I have received something like 5 different replies to separate replies of my own, from new accounts with only one comment, all of which end with “not my problem.” It’s almost like a bot keyed off that phrase from my reply in a privacy community post, or there are some butthurt people with too much time on their hands.
Frequency illusion, also known as the Baader–Meinhof phenomenon or frequency bias, is a cognitive bias referring to the tendency to notice something more often after noticing it for the first time, leading to the belief that it has an increased frequency of occurrence.The illusion is a result of increased awareness of a phrase, idea, or object – for example, hearing a song more often or seeing red cars everywhere.
I was just informed that someone is following me around downvoting everything, which is hilarious since my instance has downvotes disabled. It’s definitely some idiot or a group of them.
edit: also, its adorable that you suggest it’s all in my head, it’s not. I have the receipts. And the fact they are all coming from new accounts with only the one comment each is pretty obvious.
I personally find downvotes useful because there are a lot of low quality comments and content. Downvotes help me (and others) to avoid seeing them. Thus not wasting time with uninteresting posts or comments. But you aren't supposed to downvote everything that someone says.