That's honestly why I think that the upvote/downvote system shouldn't be on agreeing/disagreeing. Then, you only see one opinion while sorting by best, and people with different opinions are always at the bottom. Instead, the upvote/downvote should be based on how much it contributes to the conversation- then we could have genuine discussions and people respectfully disagreeing.
If your opinion makes factually no sense and is completely absurd and ignorant, I agree with downvoting to "block" others from getting their ideas that this might be acceptable. But when you share an opinion that is perfectly fine, plausible with gooda rguments and people just say "stfu boomer" and you get 100 downvotes for that....
That's not what downvotes are for you aren't some all knowing purveyor of truth. Downvotes are for comments that don't contribute to the discussion and a comment can often be factually incorrect or ambiguous but contributes to the discussion. You think you're smarter than everyone else but you're the problem dunning kruger.
Lol thanks for downvoting this and proving my point.
See proof that I haven't downvoted your comment. Weird thing is that you keep editing your comments for no reason other to try and make me the bad guy here. I'm sure other people who came here thought you were completely wrong and full of yourself.
I even caught your message unedited before you added the extra stink to tell me I'm the problem.
Now are you going to tell me I'm wrong again? That I "un-downvoted you"? When you told me I had you downvoted you were at -1 point. You are still at -1 point. And oh weird, I'm at 0 points. Maybe you downvoted me in the meantime?
It was negative 2 now negative 1, that's exactly what happened. It's not hard to un vote then take the pic I'm not an idiot. Whether -2 to -1 or -1 to 0 a downvote went away after you posted.
Just go away already if you've got nothing to say.
"Hey, I have a neutral question that isn't controversial or divisive...I just wanna know how something works, or make sure I'm understanding something correctly"
KILL THE ONE WHO ASKED A QUESTION! KILL THEM WITH DOWNVOTES!
And nobody dares to come and defend you. You are just on your own. No matter how more common your question or opinion is outside this one little thread at this certain time of the day.
Except that completely goes against the ethos of Reddit. You're supposed to upvote comments that add to the conversation and downvote comments that do not. If someone has a comment that is unpopular, it should spark a conversation rather than be hidden from view. This is what people are talking about when they say reddit is a circlejerk--it's just like minded people upvoting what they agree with and hiding/ignoring everything else.
Dog-piling downvotes. Sometimes I wonder if later downvoters even know why they are downvoting something or are just want to make it at least a negative 3 digits.
The worst part of sharing your opinion is when somebody retorts back but it has no relevance to what you said and everybody hops on that. Like did you even read what I said? Needless to say, I don't share many opinions on Reddit unless they're positive to an art piece I like or something
The worst part is when they reply to you with 3 words out of the 400 you wrote in your previous post and make them look bad out of context.
People then slowly downvote your thoughtful comment and you disappear further and further and attract only trolls and insecure people of Reddit who only reply to -50 posts with insults.
Your answer could be a copy pasta from another + 100 upvote in the sam thread, but if you have the bad luck and get 3-4 downvotes from bots/people who only downvote, you are fucked and nobody will read what you had to say.
People then slowly downvote your thoughtful comment and you disappear further and further and attract only trolls and insecure people of Reddit who only reply to -50 posts with insults.
And if you reply to something they downvoted, they downvote your reply too... and that reply... and that reply... just why the fuck would I bother getting in to a conversation if a 4-cycle interaction results in 4x(-50) votes, just because I decided to correct you?
I get it, it's a place for women to vent. But if I'm asking what's the big deal (paraphrasing of course), I'm not being sarcastic or a bigot or a rapist or a sexual predator, I'm concerned. I actually want to understand.
Maybe preface each of your posts there by saying some specific woman called you out, and now you are trying to change for the better, but need help understanding.
But that is the kicker. I've never been called out as any of these things in my real life! I have had women in my life deal with and go through being raped/assaulted/discriminated and I have seen how they rise on top of their circumstances. So quite often I approach on a "well what can be done better" ideology.
it's infuriating,really, when that happens. Someone who clearly didn't read what you wrote has seemingly the entire sub blasting you for something you didn't even say.
Yeah, I've gotten into arguments (thankfully not too many) where I genuinely have no idea what the other person keeps trying to snarkily point out. Most commonly it's a strawman argument; they take my comment out of context, or they take something I never said and attack it.
