this post was submitted on 25 Feb 2024

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Unpopular Opinion

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Welcome to the Unpopular Opinion community!

How voting works:

Vote the opposite of the norm.

If you agree that the opinion is unpopular give it an arrow up. If it's something that's widely accepted, give it an arrow down.

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Tag your post, if possible (not required)

If your post is a "General" unpopular opinion, start the subject with [GENERAL].
If it is a Lemmy-specific unpopular opinion, start it with [LEMMY].

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1. NO POLITICS

Politics is everywhere. Let's make this about [general] and [lemmy] - specific topics, and keep politics out of it.

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I think there should be a consensus on how people should vote on posts here, and that consensus should be made into a rule that gets put in the about section of this community and/or a pinned post (self.unpopularopinion)

submitted 4 months ago by Mojo to c/unpopularopinion

15 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I'm not sure if this is unpopular per se, but yeah, I don't think people on here are voting in a consistent way and that makes it confusing to know which posts are actually unpopular opinions.

I have seen people say something like "nice unpopular opinion, take my upvote", but the votes don't reflect that sentiment when a truly unpopular opinion is posted and it's heavily downvoted. Also, in reverse, posts that appear to be agreed-upon popular opinions are massively upvoted.

I think a good number of people on here downvote opinions they don't agree with, which is a reflex I can empathize with, but doing that might discourage people to post here. So, I think people should upvoting posts you don't agree with.

And I think that it should be posted clearly for people to read and refer to in the about section of the community. I think maybe it should be a pinned post too (at least for a little while) because I don't think everyone reads the about sections.

TL;DR — For the sake of clarity, there should be a posted rule that basically states: upvotes mean you don't agree with the opinion and downvotes mean you agree. So, if you agree with this post please downvote it.

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (4 children)

No. I disagree. I follow the old Reddiquette.

Downvotes are for obvious spam or irrelevant bullshit. Not for disagreement.

Following that role old Reddit was really interesting and you got some incredible discussions. Because everyone held to that rule you didn't end up with people trying to be funny for up votes. Instead of downvotes people would comment their disagreement.

It was the golden age of Reddit. I hope Lemmy could resurrect that but I don't think it'll ever come back.

Unfortunately this also results in echo chambers, where everyone agrees and that's bullshit. I think it's why corners like QAnon rose up. Instead of people visa being honestly challenged there shit takes were being diagnosed instead.

E.g. I have a genuinely unpopular opinion on here a while back. That ADHD and autism aren't real. That progress quirkiness is being pathologised.

I had the highest number of downvotes in the thread. But guess what?! The vet few people who chose to engage with my view changed my fucking mind! I also found out I should look to ask about diagnosis.

There's plenty of people out there with stupid views. Instead of downvotes then (which eventually hides the comment) they should be engaged and have their view challenged.

[–] Mojo 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

I'm wondering if you read my post fully. My post is specifically relating to this community, not Lemmy as a whole. And I said you should downvote what you agree with in this community. I'm not what your argument is. Are you arguing against voting in gerenal?

Voting is an efficient way of gaging what people think about an opinion. People have finite time and energy. Not everyone who comes across an opinion should have say anything or justify their votes. There will always be some who comment, but expecting it from everyone seems unreasonable. I'm on lemmy a lot but I never post/comment, just read and vote. Posting/commenting requires a lot of energy from me.

Glad you changed your mind on the autism thing and that it took a few nice people to help you with that.

Edit: slight grammar fix

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

I read your post.

I'm arguing against downvotes site-wide

I upvote people I disagree with as much as people I agree with. Because I like being challenged.

You are precisely the person I'm arguing against. You use downvotes for disagreement (your second paragraph).

This hides comments, people rarely know why because their comment gets hidden by the influx of downvotes.

This has multiple effects:

Radicalises and victimizes people. So they end up only knowing that their views aren't popular. Rather than adjust their views they're likely to double down. They aren't challenged. So they may seek out things like QAnon or anti Vax or whatever other echo chambers for their views to be validated. It's peer pressure without feedback. It's harmful.
The very act creates an echo chamber by hiding dissenting comments under a pile of downvotes.
As a result of creating an echo chamber you never have your own views challenged.
It promoted low quality, repetitive humour. Have you not noticed reviews top 3 comments are always shit, predictable jokes and puns?

I'm aware I can't change everyone's habits but I personally will downvote except in rare circumstances and I'm explaining why.

P.S. if I strongly disagree with someone but can't be bothered to comment I just don't vote and move on. Sometimes I come back and explain. Downvotes are lazy and cause problems.

[–] Mojo 4 points 4 months ago

Your opinion is valid, but it isn't really relevant to my post so encourage you to make you own post about it

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