this post was submitted on 05 Sep 2023

-1 points (48.5% liked)

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Should "show scores" default to off? (sopuli.xyz)

submitted 2 years ago by fosforus@sopuli.xyz to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

17 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I saw that setting and switched it off, and now reading through others' and my own comments is like walking on clouds. It's great!

Should this be the default and make everyone's lives here a tiny bit better?

all 21 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] theKalash@feddit.ch 24 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I don't see how it would be better.

[+] fosforus@sopuli.xyz -1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

[deleted]

[–] theKalash@feddit.ch 26 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I think it adds rather important context and allows you to "read the room" so to speak.

[–] x4740N@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

Look at their profile, particularly at their down voted comments and posts it, it explains why op wants this

[–] mdhughes@lemmy.ml 10 points 2 years ago

If you're looking for validation, then probably you want numbers on anyway!

(I leave them on, but don't seek validation. I'm just around to talk and/or fight.)

[–] ekky43@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Tried mastadon before moving to Lemmy. I ended up leaving mastadon as I didn't find that the voting system allowed me to not only read the individual, but also the mass. Lemmy does this much better.

But I do feel that the lack of karma is nice, no reason to be dragged down by your previous bad decisions, or masses who don't understand your humor.

Oh, and I guess it's nice that one can turn off the votes if they don't like them. It makes for a better experience for a broader set of people. But I feel that turning off the ~~comments~~ votes (derp) by default, or perhaps disabling them entirely, would turn Lemmy into nothing more than a glorified RSS feed - which isn't exactly bad, but not the reason I'm here.

[–] Mane25@feddit.uk 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Yeah, I think I might turn it off as well, it makes things a bit like a shouting match.

[+] fosforus@sopuli.xyz 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

[deleted]

[–] dystop@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Yeah, I mean this might my personal deficiency that other people don’t have… but if I see a comment I disagree with and then I see that it has been upmodded heavily, I get a greatly increased urgency to shit on that comment to make people see how wrong it is. Totally toxic and encouraged by the scoring system.

As with anything, this is intended behavior but perhaps taken too far by some people.

A points system is the best way to get a sense of what other people think, and whether your views are generally accepted. When you're in a social setting, you can tell from nonverbal clues (e.g. if you start saying something and people frown/inch away, you know they don't agree). This is valuable.

When you see something upvoted highly that you don't agree with, OR something downvoted highly that you agree with, it could be one of two scenarios:

A. You're right, but people generally have misconceptions about the issue.

B. You have a controversial take on the issue.

It's not always clear which of these it is. That's why a lot of internet yelling matches devolve into some variation of "downvoted for truth" or "downvote all you want, facts are facts and you're just blind" - people think it's B, the person arguing thinks it's A.

To combat this, you need the following:

Reasoning and critical thinking skills are important. At the most basic, learn to distinguish fact from opinion, but also learn to understand an argument.
Be humble. Don't approach it from a "I must win this argument" mentality - try and understand why they're thinking that way.
Pick your battles. Sometimes you just have to disagree and walk away. Nobody is going to give you a prize for making the last comment in an argument.

Of course, it's easier to just not look at the numbers. But then why not just... not use lemmy/reddit/internet forums? If this isn't giving you any pleasure, why read/comment at all?

[–] Chozo@kbin.social 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

For what it's worth, the scores are rarely accurate, anyway, as not all instances sync scores with 100% accuracy, if they even sync them at all. Some instances don't allow or even calculate downvotes. Your score can vary wildly from instance to instance.

It's actually kinda funny to open up your comments in multiple instances to see what your scores are across communities. I've noticed that I'll get heavily downvoted on some instances, but will see highly positive scores on the same comment from my "home" instance.

[–] Mane25@feddit.uk 1 points 2 years ago

Yes, it definitely encourages toxicity, and a kind of herd mentality as well.

[–] Mothra@mander.xyz 6 points 2 years ago

I don't see that setting on my end. I don't think I'd want it off, but if having a switch option makes life better for some people I don't see a problem with it

[–] Chozo@kbin.social 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I'd have to say no. That allows for hate speech, harassment, and general trolling to hold equal footing with otherwise civil conversation.

[–] MJBrune@beehaw.org -2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Good moderators on your instance should solve that, not just leave it up to the votes.

[–] Chozo@kbin.social 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

You can't always trust that the mods will - or even can - take any action, though. Especially due to the federated nature of things.

For instance, you and I are both commenting from different instances, on a post made on a third instance, by a user from a fourth instance. Who has power over who in this situation? Between you, me, and OP, none of us "belong" to the instance this thread is in. Who are the three of us supposed to be trusting to keep this place clean of that sort of content?

One could argue that that's just the inherent risk you take in using federated platforms, but I don't think that's too widely understood among the user base at large just yet. A simple user-maintained scoring system, even as rudimentary as Lemmy's implementation currently is, does a lot of heavy lifting in regards to filtering the good content from the bad.

[–] MJBrune@beehaw.org 0 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

The report button should route it to the post instance moderators. If the moderators on an instance suck then it's time to defederate from them. No reason to keep in contact with bigots.

[–] Vupperware@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

I have things configured inverse to the way you do; upvotes and downvotes appear as two separate values next to all comments and posts for me.

I prefer this, because it allows me to get a more refined look at my fellow lemmy users palate for content.

[–] banana_meccanica@feddit.it 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

It's a number that didn't mean anything.