Is it creepy when lemmings go digging through post votes to see who voted how on different posts and comments?
Maybe I’m oversensitive? We all know our votes here are public record, but to me it seems like weird, obsessive, and unhealthy behavior.
It definitely is a red flag for me to the point where I wonder if I shouldn’t just outright block people who go around making it known it’s something the participate in.
96 replies
No, it's fucking weird for folks to do that. You're not sensitive, they are just insane and no well-adjusted person does that.
Creepy? Probably. Pathetic? Absolutely.
I think if you obsess over ‘figuring out’ the person, it can be weird.
I have definitely checked post history and upvotes on some users just to get context for their comments. It has saved me wasting time trying to have a discussion with someone who only seems to ever look for fights.
For some people, that's all they have. Vote like everyone can see and give no shits about lurkers being vexed.
Same goes for commenting. Sometimes it can be funny when someone goes through your post history just to quote a comment you make 2+ years ago and still be wrong.
Yes, the internet is filled with weirdos - next question
No I'm spartacus
No! I'm Spartacus
It's creepy when they questionably ascribe motivations to how someone has voted and make accusations and threats based on it, act like a downvote is a personal attack, demand people vote a certain way to demonstrate ideological loyalty, or otherwise be really weird about it. If they're not doing that, it is probably fine imo.
Yeah. I did it though. Wish I hadn't but shitty pattern seeking brain was like "but what if something interesting happens? What if you have an arch enemy"
No such luck, but it turns out there's a few accounts who just downvote everything indiscriminately and that's a little funny
The doing it doesn’t bother me so much as the “Hey so I was browsing through my downvotes and noticed you downvoted me. Justify your actions to me!” PMs.
Like - I don’t even know who you are or what you’re talking about. Thanks for the research project so I can piece together all these disparate pieces of information so I can figure out wtf you’re even talking about.
They are insane people.
That is not healthy behavior.
Yeah that's a instant block lol
Oh. Yeah that's fuggin weird. Did somebody do that to you? How fragile.
Yeah. Not sure I’m proud of the response but I hadn’t given my self much time to think before responding…
I'm not judging. Weird conversation to be forced to have, hope they grow out of it
I was curious who the single down vote on every cat post was so I checked. It was a bunch of different people. I’m still confused.
I always think the single random downvote on an uncontroversial comment or post is odd, so sometimes I check into those. A few times it's been from some account that has like 3 comments from 18 months ago and no activity since. Still scratching my head over those ones.
They're probably scrolling on mobile and did it accidentally.
No arch enemies either? Want to be mine? We can downvote and reply-guy eachother until everyone's uncomfortable
When enough people see something someone is likely to either dislike it or fat finger the down vote button accidentally. Nothing to overthink.
People downvote for absolutely stupid reasons. It's original intention was for handling trolls and off topic content but most of these people just use it as a 'dislike' button. These days more than ever, I feel like it's something that should just be done away with because it gets proven over and over again that it only really ever gets used in bad faith anyway, and therefore adds nothing of value to the platform.
That's why I'm quite happy on an instance with downvotes simply disabled. Personally, between Reddit and Lemmy I've probably purposely downvoted about five things, when a person doesn't know when to end an 'argument' and just becomes a troll.
Last time I was more active here, I did end up getting into the habit of checking votes and honestly, it just makes me want to block people, even if they haven't been downvoting me. If you're the kind of person that goes around downvoting everything all day for stupid fucking reasons, you're probably an unlikeable, insufferable turd in 'real' life too.
After spending the last year or so exploring mainstream social media, one of the biggest differences between Facebook and Instagram, is that Facebook has multiple reacts. And certain people, notably men, love to use the laugh react to bully people. You'll find laugh reacts on everything from a trans person posting a selfie, to feminist pages posting about rape and abuse stats. On Instagram, the bigots are still there in the comment sections but they're a lot easier to ignore because there's a lot less noise in that regard, on how they're allowed to react to things.
After this experience, I 100% believe that the people who rely on the downvote button so much on platforms like this and Reddit, are actually exactly the same kind of fucking people that laugh react news stories about rape. Stupid, mean, cruel, stupid people who can't spar with their stupid ideas, so all they have is a panic button to make them feel better.
