downvoting everything i disagree with seems excessive and unhealthy, considering i can just ignore and move on. Beehaw doesn’t have downvotes at all, reasoning that you can ignore it and move on or report it, and it seems to work fine for them. i do think downvotes have a use though, i’m just not sure what it is. what do you all think?
I only downvote if the comment is being rude, spam, insulting, or hateful. If it’s someone sharing their opinion about something, even if I and “everyone else” disagrees, it’s not worthy of my downvote. It makes me mad when legitimate thoughts that are relevant, but against the grain, get downvoted.
My general guideline is to ignore what I don’t like, downvote what I find harmful. Of course, the first one is emotionally motivated, while the second is rationally so; and therefore doing this requires a conscious choice. So, when I’m too tired, I might fail at doing this. But that’s the intent anyway.
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