I think one of the problems is that many reddit users deploy downvotes against people who have a different subjective opinion than them. That is the lever that drowns out dissent from the majority. I have been thinking about that for a while now, what is the proper time to use a downvote? My MO is that it is only to be deployed against those who are arguing in bad faith or being disrespectful. Differing opinions should be allowed to exist.
For me I'll only downvote if they're derailing the conversation or being a jerk. I won't even downvote if I think they're objectively wrong or just don't agree with them. I'll upvote good arguments.
I do this because of how downvoted comments get hidden and they only show the added total of votes. If one person has this view then others must have the same view. And let's be totally honest here, people aren't going to go through an entire thread to unhide every single comment in every thread they visit. Hiding wrong comments are a missed opportunity to set other people straight. I've learned so much more from the old forums from the early to mid 00's where wrong comments were quoted and set straight further down the page than on Reddit where all those comments were hidden. And because of that back then it was far less of an insult to be called out when you were wrong, because it was natural and normal.
Now when people downvote subjective things, that's where it really destroys the community. Say the up/down vote split on a comment was 900/1000. This is obviously a hotly contested issue with a small percentage of people thinking negatively of it. But if you were to only see the total (how the site does it now) you'd see -100 and the comment is hidden. Looking at this now if you didn't have an opinion before you might think this person is "obviously" an idiot and people start calling them a troll. This isn't just a ding to that commenter either but the other 900 people that up voted their comment. Do this enough and that other 900 people will start looking elsewhere. Now if the sub is some fanclub for something that's another story. But there's subs that are suppose to be more broad that have succumbed to being dominated by a side and drove away any opposing views.
I'll gladly upvote someone I disagree with as long as I believe they're arguing in good faith.
But when you have bad faith commenters (Like echoing Charlie Kirk's claim that Bernie wants to tax everyone making over $29K 52% [0]), or people being just downright rude, I'll downvote, even if they're posting opinions I agree with. Discourse only moves forward if people are civil and truthful. In more extreme cases of rudeness, I'll report/flag.
> - Vote. If you think something contributes to conversation, upvote it. If you think it does not contribute to the subreddit it is posted in or is off-topic in a particular community, downvote it.
> - Consider posting constructive criticism / an explanation when you downvote something, and do so carefully and tactfully.
> - Actually read an article before you vote on it (as opposed to just basing your vote on the title).
> - Moderate based on quality, not opinion. Well written and interesting content can be worthwhile, even if you disagree with it.
DON'T:
> - Downvote an otherwise acceptable post because you don't personally like it. Think before you downvote and take a moment to ensure you're downvoting someone because they are not contributing to the community dialogue or discussion. If you simply take a moment to stop, think and examine your reasons for downvoting, rather than doing so out of an emotional reaction, you will ensure that your downvotes are given for good reasons.
> - Mass downvote someone else's posts. If it really is the content you have a problem with (as opposed to the person), by all means vote it down when you come upon it. But don't go out of your way to seek out an enemy's posts.
> - Moderate a story based on your opinion of its source. Quality of content is more important than who created it.
> - Upvote or downvote based just on the person that posted it. Don't upvote or downvote comments and posts just because the poster's username is familiar to you. Make your vote based on the content.
> - Report posts just because you do not like them. You should only be using the report button if the post breaks the subreddit rules.
The official reddit rules for using the downvote are similar to your MO. The problem is you can't expect people to read and abide by rules on when to use such a simple feature, and they're impossible to enforce anyway.
