this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2023
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Relaxed section for discussion and debate that doesn't fit anywhere else. Whether it's advice, how your week is going, a link that's at the back of your mind, or something like that, it can likely go here.

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I'm really enjoying no down votes on Beehaw (beehaw.org)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by Kindajustlikewhat@beehaw.org to c/chat@beehaw.org
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When I first found out it was an interesting concept that I was pretty neutral on but the more I engage/lurk with the community the more I enjoy it.

I generally don't post/comment much on Reddit because I tend to be extremely sincere and that's not always well received. Usually I don't get much hate, but what I do get is a lot of non-interaction mixed with downvotes. And it's just really discouraging when I'm just trying to share my thoughts.

But having no downvotes here is so nice because I'm not afraid that I'm going to get silenced into oblivion. Either people will actually engage with me (and maybe disagree, but in a meaningful way), or they'll move on and not randomly share their disdain via downvoting.

It's such a small change but makes a big difference. I bet a lot of people feel the same as me - it's more comfortable to engage here.

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[–] luckless@beehaw.org 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's kind of unrelated but I think the lack of downvotes pairs well with lemmy's lack of vote counting (a.k.a karma score). Counting your internet points always feels so performative to me and kinda ruins the point of upvotes in the first place.

[–] ampcold@beehaw.org 6 points 1 year ago

I think that will turn out to be really important in the long run. The gamification aspect of karma score let to posts and comments leaning more to the quick and funny, and less to long and thoughtful. Especially in bigger subreddits. And then bots started to just repost and reuse previous highly upvoted stuff to boost their numbers even further.

[–] hadrian@beehaw.org 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah it's the lack of vote counting, more than the lack of downvotes, that I really appreciate. (Not to say I really miss downvotes or anything, I just really don't care either way.)

I'm also on Tildes and they also lack downvotes, but once you've been on there a week you get the ability to label things (noise, jokes, malice), which sort of functions as a more nuanced downvote button. But they share the lack of overall karma score, which keeps that same nice non-performative vibe.

[–] Xuerian@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

once you’ve been on there a week you get the ability to label things (noise, jokes, malice), which sort of functions as a more nuanced downvote button.

I'm glad to see other platforms doing this, it worked pretty well on Slashdot for a while.