this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2024
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It's different because there might be some people who you always end up downvoting their comments and you don't even realize it's the same person because you don't look at user names and there aren't really that many prolific commenters here so they will see that you're always downvoting them and assume malice in a way that they wouldn't otherwise because they're not going through your comments, they're only looking at theirs.
For example, this comment just a few down:
They immediately assume that if one person is downvoting them it is malice instead of maybe that one person just disagrees with their comments for other reasons and isn't even looking at user names.
Edit: I just noticed you did the same thing in your comment too. There are not that many users here, just because someone is consistently downvoting your comments doesn't mean they are following you around, there isn't a lot of content and people who spend time here see a lot of it. Maybe they just disagree with every comment you make that they happen to see and have no idea or care who you are.
I think that comment you quoted is actually mine, haha.
Yeah it's a mild curiosity for me. It's fairly rare that my posts get more than one downvote, but it is very common for my posts to get exactly one. I'm sure it is just my brain doing its thing and constantly looking for patterns that has me wondering if it's largely the same person in the first place. You're probably right that it is not coordinated or malicious, and I don't really suspect that it is.
I would definitely not be messaging anybody to ask why I'm being downvoted; personally it doesn't bother me because of course not everyone is going to agree with what I have to say. But I do acknowledge that there is greater potential for that to happen at scale if votes are totally public for everyone.
Edit: And I am not claiming to be perfect myself either. There were certainly a couple users who I have consistently downvoted for what I have seen as bad faith participation. One of those users has mellowed out a lot over time and only rarely gets a downvote from me these days; the other slowly ramped it up until I decided they were worth blocking. I try not to reflexively downvote comments I simply disagree with, but I'm definitely guilty of leaving a downvote in lieu of having the energy to respond with push back to something disingenuous.