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