this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2023
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ
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Sooo using the downvoted button for its intended use? I’ll never understand why people get mad when they use the dislike button for stuff they dislike lol
I don't think it's for what you don't "like" but whether it was correct or relevant to the topic. So upvotes push important and relevant info forward. But I could be wrong.
you're right according to official reddiquette. the intended use of the downvote button is to de-emphasize irrelevant content and content that otherwise doesn't contribute to the conversation
i have seen it argued that its intended use use doesn't matter versus how the majority of people actively use it, similar to language and symbols. usage evolves with time, so meaning evolves with it. personally i prefer the intended usage but i can see where ppl who make this argument are coming from.
the lemmy instance i joined doesn't have a downvote button at all!
edit: here's the official reddiquette archived on the wayback machine
Your average reddit user stopped reading at the words "take a moment". Sad, but true.
tbh, i'd be surprised if most people ever even bothered to even open the reddiquette or terms of service or anything else. i'm not trying to put anyone down or be condescending -- i didn't read any of this when signing up either! i only knew about it because i read discussions about how votes should be used on reddit lol
it's true, most people are lazy and don't read and intuitively assume the downvote button is a dislike button. it's unfortunate, but i don't know if anything can reasonably be done about stuff like that because i don't think it's going to change that people don't read agreements or rules or guidelines before using a platform or program or service.
Original function and concept was to use the downvote exclusively as a spam filter. There's a reason those "I only work 5 hours a week and make 6 figures" posts you see on Instagram never happened on Reddit. They all got buried and hidden at the bottom
I don't think it's for what you don't "like" but whether it was correct or relevant to the topic. So upvotes push important and relevant info forward. But I could be wrong.
I know what you’re saying, but I feel like it does both tbh
Don't you think things might become muddled if it serves both purposes? How often do you see people on Reddit admitting they were wrong or compromising versus arguing and when one side concedes just downvoting the other persons comments?
On a sidenote one thing that bugged me about Reddit was people making a comment that agreed with another comment but added nothing but still getting up votes because people agree with it. For example "This" with nothing else.
Think a large part of it is context driven and what kind of community it is. I know in more serious threads, more helpful information was usually upvoted. But I get you, Reddit (the default subreddits especially) got too big for its own good and became the muddied groupthink mess it is today, and I definitely agree that those kinds of comments add nothing to a discussion. I suppose one kind of solution here would be to implement the boosting system like they have at kbin and have that as some "helpful/insightful" button, but I don't think people in general would agree to one standard just like that. They're more likely going to keep doing what they're used to, and that's the voting system. Not sure how to really tackle the problem myself 😅
Def agree a
boostbutton would make more sense and makes the intended purpose clear. At the end of the day I really only care that useful and insightful comments float up to the top.This
That
If you go to a subreddit without custom css on old.reddit and hover over the downvote button you'll be told to only use it for things that "don't add to the discussion".