I’ve seen a good bit of debate on Kbin surrounding downvotes, so what are your thoughts? Should they exist? Should they be shown separately? Should you be able to see who downvoted?

I personally like downvotes and especially like that they’re shown separately. You’re able to get a much better idea of how people feel about something, and you can more easily express a minority opinion. Of course, there are downsides (e.g., brigades), but I think the pros outweigh the cons.

  • Destragras
    1•10 months ago

    To copy and paste my comment from another thread regarding down votes:

    I never really saw the point of downvotes/reduces on Lemmy and Kbin. There isn’t an equivalent of those actions on other Fediverse projects (except if you count reactions on Pleroma) and it causes problems like what you have described [in the thread the OP was describing being downvote bombed through no fault of their own].
    I use the kbin enhancement script’s option to hide the reduce button because I have no reason to touch it.

    Reddit has downvotes as a means of rating down content that doesn’t contribute to the discussion or is spammy, but it tends to be used as a lazy “I disagree” button that attracts bandwaggoning. Why put in the effort to explain why you disagree with something when you can just hit the down arrow and be done?

    I do not know what the intended purpose of downvotes/reduces is here on Kbin. Is it a lazy disagree button or is it like what Reddit intends where comments and posts that don’t contribute should be downvoted?