Unpopular Opinion

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Welcome to the Unpopular Opinion community!

How voting works:

Vote the opposite of the norm.

If you agree that the opinion is unpopular give it an arrow up. If it's something that's widely accepted, give it an arrow down.

Guidelines:

Tag your post, if possible (not required)

If your post is a "General" unpopular opinion, start the subject with [GENERAL].
If it is a Lemmy-specific unpopular opinion, start it with [LEMMY].

Rules:

1. NO POLITICS

Politics is everywhere. Let's make this about [general] and [lemmy] - specific topics, and keep politics out of it.

2. Be civil.

Disagreements happen, but that doesn’t provide the right to personally attack others. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Please also refrain from gatekeeping others' opinions.

3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.

Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.

4. Shitposts and memes are allowed but...

Only until they prove to be a problem. They can and will be removed at moderator discretion.

5. No trolling.

This shouldn't need an explanation. If your post or comment is made just to get a rise with no real value, it will be removed. You do this too often, you will get a vacation to touch grass, away from this community for 1 or more days. Repeat offenses will result in a perma-ban.

Instance-wide rules always apply. https://legal.lemmy.world/tos/

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I think there should be a consensus on how people should vote on posts here, and that consensus should be made into a rule that gets put in the about section of this community and/or a pinned post (lemmy.world)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

15 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I'm not sure if this is unpopular per se, but yeah, I don't think people on here are voting in a consistent way and that makes it confusing to know which posts are actually unpopular opinions.

I have seen people say something like "nice unpopular opinion, take my upvote", but the votes don't reflect that sentiment when a truly unpopular opinion is posted and it's heavily downvoted. Also, in reverse, posts that appear to be agreed-upon popular opinions are massively upvoted.

I think a good number of people on here downvote opinions they don't agree with, which is a reflex I can empathize with, but doing that might discourage people to post here. So, I think people should upvoting posts you don't agree with.

And I think that it should be posted clearly for people to read and refer to in the about section of the community. I think maybe it should be a pinned post too (at least for a little while) because I don't think everyone reads the about sections.

TL;DR — For the sake of clarity, there should be a posted rule that basically states: upvotes mean you don't agree with the opinion and downvotes mean you agree. So, if you agree with this post please downvote it.

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

I read your post.

I'm arguing against downvotes site-wide

I upvote people I disagree with as much as people I agree with. Because I like being challenged.

You are precisely the person I'm arguing against. You use downvotes for disagreement (your second paragraph).

This hides comments, people rarely know why because their comment gets hidden by the influx of downvotes.

This has multiple effects:

Radicalises and victimizes people. So they end up only knowing that their views aren't popular. Rather than adjust their views they're likely to double down. They aren't challenged. So they may seek out things like QAnon or anti Vax or whatever other echo chambers for their views to be validated. It's peer pressure without feedback. It's harmful.
The very act creates an echo chamber by hiding dissenting comments under a pile of downvotes.
As a result of creating an echo chamber you never have your own views challenged.
It promoted low quality, repetitive humour. Have you not noticed reviews top 3 comments are always shit, predictable jokes and puns?

I'm aware I can't change everyone's habits but I personally will downvote except in rare circumstances and I'm explaining why.

P.S. if I strongly disagree with someone but can't be bothered to comment I just don't vote and move on. Sometimes I come back and explain. Downvotes are lazy and cause problems.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

Your opinion is valid, but it isn't really relevant to my post so encourage you to make you own post about it