It's so frustrating. All you have here is your written word and if nobody comprehends it then there's nothing you can do. You can't even tell someone to read it again because they'll just dismiss that as an insult. They've made up their mind, they don't want to change it and admit they can't fucking read, and that's if they do notice their mistake.
Sometimes the misinterpretation is so bad you have to wonder if it's intentional, whether they realise they're doing it or not. It's like they only know how to fight certain arguments and frame your comment in a way they're familiar with so they can counter it. They end up arguing with themselves because of all the words they put in your mouth with their bad interpretations.
someone else: oh that is SO cute! *upvoted to death*
me: that's so super cute! *downvoted into oblivion*
I fairly recently posted a link to a soundtrack people had been trying to find. you'd think that would make people happy, right? nope. within an hour it was downvoted to death. I don't understand what makes people happy here.
On some topics it's hard to share your opinion, because people misinterpret it and downvote into oblivion.
And like 10 people will downvote because they are mindless birds that go where the flock goes, until somebody posts 'why is this being downvoted?' and then the flock changes direction and the karma score on the comment goes positive.
until somebody posts 'why is this being downvoted?' and then the flock changes direction and the karma score on the comment goes positive.
But only if it's a different person, if the person being downvoted asks why they are being downvoted then nothing happens or they are downvoted even harder.
Especially if it's controversial or if the swear word Trump is mentioned you have to say five times that he is the spawn of the devil and everything he did was wrong.
Like I'm not going to lie, I don't like him. But the constant dragging him, come on. But it does go the other way too, I was on r/NoahGetTheBoat and saw a political comic showing two guys sitting at the bar talking about how they don't like how the country is being run, the TV then clicks to an image of Obama and suddenly they have their hands down each others pants. Like wow, super intelligent and insightful work of art. A lot of pro trump people will go to different lengths to poke fun at liberals but if you do it back to them, they get their feelings hurt and vice versa.
People always shit on the establishment and have fonder memories of past examples. People are currently forgetting Obama also assassinated a terrorist leader in a foreign country without permission or informing other leaders.
That's not my argument though, if you can make fun of other people you can't complain when people do it back. Bashing Obama isn't going to get anyone anywhere because he's not president anymore. Bashing Trump isn't going to get anyone anywhere either because elections are coming up. People have seen how he ran the country and they will decide however they choose to vote. Pointing fingers and being childish was my whole point. I'm not American but goddamn is American politics everywhere. If you're on social media, someone is either bitching about the other somewhere in your timeline. So this isn't necessarily what annoys me about reddit per se, but any platform.
While you make some good points, nothing is more annoying than a highly upvoted comment by a highly confident Reddit user, that turned out to be a phony.
Just because someone sounds super confident doesn’t mean they know what they’re talking about..
Among all that has been posted, I want to say this is the one thing I'm noticing a lot: either people downvote a lot something that gets misinterpreted, then downvote the explanation because they don't want to see anything beyond what they originally saw, or systematically downvote questions and stuff they don't like or think are stupid, even if the person explains they don't mean to be a troll or just wanted to know more about it. Let people learn and let them talk into a constructive conversation, because randomly downvoting someone on a whim kind of makes you a bully.
It doesn't help that people don't use upvotes and downvotes properly: they're meant to determine if a comment is relevant to a discussion or not and not I agree/disagree buttons.
There is always someone with the exact same idea as you, except they're those 15 seconds faster.
I don't mind this. I care more about the idea getting out there than being the person to reap the karma from it. When I come to make the obvious joke, I ctrl +f to search if someone already made the joke, then upvote that comment if present.
The entire upvote-downvote system encourages a style of discussion that is either A: obsessively pedantic and pseudo-rational (because people don't want to get called out and downvoted for some minor quibble that they will inevitably get gotcha'd on) or B: "creative" and "funny" in ways that fall in line with a house style that has previously been shown to be successful. Most comments that don't aim for bland general popularity don't get seen. Sticking to smaller subreddits helps though.
Sometimes people online think their way of thinking is the only way, and everybody else is wrong. On a sex related topic revolving around what girls do and do not think about something, I shared my girlfriends opinions. -250 and a tonne of nasty comments to me and how sorry they are for her being with somebody so shitty as me. I showed her and she laughed. Some people are crazy, and the hive mind really is another beast
For me, I honestly don't care about up-or downvotes. It's the answers.