Usually, yes, it's weird. One day a while back, a lot of my recent comments were all getting one downvote, and I was curious. Apparently one person was mad at something I said and went through my comment history to downvote things. There are times where it's somewhat useful to view, but obsessing over it is strange.
I'll look at some users who post a ridiculous take on something. I mostly look to see if they are just a shitty troll or if it was a one off and decide if I want to block them. I don't look through there posts for context, just the raw vote numbers. If someone is majority negative on their posts, then they don't need to show up in my feed.
There are a handful of other users on here who I see frequently that I don't agree with on a lot of things, and the community agrees with me based on votes, but those users also make good comments that are beneficial to some conversations and sometimes I learn something new. I'll put up with the bad for the good.
I'm with you there. I don't block for disagreement, I block for assholery
It really comes down to whether or not I think someone is arguing in bad faith, but there's a fine line between bad faith and complete idiocy. Like, if someone is a hardcore trump supporter, they could argue in good faith, but we are so far apart that there really is no discussion to be had. I can't fathom any situation where anyone could support him without being a pedophile and/or a billionaire business owner. Then there are trolls that will just use strawman arguments to move the goalposts on any topic just to not be wrong, and that shit just isn't worth ingesting, ever.
It's public to stop vote manipulation and brigading. When you can see that a ton of up/downvotes on a post all come from 37 alts of the same user, it makes it easier to ban those people.
How can people find out who's using alts? I've got this quarkboard with red string I'm trying to connect people on based on their tone and their personal bugbears.
It's easy when they're stupid enough to name them all the same thing.
*glancing nervously at the other sad_detective accounts I use on other instances*
hahaaa yeah. So dumb...
Relaaaaax, guy. It's way more rad than I made it sound:
Its also a liability to allow people, companies and governments to track people across the platforms and target them for the posts they up or down voted. Its a poorly conceived solution.
The same people, companies and governments could do the same with every other social media service. At least here, everyone can see the vote counts; not just the admins and an authority that subpoenas them.
That just increases the number of predators and victims...
It has to if you want federated servers. You spin up a server, it needs to know everything it subscribes to.
There is no solution, because it is not a problem. That's just the nature of a federated system.
If I walk in the park, I risk people taking pictures of me. That's the thing about parks, they're public open spaces. The only solution is to stay home.
Personally not how I’d spend my energy. If someone’s bothering me I block.
Where can I even see post votes?
You should immediately block everyone who disagrees with you. Then all of your BS will be eternally enabled and you'll never be wrong about anything.
Legitimately the reason I hesitated to block people I was reporting on reddit.
Lemmy's public downvoting could be easily gamed.
I can't imagine how any of these things could actually matter. Like... ...ever.
Even a little bit.
I envy your lack of imagination.
Let's say 0.5% of users care enough about unreported bots to downvote or report them. If all information is public, you can quickly hide your bot comment or posts from that 0.5% and dodge being detected by the community.
How do you hide from those 0.5%? Blocking someone stops you seeing them, it doesn't stop them seeing you?
Oh, that's how it works on reddit--you don't see them, they don't see you.
Blocking is one-way on lemmy?
Yes, to the complaint of many but that's how it currently works.
There's no good solution.
Now I can follow around people who blocked me and subtly accuse them of all sorts of awul things and they won't see it.
Ask rimu or 002
Ok who's 002? As you can see from my instance, you probably can guess I know who rimu is.
That extremely personality disordered person with one or several accounts on multiple instances that is mostly a repost bot, claiming none of it is scripted, which is an obvious untruth.
I didn't know what that is and will continue with that. Thanks though!
Are you saying I should embrace the thing I fear to take away its power?
Or just just block folks who vocally disagree?
Yes, definitely that.
This guy blocks
I just wish I knew why I keep hearing myself after I speak. So strange.
I totally agree.
