• Holytimes@sh.itjust.works
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    3 days ago

    Sounds awful, kinda shit and overly controlling. Freedom to express disinterest and dislike is an important function of a healthy discourse.

    • Jorunn (she/her)@piefed.blahaj.zoneM
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      3 days ago

      People can still express these things via comments and posts? Forums and others formats do perfectly well without down and upvotes. I’ve now been using blåhaj for quite a long time and I can’t say I miss downvotes much.

          • Saapas@piefed.zip
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            3 days ago

            I guess the instance relies on more active moderation to clear low quality posts?

            • Jorunn (she/her)@piefed.blahaj.zoneM
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              3 days ago

              We do very actively remove bigoted content, but beyond that we’re not really large enough to have many low quality posts locally. Some communities here very much embrace shitposting such as this one, so no moderation required there.

      • verdare@piefed.blahaj.zone
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        3 days ago

        Eh, the level of effort/friction in making a constructive comment vs downvoting isn’t really comparable. Removing the latter option shifts a larger burden onto the moderation team. That said, downvotes can be abused too, so I’m honestly not sure which is better.

    • LadyAutumn
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      3 days ago

      Members of marginalized communities commonly experience downvote brigading from bigoted groups. It can function as a silencing tactic as well, as most clients auto hide highly downvoted comments.

    • SuperNovaStar
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      3 days ago

      I think it’s there because other servers would downvote brigade blahaj? I’m not sure of the history there but I would think Ada did it for a reason.

    • atopi@piefed.blahaj.zone
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      3 days ago

      Discourse can function without a button that shows your dislike for someones response
      There are other ways to show your disagreement

    • queerlilhayseed@piefed.blahaj.zone
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      3 days ago

      It’s a tradeoff, but I kind of like it. For me, it’s made me realize how much I pre-judge comments based on their vote ratios instead of on their content, which is more than I’d realized. I think it’s a mechanic that contributes to the group-thinkiness of a platform. Upvotes do too, but I think downvotes specifically are kind of a contextless “shame button” that don’t contribute as much as a critical comment, but do tend to bias new arrivals to a downvoted comment against it before they’re able to judge for themselves.