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What gets you downvoted?
(lemmy.world)
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this post was submitted on 20 Mar 2024
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Asking why you're getting downvoted is usually the easiest way to get downvotes.
But I often wish I would get a comment about downvotes. It's easy enough to see why I'm getting downvoted when I post stupid shit, but sometimes I feel like even the most uncontroversial post or comment will get at least one downvote. I want to know when I'm wrong, so I can learn!
Like, the other day there was a post getting downvoted to oblivion and nobody told OP anything. I commented my reason and OP actually seemed to be learning from that, edited the post and the downvotes stopped accumulating.
I've seen completely normal and innocuous statements heavily downvoted here. Some people seem to just downvote everything and other people seem to downvote anything that already has downvotes. But one thing is for certain, it's treated as a like/dislike button, not as a meter for content that does or doesn't contribute to the subject.
I don't think either of the popular behavior descriptions of "upvote if it contributes" or "upvote if you like it" really describe why most people upvote/downvote. My personal downvote criteria is more of a checklist:
If any of those are true, depending on the severity I'll leave it be or downvote. I'd imagine most people are similar.
Those are all reasons I downvote too, but I'd lump them all into the "doesn't contribute to the conversation/community" category. I'll also report something if it's dangerous misinformation, or very hostile towards an individual.
I had a conversation with someone about one of my downvotes posts, which helped to understand yet another stupid derailing tactic that terrible people use to stifle conversation. I really appreciated their feedback, even if I didn't see any way to avoid the misunderstanding.