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Upvote/Downvote/likes is the cancer that ruined it all. Before that one actually had to speak in support or against any given ideas. Now people can assume anything is true/false based on an arbitrary engagement number.
That lead to a lot more back and forth arguments as people had to get in the last word or people chiming in with agreements because that was the only way to see if multiple people agreed.
I like forums for informational discussions that don't have a ton of back and forth. Forums are better for hobbies in my experience.
Upvote-downvote is a great reaction to all the trolls. combined withan algorithm they can surface the good stuff and alert moderators to garbage. Algorithms are wrong in many places, but that is the implementation that is bad not the idea itself
Lemmys culture of downvoting well written things you disagree with is a problem though. So long as nothing is done about that you can't make a good algorithm. idealy you would have the guts to upvote things you disagree with, but at least we need people to stop using downvote to disagree - respond with reason if you disagree.
A well written post that is completely wrong, possibly offensive, and a net negative to the conversation doesn't deserve immunity to down votes just because of how it was written.
A down vote conveys disagreement and if everyone who disagrees responds then there will be complaints of people getting dog piled. Down votes means letting off some steam for some people, sometimes as a counter to a crappy post or comment getting positive votes they don't think it deserves.
There are also a very tiny number of times that I have seen down votes on something that didn't deserve it. Overall the vast, vast majority of votes are up votes even for stuff that doesn't deserve it and a few down votes doesn't ruin anything. The system works extremely well, even if people have a wide variety of thresholds for up voting and down voting.
What else should a downvote be if not for showing disagreement (Factual or sentiment) with a post?
You're thinking moderators.
I remember a couple forums had a "thank" feature or something similar that would show, with your username, your approval for a post without having to make an additional post about it. No downvotes though, you had to speak up to be a hater. I think that was a fine middle ground.
Yes, I also think the voting system can make things worse in some ways. On a traditional forum the one and only way to show you like or dislike something was to leave a reply. With a voting system a lot of the "engagement" is just a number that moves up or down. It's also way too easy to slip into the unhealthy mindset of mining karma because monkey brain like number go up. Granted on Lemmy it's a bit better since you don't have a single cumulative score.
At least unlike reddit, lemmy doesn't punish you for getting downvotes.
Id argue nested comments are equally as bad as voting. Nesting comments just encourages bickering without any breaks in the chain at all and allow you to attack or even dogpile one specific person and comment instead of having to make your own point on your own comment and see if that has any conversarional merit other than tearing down someone else.