There are a lot of comments that are truly wrong, meant, or actively harmful that need to be downvoted. Yet it’s also weaponized by people trying to make their opinion rise to the top.
I don’t know if the thread I referred to would be different if the actual parents’ opinions were not downvoted because the non-parent opinions were so upvoted, though. I think the real problem is that Reddit’s active commenter user base has largely become toxic over time and drawn a chronically online, cynical type of person and they have more time to comment and vote-police threads than anyone else. It has driven away most people who don’t want to step into that cesspool of negativity, doom, and gloom.
whycome•6mo ago
I think reddit got rid of awards? That was actually a cool indicator of substance/quality -- someone used their limited capital to make sure something stood out.
I don't think the comments that are "truly wrong" need to be downvoted necessarily (at least not to the point of disappearing). I think there's value in having the comment exist so that people know the opinion or though exists. And then replies can contextualize or refute it. When we just eliminate or push down things that don't align with us it just reinforces bubbles.
I have to say I really like the innovation on X of allowing 'community notes' as a crowdsourced way of contextualizing even wrong/bad posts.
I'd like to see Reddit experiment with some things. So far they're pretty opaque when it comes to their design decisions.