Currently downvotes are enabled on a trial basis, this was done by me to see if they can be enabled to prevent spam from rising to the top of communities, along with the fact that is another form of interaction/feedback.
However I've gotten some pushback for this and so I'd like to see the general consensus of this decision. Please put any comments/concerns in this thread, and please vote here:
(Link gone poll is done)
the results of this poll and the comments will determine if we keep or remove downvotes again
A poll isn't a good way to decide this. Regular posters suffer from downvotes more than others, and they drive our community. Their opinion should count for more.
Currently three regular posters have complained about it:
Yes I definitely understand that, that's why the comments here and the poll are being taken into consideration
To be quite frank, I don't know why you're even doing this. We had a discussion about it last year and all the same points were raised after which you turned them off, only to turn them on and have another debate a few weeks later and you then had to turn them off again. I think you know that you will probably have to turn them off again at some point. So how about you level with us, what is it about downvotes that you find so compelling?
The stated reason is spam. We've been getting a lot of that recently, so I get admins are looking for a way to deal with it. But the spam is being upvoted, so I don't think it's working.
Yeah this time spam. This is admin Yay talking about it last year:
https://lemmynsfw.com/post/4962186
Then he said this a few months later:
https://lemmynsfw.com/post/7152586
"Annoyed by the lack" and ":/" sounds like the admins just want downvotes. Well, it is their instance and they will have what they want.