I also don’t mind that it’s more popularity than relevance nowadays, at least not for places like Lemmy. More popular means likely, more people want to see it (as most people like this more than other things). Which means in a way, it’s more relevant to the audience (as in, closed to what the audience wants to see). Especially on a federated space, an alternative can easily be made about the same topic if two groups of people feel strongly different about what is good content and what not.
When you only see the upvotes, you don’t see how many people didn’t like it. A seemingly very liked post might have even more people dislike it, and so on average be a disliked post. But you never know and may think that that is what the community wants to see. It just too one-sided.
When likes and disliked even out, popularity is more transparent. Since you can see both up- and downvotes, you can see how many people liked and disliked it. It may be because they disagree, because they think the post is stupid, or because it’s spam. But in the end it doesn’t matter much. They didn’t like the post.
Having both gives you a good average, and since you can see from how many up- and downvotes the number comes (so you can also see the difference between popular posts with divided people, or post that are just not popular at all getting a few votes) I really see nothing wrong with it.
I feel like disabling downvotes only benefits those who like to spam, those who think anyone who doesn’t agree with them and loves them is horrible, and those who want twist to narrative to be able to say “see, I have so much likes so I’m right! They all agree with me!” while hiding the amount of people disagreeing.
Different people like and dislike stuff. If people like your posts, you’ll get more upvotes. If people dislike it, you get more downvotes. And that’s ok. People disliking something you typed on the internet isn’t the end of the world, nor is people liking what you typed some ultimate achievement. A downvote on the internet isn’t really that big of a deal while it’s useful for getting the full picture.
I think it’s good.
I also don’t mind that it’s more popularity than relevance nowadays, at least not for places like Lemmy. More popular means likely, more people want to see it (as most people like this more than other things). Which means in a way, it’s more relevant to the audience (as in, closed to what the audience wants to see). Especially on a federated space, an alternative can easily be made about the same topic if two groups of people feel strongly different about what is good content and what not.
When you only see the upvotes, you don’t see how many people didn’t like it. A seemingly very liked post might have even more people dislike it, and so on average be a disliked post. But you never know and may think that that is what the community wants to see. It just too one-sided.
When likes and disliked even out, popularity is more transparent. Since you can see both up- and downvotes, you can see how many people liked and disliked it. It may be because they disagree, because they think the post is stupid, or because it’s spam. But in the end it doesn’t matter much. They didn’t like the post.
Having both gives you a good average, and since you can see from how many up- and downvotes the number comes (so you can also see the difference between popular posts with divided people, or post that are just not popular at all getting a few votes) I really see nothing wrong with it.
I feel like disabling downvotes only benefits those who like to spam, those who think anyone who doesn’t agree with them and loves them is horrible, and those who want twist to narrative to be able to say “see, I have so much likes so I’m right! They all agree with me!” while hiding the amount of people disagreeing.
Different people like and dislike stuff. If people like your posts, you’ll get more upvotes. If people dislike it, you get more downvotes. And that’s ok. People disliking something you typed on the internet isn’t the end of the world, nor is people liking what you typed some ultimate achievement. A downvote on the internet isn’t really that big of a deal while it’s useful for getting the full picture.