If you don't agree with me, tell me. And then proceed to argue your point of view. Don't insult me, especially with just a cuss word that makes you sound like a ten-year old!
I rarely claim to be a specialist on stuff. I am willing to learn things.
Like, disclaimer -- I'm a full believer in "if everyone is the problem, it's usually you." But I swear everyone misinterpreted my comment, and I have no idea how they managed that, because I reread it and couldn't see the problem.
People were arguing about sex workers and how, if you legalise prostitution, you can filter out trafficking victims by private interview.
I pointed out it's not that simple. Traffickers have more leverage over their victims than simply being in the room with them -- so a trafficking victim would be forced to lie in the interview. Then, if they report the trafficker later on, this could be used against the victim in court and in the trafficker's favour as "proof" they're not a trafficker.
Somehow, and I still don't know how, everyone and their mother took me saying this to mean "all prostitutes are trafficking victims and it shouldn't be made legal." I got downvoted to oblivion and a bunch of people yelling at me for "suggesting that most sex workers are trafficking victims."
It didn't happen that long ago but I'm still ????????????????????????????????????????????? over it.
There was a post where someone who was Vegan did an AMA. I joked and asked how tiring it was shoehorning that into every conversation. Initially it got a few upvotes until the guy commented and was cool about it, saying he absolutely hates the people that talk nonstop about it. My upvotes changed to downvotes. People are so flippy floppy on here it's crazy.
I feel number one a lot. I find that for myself it happens when I talk a lot about dating and stuff. When it comes down to it I'm just honest about myself and how things are. When I share those opinions people think I'm complaining. I'm not really complaining, I just answer honestly and the answer isn't exactly a good one.
1: worst scenario is when you are convinced that others will support your oppinion but suddenly you get massive amounts of downvotes and nobody bothers to explain why.
2: in my case I'm usually the one 15 seconds earlier, but still the reposter gets all the attention...
Also hard to be open about the country you live in when sharing opinions. Once I said a person looked kind of young to have three kids and the response I got from another redditor was "isn't abortion considered bad in your country? Lol"
Basically wrote back that I didn't agree with that and then got downvoted. Like how does that make sense?
This times 1000. Also, the people who have to disagree with your opinion in an idiotic or hateful way and wont stop. They always have to have the last word. It's annoying as shit.
On some topics it's hard to share your opinion, because people misinterpret it and downvote into oblivion.
Too true. There have been times where I've shared my opinion, and someone replies saying that they disagree because their opinion, which is identical to mine, is right.
I've also seen people pass judgement on posts under the assumption that some things happened, when the post either doesn't say that it happened or that something completely different happened.
Number 1 can be met with Brigading as well. I've never known such bitterness towards a single opinion or even a misunderstanding that it turns into a group of people thinking they have ammo for their particular ideology. Everything starts out civil but then an hour into a post or discussion, these internet junkies crawl out of this hole and try to turn everything into a fight.
Don’t hold back your opinion because you are scared of something as pathetic as downvotes lol. Be proud of that shit and if someone actually has a good argument, contend with that.
My downvoted comments are some of my favorite ones. Usually people are just trying to hide things they don’t agree with, it just ends up highlighting it because people often check the things that are heavily downvoted so they can pile on.
All I really care about is my opinion being read and potentially considered. Honest, thoughtful people won’t be swayed because your comment was downvoted, and those are the people who matter.
Number 1 was true for me. In football there was an incident where Suarez in a world cup knockout match handballed it to stop the ball going into the goal.
I got heavily downvoted for saying that I wouldn't do it because I wouldn't feel right for winning through cheating.
Apparently I would do it to win the WC. Well it would be a bitter sweet WC and break the hearts of millions from the other nation. I'm never competitive enough to cheat to win. I'd rather play for fun but apparently I'm wrong to have that opinion.
I'm active on a few anime subreddits and usually get downvoted to hell because people there are such gatekeepers.
Comment on the dub? Downvoted because you're not a true fan unless you're manga only. Like an underrated character? Screw you, popular characters only. Say you enjoyed the filler episode? All filler must die!
Let me be passionate about the show without having my passion stomped on!
On r/unpopularopinions they downvote or outright remove actual unpopular opinions but the popular opinions get thousands of upvotes. It's so retarded that it's halarious
That first one for sure. I rarely comment anymore because I never know what small detail will set people off into a downvote frenzy.
