Blåhaj Lemmy is a Lemmy instance attached to blahaj.zone. This is a group for questions or discussions relevant to either instance.
Downvotes were often turned against trans folk on reddit simply because they're openly trans. I have no desire to see that repeated here, and so I disabled them when we were setting up the instance.
Given that lemmy still has plenty of transphobes, it's unlikely we'll change it any time soon. Ideally, it would be a per user setting that allows the admins to set the default settings for new users, but that's not functionality that exists at this time.
Hey there. I really hope you don't mind me replying to something ancient like this, I didn't want to make a whole new post about a subject that has already been fairly thoroughly discussed.
Personally, I basically never downvote anything and at first I loved that downvotes were disabled in this instance. But it also feels a little like having blinkers on, when everyone else is doing it anyway. Also, if a bigoted comment somewhere in a community in another instance gets 2 upvotes but 20 downvotes, does that mean that all I will see is the 2 upvotes? Wouldn't that give me the false impression that this particular community just doesn't care about bigotry?
Another thing is that I noticed there's a Truscum community here. Which I actually don't want to cause any wars over, so another reason that it's better I reply to this year old post. But based on a run in that I had on Reddit when I was still just starting to ask myself tough questions and address repressed feelings, the fact that they're here makes me uneasy. And probably attracts people from other instances here to downvote and spread the misery. I guess what I'm saying is that sometimes in horror movies, the call is coming from inside the house. So maybe it's futile trying to limit downvotes somewhere with downvotes baked in.
If I'm out of line, I apologise. I can see the value in this if you're only ever going to be commenting and participating in certain Blåhaj communities. So maybe that means that I still haven't found the right instance for me, personally. Which makes me sad because I actually love it here.
Just one last suggestion. Instead of making it a per user setting, is there no option to disable downvotes in specific communities? IMO that would be even better because it stops people from other instances downvoting too. Is this something to bring up with Lemmy devs?
If I could give people the option to choose to turn on downvotes for just themselves, I would do that, or if I could block downvotes from remote instances, but allow them from our users, I would do that. But I can't. The only option is enabled our disabled. So the downvotes stay off so that they don't get used against the openly queer instance.
Another thing is that I noticed there's a Truscum community here
Have a closer look :) It's an anti gatekeeping community that is very much anti truscum.
Unless there is a community I don't know about it. If so, please let me know which community it is, and I'll ban it with great joy.
Have a closer look :)
Oh! Fuck. To be honest, I didn't even want to take a look. That's definitely a relief and sorry for jumping to conclusions there.
As far as downvotes go I really get it. There's been one or two features that I've looked up and get the impression that development on this platform is fairly slow. I definitely get that this is the only way for it be implemented. Watch is a pity because it definitely has its drawbacks too.
Thanks for the response after I dug up this ancient post!
Downvotes are the one thing reddit unambiguously got right. It is impossible to sort content well using only support and apathy. That's just feeding engagemagog.
Unless of course you're a member of a marginalised minority, in which case, downvotes will often be weaponised against you, when people who simply don't like you because of who you are, downvote anything and everything you say.
It's that specific aspect that has lead to them being disabled on an instance focused on trans and gender diverse folk
Which they can still do from other instances, apparently.
This is a well-meaning mistake that keeps getting made.
Downvotes are ignored by this instance, wherever the come from. The algorithm that determines display order is calculated independently on each instance, based on the upvotes and the downvotes that particular instance is aware of. Blahaj Lemmy drops all downvotes from all sources, so the feed that our users see, whether the content is originally from our instance or not, is ranked without downvotes being taken in to account.
tl;ldr - People downvoting our content or posts remotely makes no difference to our local users
... then why would it matter if they're allowed? Even if they're like the Close Door button on an elevator. Honestly it could be a per-user option, at least on comment pages.
You're asking the wrong person. That's a question for the lemmy devs, not for the admins of a specific instance.
But you've modified it enough to ignore downvotes globally.
That's out of the box functionality. That's how it works on any instance that disables downvotes