You should take an active effort to read the intelligent comments of people who disagree with you. I don't know how you hand downvotes and blocking and so I can't tell if this is a comment that is directly at you to change your ways or if you already are doing this and you are only downvoting/blocking obvious garbage. Too many people, when they see a point of view they disagree with, assume immediately that the other person is stupid and that common is garbage. But that is false. It is, however, a very hard bias to overcome in yourself. Something I struggle with, too.
I blame Reddit
I blame Obama.
When will they stop that motherfucker?
Who really cares? Everyone isn't going to have your option, if you really like it up vote it, if it pisses you off or something down vote it. Hell down vote the hell out of this post, it's fake internet points for fucks sake.
But yeah, it's weird as shit to have nothing else to do in your day/life and get so pissed at an opposing opinion that you scour through someone's history. Get a hobby or something.
Have you seen the guy who calls everyone stalker sockpuppets, tags all the admins and starts harassing you with his own sockpuppets whenever he gets a downvote?
It depends. If someone is being very vague about describing a gripe, going back through their history helps get context into what they're complaining about.
Yes, it's pretty pathetic actually.
Yes, those people are creepy.
Ngl, I'm curious who the two consistent downvoters of .ml posts are, even if of they're just slightly progressive or relatively conservative or actual socialist comments.
Well, that would be a job for a script checking for such occasions, and react to summaries. Not a reason to poke a personal nose into this.
If I scripted, that would be reasonable. As it is, I notice and don't bother.
More sad than creepy IMO
How do you even see who down votes?
This is up and down votes for your comment: (I gave you a downvote so you can see how it looks. Sorry)
https://lemvotes.org/comment/lemmy.world/comment/25430224
If you click the colored link icon that looks like a spiderweb, you get a direct link to your comment, copy the last numbered part in this case: 25430224 and add it to this lemvotes link: https://lemvotes.org/comment/lemmy.world/comment/
AFAIK some apps have the function built in.
NOOO MY IMAGINARY INTERNET POINTS IM BLOCKING YOU 5EVER!!!!
Goddammit! 4ever I can handle but 5ever that is brutal. 😋
[email protected], keeping it real.
Yes. An explanation for this, would be great.
Explanation provided, just check context of the post you responded to. I'm not repeating it here to avoid double posting.
I dunno. It's how the platform was designed. Lemmy was designed to imitate Reddit but with some changes. Looking back at a Redditor's post history was always controversial. Vote history just adds a new layer to that.
I got banned from a bunch of AI comms I've never visited; I can only guess because I'm a member of "Fuck AI". Truth is, I'm curiously cautious, or cautiously curious, I'm not sure. I'm not too big on AI, but neither am I vehemently against it (besides its affect on the gaming industry). I think the ban was just a knee-jerk reaction and probably a bit uncalled for, but again, the platform has the feature for a reason.
I always thought I had the sanest take on Reddit when it came to viewing post history. If someone was vitriolic, I'd check their history to see if this is how they are all the time or if they're having a bad day. If the former, I might downvote/block... if the latter, I might give it a few days and reply, hoping they'd be in a better mood then.
I've never looked at another user's vote history. It's not really any of my business; I don't see a real benefit for me to do so.
Without context? Yeah.
I downvote for lazy spelling, and there's no way to indicate that. I'll accept if I downvote a positive idea and in doing so make it seem like I disagree with the positive message instead of just the broken medium, but I'd rather not.
It's certainly a waste of time.
I only do that with accounts that are sus, like posting propaganda, ads, etc. To check if it is a bot and to report it.
"I went through your post history and so now I feel confident stereotyping you" is a borderline temp ban red flag, imo. It definitely indicates that the person is tilted hard enough, for one reason or another, to not take the discussion rationally and maybe need a break. If your community excludes certain harmful opinions then a post history check can be helpful for moderation, but using it to ad hominem someone in a discussion forum where all the important information should be in the discussion is flame war tactics and can lead to stalking.
Usually doesn't happen here to the degree it happens on reddit, but literally this week I had someone do it to try and claim that I hate cars because I post in /c/[email protected], even though I myself own two cars. Indeed, it was a stupid topic that dependably gets some people irrationally incensed, which primed this guy to try and make it personal.