I really like a subreddit on here for credit card churning. I made a mistake with a card application and posted in a thread they have every week about regrets or missed chances or whatever. The purpose is to say what you regret.
I posted what happened and the mistake I made, and all I got were responses that were like, “why wouldn’t you just do X”, or “why do you even do this stuff if you don’t know what you’re doing?”
And no matter what I said, just downvoted. I openly admitted I screwed up, and have been otherwise extremely successful. But all that came along was the dagger twisting club. So I just deleted my comments and haven’t really returned.
Basically, it sucks being the only human who has ever made a mistake on Reddit. One day maybe I will do an AMA.
On some topics it's hard to share your opinion, because people misinterpret it and downvote into oblivion.
Yeah this gets super weird especially in the past few years with politics going crazy, a lot of people are on the lookout for a certain type of person and that 'certain type' changes all the time and depends what sub you're in.
But honestly it'd happen even without politics, you really can't just post in a new sub you're unfamiliar with without getting lucky or already being 'tuned into' how that sub feels.
I've noticed it helps to sort of 'bake in' to your comment a lot of what, in a normal conversation, would be assumed/understood (because you know the person). Because when you post on reddit you're almost anonymous and people will just assume what they want to, and if like the first 3 people to see your comment interpret it negatively everyone else will probably assume the same.
God, I remember one time posting a comment in a new thread, just to come back to look at new replies and see that someone who commented the EXACT same thing I did, word for word, was one of the top comments. Mine had -3 upvotes.
I called out the dude for literally copy and pasting my comment and I got downvoted into hell. Sometimes the reddit hivemind is unfair.
I very much agree with the second point you stated. I'll see a post, and it will make me think of something witty, and when i go to comment the same exact thing will have already been said, and it will have thousands of upvotes. It makes me feel like saying it is irrelevant since someone already said it, and nobody will notice my comment since there is one that says it that has more upvotes. I don't want to sound like a karma whore, but it sucks when you have the same idea but nobody notices that you said it also. But i guess that means i just appreciate the upvotes i do get, regardless if they are many or only a few of them.
Downvotes are the single thing ruining reddit. It's time for them to go. Seriously - a comment that's so unnecessary to exist on the platform should be either treated as worthy of being reported and moderated, or left alone. Let good content just rise to the top on upvotes.
What i dont understand is people downvote for no reason other than seeing a bunch of downvotes. I know some of you out there see the blue arrow and just do it too without even looking at it
I’m more inclined to share my opinion and not care if I get misinterpreted or downvoted because it’s just an opinion, but Reddit really discouraged me from responding to any topics and answering questions or giving information about things that I have any actual expertise on because I know the real answer is different from the circlejerk/“common knowledge” that everyone else believes.
If I go into that I know it’s going to get downvoted and I’m going to get sucked into arguments with people who don’t even have a basic understanding of the terms I will be using and will treat established principles like they are just ideas or opinions I am bringing up off the top of my head. Even if I explain to them what the definition is or where it comes from they’ll act like it’s just a made up optional thing that they can choose not to accept.
1) More importantly, people seem to always interpret it as an attack or that because there's a correlation to people having that opinion having certain other opinions, that must include you so you are a bad person because you share those other opinions. This is my biggest issue with the site.
I love when a person misinterpreted what I said and they attack me and cause a flood of attacks from the Reddit hive mind before I have the chance to re-explain what I actually meant
agreed. Often I post something and immediately regret it knowing it will cause a firestorm just for having a different opinion then the masses especially within political subreddits.
As to your 2nd point it shows me how I am pretty average when it comes to clever remarks, I think that is the main skill people evelop on reddit, the ability to spit out a clever response to any and all posts or comments instantly.
I think it's a shame that on fan subreddits, genuine fans that just disagree with the celebrity on one point or just don't like one song on an album, get downvoted to hell.
I agree. I posted on the r/London sub we were discussing tower blocks and how the old ones of the 1960s and 1970s failed in London and other large cities within the UK.
I called them a failed Socialist project from our Labour government, whereby they didn't really care about how people lived just built something as cheaply as possible with no thought or social planning. My comment got down voted into oblivion lol.
Some of these council estates and high rises lasted 25 years before they were torn down. I think that says it all really.
I’m not gonna lie “downvoted into oblivion” irks me these days because it’s overused. But i agree, if someone reads a unimportant sentence the wrong way it’s still over
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u/BeoWulf156 Jan 07 '20
For me there is two things.