The downvote button is the disagree button
this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2025
23 points (60.6% liked)
Ask Lemmy
33519 readers
1958 users here now
A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions
Rules: (interactive)
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com.
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Partnered Communities:
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
So's your face!
I disagree. Down voted /s
When content is low quality, posted to the wrong community (usually intentionally), trolls. Basically anything that I feel shouldn't exist. The content that I believe takes value from people's lives instead of adding it. If I find content that I dislike but believe adds value to other people, well that's what the block/ban features are for.
Usually it's a "you're an asshole" button.
Conflicted here...
I hear you, but I don't use it if I disagree with somebody, I use it if they're disingenuous or rude or disparaging towards other people. Because fuck them.
For me it's "this comment shouldn't exist" button. Sometimes it's because it makes the experience of reading worse, regardless of the content of the comment. Sometimes it's because the content is so bad.
But i don't just downvote something if I just disagree with it, it should be bad
i reserve it for closet fascists, morons, bots, and the incorrect.
To order a delicious sorbet.
Silly OP, I don't even have a downvote button (idk if it's the instance I'm in but I don't particularly mind ngl)
These days, mostly for reddit mirror bots.
I dunno what people's obsession is with Lululemon, and I really don't care, but that fucking bot alone is like 5% of lemmy/all, these days.
To add a little colour to my front page.
I use it for
- Not relevant
- Needs editing for writing mistakes.
I downvote anything that I deem worsens the quality of the community. This includes, but is not limited to:
-
misinformation
-
trolls
-
bad faith engagement
-
uncalled for hostility and incivility
-
very lazy, low effort posts/comments
load more comments
(4 replies)
It's a disagree button. That's how it's used in practice, and we're better off just accepting that.
It is not the creators job to dictate how their invention will be used. For they can do nothing at all to control their invention once released to the masses.
All they can do is either adapt and make their invention better for those that have adopted it
Or watch it die to the annals of history fighting for their vision fruitlessly and helplessly
The only question is, was the invention for yourself shared freely or made for others to profit from or help others.
If it's for yourself and only yourself then jt matters not what others do. You should not change to adapt and be happy with your work for the sake of it.
If it's for the help of others or profit then to try to enforce your will is folly and only makes your invention worse and harms others. A net negative.
This is why no matter what some claim the downvote may be. The fact is it is a disagree button and not adapting the system to that fact only makes everything and everyone else's life harder and worse who has to deal with it.
What does that say about the sorting algorithms though? Should we sort posts based on votes then, or should we sort them based on something else? Do we want the posts at the top to be the ones the hivemind agrees most with and the ones the hivemind disagrees with should disappear at the bottom?
Perhaps sorting should be based on total votes and not just downvotes? So downvoting is effectively still "voting" for it, just in a different way. I'm just spitballing here, I find the theory of sort/vote systems fascinating.
This is a really nice situation where you can confidently say anyone downvoting you is a hypocrite.
load more comments
(7 replies)
Is incorrect or does not contribute to the topic of the thread
misinformation and acting in bad faith, both of which have a funny habit of occuring at the same time
For content that lowers the quality of the fediverse. Misinformation, reposts, bad faith actors, etc.
I mostly downvote bad faith, hostile or just generally angry/mean comments independent of whether I agree with them or not. Basically I'm using it against the people that are polluting the air here.
Bad faith arguments or inflammatory nonsense. We can disagree and I'll upvote if you're actually speaking in good faith.
Pretty much any form of, "Whataboutism" gets downvoted. No one was talking about C, why are you acting indignant about C when people were discussing A and B, you know?
Bad faith, low effort, hostility.
It's not a "disagree" button, but it is a "you're wrong" button. They could be wrong by trolling, spreading misinformation, spamming, being disingenuous, refusing to understand the topic or engage in good faith... None of those contribute to the conversation.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Unhelpful / unconstructive
misinformation, slurs, incivility, off-topic content, and video links without text summaries
"I don't like this" button.
Which is often something I disagree with
Whatever I want.
I have no obligation to downvote consistently.
I do what I want!
Disagree with prejudice.
Yeah. I really hate it when someone has what I would call a "bad take" and then I try and engage in conversation with them and they get downvoted to hell. Like sorry friend, I swear it wasn't me, I'm just trying to have a conversation too ☹️
I try to use it like the original Reddit vision, which was that up and downvotes are for comments that I think add to the conversation. I'll upvote a comment that I disagree with if it's well thought out and well articulated (then I'll say why I disagree).
The exception is when it's a thread looking for factual information. If someone asks for objective information, I'll downvote wrong answers.
"This does not contribute" button.
On a related topic, one thing I learned from the old Century Club days on reddit is the Courtesy Upvote.
If a thread is interesting enough that you commented, upvote it, upvote all the other comments.
If someone replies to you or one of your posts, upvote them too.
"Disagree"/"its bad"/"eww"
I disagree, so I downvoted you. Guess that's my answer.
All of these comments are like "down votes aren't dislikes, heres how i use them: list of things they dislike"
view more: next ›