Sometimes I'll check post and comment history if something seems a little off. For example, does this account show patterns you might see in a troll or bot?
Looking at votes though? That never even occurred to me, and even know I don't see what the point would be.
The only "creepy" thing about it is that viewing who upvoted/downvoted what isn't a feature that's just built into Lemmy (and Lemmy-UI). I can't imagine why the authors of Lemmy would want to have a class system with some (instance admins) being able to see vote information and others (everyone else) being unable.
You say "we all know our votes here are public record", but that's not really true. Even Lemvotes doesn't work for at least half of the posts I've tried it on. It'd be more accurate to say "we all know our votes here aren't secret".
I think there is an opt out(or disable option), at the instance level, for the specific mechanism that lemvotes uses.
I vaguely recall someone complaining that they were using something that was never intended to be used that way.
Never looked in to it so I can't be sure.
I used to ban people who repeatedly downvoted content on my conservative community but the last couple months I’ve stopped doing that and it hasn’t changed the vibe of the community at all.
Yet another example of how the pearl clutching about down votes is stupid.
I think its something I would have to encounter, and encounter enough, to be wierded out. If people do this I have no idea about it. I mean if Im thinking of blocking someone I look at their profile but that is mostly about comment and post history. I guess I should look and up and down voting because if someone is obviously brigrading I think I would want to block them.
I don't care, just seems like a waste of time and a bit childish IMO.
It's been a long time since it happened last, but I have experienced users claiming they have me flagged for something.
And sometimes when taken out of context a post can seem bad, but the times it has happened, the opinion quickly turned against them when they "called me out", and I explained the background.
I basically never see that anymore, IDK maybe I blocked them? Because generally those people are idiots.
The only time I check is to try and catch if I'm being targeted by someone mass down voting me or using alts to do so. Only when I'm seeing weird stuff like every one of my comments for a while getting at least one downvote, or seeing my comments deep in a one on one conversation on an otherwise dead thread getting multiple downvotes (no one's going to even see those except me and who I'm talking to).
Unfortunately, this has been a "you're only paranoid if they aren't out to get you" situation. Most give up after a day or two and I just block and move on, but it was a bit common for a few months.
I caught one of the "respected" members of my instance pulling that shit, a person who moderates multiple comms, downvoting me using their alts over multiple instances.
They accused me of doxxing them (they were actually around that time). Now I have a bunch of bans in my modlog saying that I used a slur, when I was quoting the name of an ancient meme and I edited the word out long before they did the bans.
Untrue. Even one on one's in a public medium, are public. Lurkers have every right to opine on takes as they see fit, reply or platform-granted reaction tools both. Whether they catch the comments fresh or later when you consider it a "dead thread".
I personally do it all the time, upvote or downvote.
There's only so many hours in a day and Fediverse content isn't so plentiful that it makes sense to mark discussions that are still near the top of a comms feed as "dead" to me.
That's before we even get into how easy it is to accidentally hit the buttons in a lot of Lemmy client apps.
I'm well aware. I'm not talking about those situations. I'm talking ~20 comments deep on a thread that has seen no other action for multiple days. And I'm not talking about it just getting one downvote between when I reply from people happening to find it.
And even then, I just check. I'm not harassing people, I'm not jumping to immediately blocking. I'm just looking to see if it is something weird going on. If there is, I block.
And I haven't done any of this since last year. No need.
Just letting you know that I down voted this comment so you don't need to waste the time looking up who did it.
What? Ok?
This isn't a comment on a sub thread of a sub thread of an otherwise long dead thread jumping from no downvotes to -3 in like a single day (between the time I made my comment and the time I'm responding to the reply). I'm not actively watching this stuff and I think you've misunderstood what I'm talking about.
Now if you're going to check my profile page over the next few days to a week? Then I might notice the downvotes and look, but I honestly haven't noticed anything like that or checked votes against my comments since the event I mentioned in my last comment with that powermod, which was sometime last year.
Downvotes on a comment like mine, offering a semi-reasonable explanation for disliked behavior, are entirely expected. Hell, downvotes an any comment expressing an opinion.
TIL
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