I’ve been thinking about the impact of downvotes on LemmyNSFW and whether it’s worth having them enabled. Here are some pros and cons I’ve come up with:
Pros:
- Downvotes can be used to lower the visibility of low-quality content that doesn’t break the rules, although this content would have low visibility either way.
Cons:
- Since there are more males than females, male nudes tend to get buried with downvotes, even on communities that accept both male and female content, like gonewild.
- People often use upvotes/downvotes for things they like or don’t like instead of for relevance, as they’re supposed to be used.
- Downvotes make content from one instance less visible in other instances.
- Receiving downvotes may discourage users from posting content, leading to less overall content.
I’m curious to hear your thoughts on this matter. What are the pros and cons of having downvotes in your opinion? Do you think downvotes should be reconsidered for LemmyNSFW?
I think you answered your own question. You’ve only got one pro, with a qualification, and four cons.
You can’t rely on people to use downvotes as intended. Even if you put it in the site or community rules, a lot of people won’t read those rules. Of those that do, many won’t care.
If someone really doesn’t like something, they can leave a comment. If they won’t do that, what useful information are you going to get from a mere downvote?
Upvotes alone are enough.
What information have upvotes when there are no downvotes? Does +1 mean that the content is not liked or that there wasn’t much traffic yet? When you take downvotes away you should also remove upvotes.
Neither of them provide a lot of information. My only point was that you don’t need both. Might as well get rid of the negative one.