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.
Part of the problem is that the community isn’t isolated, it shows up on peoples’ All feeds, and folks who aren’t used to a community like this see a really shitty take and reflexively downvote and move on without realizing or caring that that’s kind of the point. We’d honestly be better served (IMO) reversing the norm, downvoting bad takes and upvoting popular ones… upvotes and downvotes don’t matter on Lemmy even to the limited extent that they did on Reddit (they aren’t contributing to a karma score or anything), so it wouldn’t be a problem like it ostensibly would have been there.
Where’s my upvote?
Kidding aside, my main concern isn’t “karma”; can’t speak for everyone though. While, I wanna see quality posts/discussions, I also really want clarity what people actually think are unpopular opinions. If the majority of the people want it your way, I’d be fine with it as long as people are voting consistently.
Also, if a take is reprehensible it gets taken down, like earlier today, a post was removed where someone basically said trans people are the modern day eunuchs. Yikes.
Unfortunately upvotes to affect a post’s placement in /hot. I don’t necessarily disagree with what you say (my comment below yours echoes pretty much the same thing), but downvoting posts that fit this page would hurt how it shows on certain feeds and give a false impression of the community to new users.
Made a post on here a while ago to the effect of “posts that receive a certain amount of upvotes after x amount of hours should be automatically removed for being unpopular.” I think this is the only way to moderate this community. Reddit’s r/unpopularopinion stated its rules all over the sub page and people still voted with what they agreed/disagreed with; in other words, it’s a lost cause trying to force people to upvote things they specifically disagree with.
I think if down votes were somehow disabled that might help. Adding [Unpopular Opinion] before each post title might get people to wake up a bit before voting as well. I don’t think it’s a total lost cause but I do think as things are now communities like this are pointless.
Oh, these are good ideas
I’m not familiar with the original subreddit, but yeah, you’re probably right about that last point
Your wish has been granted
It already sort of is, it’s just that people don’t always even necessarily know which community things are from, let alone care how that community might dictate that they vote.
People just won’t, for any number of reasons.
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.
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
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.
Your opinion is valid, but it isn’t really relevant to my post so encourage you to make you own post about it
I think more often than not with any discussion I’ve had on Reddit I didn’t encounter this attitude. People voted with what they agree with. If you add additional information to someone’s comment or post you might get up voted than as well. I wish the Redditiquette way of voting was used. It would filter out posts that don’t belong in that community and highlight comments that add to the conversation.
I think in order for that to work and really take hold you would need to either have it plastered everywhere in a community in a way even mobile users could see it or have it as an instance wide thing. Because Lemmy is federated I don’t think there will ever be a consensus among users to change this.
It’s simple. You’ll know your opinion is unpopular once the mods remove your post for controversy
