Recently an online game I play revealed much of their changes for the next patch. For the specific content that I like to interact with, it seems like theres a rather large (and probably not intended) change to this content that is not only a big “nerf”, but also seems to go against the studio’s design philosphy. I’ve made posts and comments talking about it, but the thing I keep running into is people just downvoting what I’m saying into obscurity. I have people interact and with people that are dismissive I iterate exactly why, which very specific information, its not just some small change… and what I get back is a downvote, and really nothing else. I literally upvote everyone that responds, no matter how antagonistic, simply because I want to talk about it and appreciate the interaction, but it seems like people when confronted with information that makes them feel like they had it wrong just reflexively downvote.
Its incredibly infuritating. So yeah, thanks hexbear for doing away with fucking downvotes, this shit seems so toxic and I’m glad I’ve always relegated reddit into mostly a space where I look up relevant info for whatever hobby, or information about products that I need.
I feel exactly the same way. I occasionally need to use reddit for a few hobby subs, and every time I do I get sick of it faster and faster. You know how Hexbear can sometimes be a bit antsy and rude when a new user comes in to ask a political question because it’s at times hard to tell if they are genuinely curious or if it’s actually a wrecker doing the “just asking questions” thing on a sensitive issue here?
Well, reddit is billion times worse than that because this same type of interaction happens on every subreddit on any topic you could possibly think of no matter how low the stakes are. If you don’t know something, you better keep that to yourself because asking about it is going to produce a flood of reddit cretins downvoting your post and talking about how much of an idiot you are. And lord help you if you have a disagreement about something with them, they will rip apart your argument with literally zero charitable interpretation, assuming you meant everything you said in the literal worst possible way, often to the point they are shadow boxing with shit you clearly never said.
Yeah I also had someone comment on a random sentence that I wrote fairly lackadaisacally, and when I kindly asked if they were commenting on my word-barf or the actual content they just downvoted me. Jesus christ. Its amazing how much can and should be learned about how forum design impacts discussion (hey I actually wrote a paper about this in college when web 2.0 was emerging!), and how little it seems to direct continued forum development. To be fair, the way reddit is designed also makes it really easy to artificially astroturf and elevate/stifle discussion for large actors.