21
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by cosmicrookie@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

I woke up today, to a public comment in a Lemmy community asking a series of tagged accounts why they had downvoted certain posts

I thought that reactions to posts and comments are anonymous and now I don't really know what to feel about Lemmy any more.

In this case I had downvoted a poster because of its design, but was confronted publicly for being racist because the person assumed that I downvoted the message on the poster

EDIT: changed the title from "How" to "Why" because it broke rule nr 5 about it being a support question

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] MisterNeon@lemmy.world 0 points 1 week ago

That's creepy! I down vote and am down voted constantly.

[-] cosmicrookie@lemmy.world 0 points 1 week ago

It's also petty... But knowing that this is so easy to identify people behind vote activity fundamentally changes how I feel about Lemmy

[-] BlueKey@fedia.io 1 points 1 week ago

Maybe we should convey to new users more strongly that ActivityPub software "is like a large open place, where you can publish what you want (minus moderated content) and everyone has the ability to see everything you did".

[-] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 18 points 1 week ago

If someone is posting about you downvoting them, then they're a seriously flawed individual. Some people will take any reason they can to call other people racist. I think it's a fetish, honestly.

You're fine.

[-] Aeri@lemmy.world 18 points 1 week ago

I just block anyone who confronts me about why I voted a certain way. "Because I felt like it, fuck off cunt" is my go-to justification.

[-] bitjunkie@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

I like your style

load more comments (6 replies)
[-] Andy_R@feddit.uk 13 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

The Fediverse is open, everything you do on here is fully public.

It's why I prefer it over reddit, where who knows what really happens with all the vote manipulation and brigading.

To answer your question, it is all listed alongside upvotes on the posts if using mbin.

load more comments (6 replies)
[-] Kolanaki@pawb.social 13 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Much easier to determine vote manipulation when there is no central authority to handle it and the votes, as well as moderation actions, are publicly visible.

[-] TORFdot0@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago

The protocol is ActivityPub not ActivityPriv

[-] Asudox@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I'm pretty sure the Pub doesn't stand for Public, but rather Publish.

edit: not saying that it is private, just my opinion on whether the pub is an adjective or a verb

[-] mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

And what does publishing something do? Does it make it widely available to the public?

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] TORFdot0@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

You are right but you can’t exactly publish something and expect it to be private

[-] Fedditor385@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

Still Publish, not Privish.

[-] Klear@quokk.au 2 points 1 week ago

And certainly not ActivityCafé

[-] K3can@lemmy.radio 8 points 1 week ago

Isn't the Fediverse supposed to be open?

You can show your personal support for something by upvoting it or your opposition to something by downvoting it, but if you don't want to take a stance on something at all, you don't have to.

It's an entirely optional mechanic. You can fully utilize Lemmy to view, post, and comment without ever voting if you don't want to.

As far as I'm aware, the votes don't really matter, anyway. Lemmy doesn't seem to use karma the way that Reddit does. i.e. I've never seen a post removed because the user didn't have enough karma, etc.

load more comments (11 replies)
[-] trk@aussie.zone 6 points 1 week ago

Who cares? Upvote what you like, downvote what you don't. Who cares if someone has a whinge.

[-] urheber@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 1 week ago
[-] cosmicrookie@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

Thanks! That's is very helpful and also concerning

Not sure how I feel about this

[-] Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 week ago

Why is that concerning? The whole system was meant to be transparent

[-] RedstoneValley@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Not the OP, but i find it concerning because this enables creating a very detailed profile of a users interests, political alignment, medical issues, sexual orientation etc. Even if they never post anything! We should all know by now that there are bad actors actively using this kind of data in the worst ways imaginable. In the US this can already have life threatening consequences (ICE raids etc...)

This is not a good privacy oriented design and it exposes users in a dangerous way.

EDIT: About lemvotes.org. I like this site because it makes it obvious how dangerous this really is. For example I accidentally upvoted a really disgusting NSFW post misclicking on my phone. This will forever be visible to the world. I'm a documented pervert now. Good job.

[-] hansolo@piefed.zip 2 points 1 week ago

Which is why you shouldn't put all your interests in one account.

Have one account for memes and shitposts, then another for bringing down the patriarchy and kinky stuff. OK, so maybe 3 accounts

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (8 replies)
[-] cosmicrookie@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

I had expected reactions to be encrypted, as it's not a build in feature of Lemmy itself. If it was, I feel like it should have been visible, just like the modlog. There must have been a reason why the Lemmy devs don't show a list of who up votes or down votes

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[-] acockworkorange@mander.xyz 2 points 1 week ago

Please wholly ignore people butthurt about downvotes. We all do. Voting does not warrant any explanation.

[-] Grimy@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

It's to guard against bot accounts. I'd much rather have that instead of the clearly manipulated comment sections on Reddit. The pro-israel posting and down voting went away almost overnight when we got broader access and a few mods got called out about it. Go look at a comment section about it that hits all on Reddit, there's clearly artificial voting going on.

It's still not that hard to mess around but I'll take what I can get, and I guess it does keep the racists away, even if it's sometimes a false positive like in your case.

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] hobovision@mander.xyz 1 points 1 week ago

Up voting for good discussion.

load more comments
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 26 Jan 2026
21 points (95.7% liked)

Ask Lemmy

37470 readers
406 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS