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I'm pretty sure the intent when upvotes and downvotes were created was to use them in regards to relevance. Is the topic about ducks and someone is going off about jeeps? Downvote. Is the community about posting DIY peanut butter but someone keeps posting Skippy™? Downvote.
It shouldn't have anything to do with agreeing, effort, or anything like that. Just a way to keep the topic/community on track.
disagree. downvote.
I wholeheartedly agree with that. Also earlier when the dude was posting racist memes and everyone downvoted, I liked that usage.
This is due to the fact that racist memes are never relevant, automatic downvote!
Isn't that what was specified in the original reddiquette? Downvote to maintain quality, but not to disagree?
This is silly though, isn't it? Most people think most things that they disagree with are low quality by nature of being something they disagree with.
Whatever was intended for them, IMO upvotes and downvotes work because everyone just uses them however they want, and the sum total of everyone doing that averages out to a somewhat passable quality sorting system. Trying to tell people how to use their upvotes and downvotes is just yelling into the wind.
Permanently Deleted
Yes, that's more than likely where I first learned about it.
I'm kinda glad we downvote the things we disagree with. Whether on topic or not, shit opinions don't deserve to be displayed with the same prominence as reasonable opinions.
And that's how a community become an echo chamber. Also assuming any opinion you agree with is reasonable and those you disagree with is shitty is silly...
Intent is irrelevant. Humans don't work that way and will continue to downvote what they don't like/agree with and upvote what they do like/agree with. Creating a system that ignores how people work and asking them to please use it how you want will never work.
Everyone should just embrace how it's actually used and move on.
I use it as a "you should read this" button. Even if it's offtopic, I'll upvote if it's funny or useful.
I like this explanation the best. Net vote count is a decent proxy for whether something is worth reading.