So I’m not sure that feeling is something that can be avoided by some kind of structure or mechanical thing. It’s a vulnerability thing. It’s easiest solved by maybe if it was safe to ask people (or tell them) hey, I’m feeling kinda down about my place in this game/community/friends group, I’m sure it’s just brain weasels but I could really use some positive talk/hearing about something recently i’ve done that you liked, ect. But that is hard. really hard. Don’t want to seem “needy”, I would say most of us are conditioned that is a dangerous or disgusting thing.
The times when I’ve felt unsure, unseen, or unwanted (knowing the latter is 99 percent probably brain weasels) I think it’s never been upvotes that have helped me but reaching out to people and asking them to confirm that I’m an okay person and mostly fun to be around, that I contribute something. I mean I worry about that too (are they rolling their eyes), but it seems to have a more immediate and helpful effect.

Great point. I have made a thing.

https://brandmuday.mythicus.net/topic/194/affirmation-station

So I get the concern.

I mostly just keep wishing I could do Discord-style reactions instead of upvoting. >_>

Completely agree with this. Replace the binary endorphin machine with something that is expressive.

No idea if that’s something that can just be installed in this software or not, but it’d be nice.

I do understand about feeling unseen or less liked. And I do think sometimes people put too much importance on the numbers of upvotes (I’ve always hated the most liked list user category for some reason, probably because I don’t think it reflects value over time of someone’s contributions). But I wonder though that would removing the upvotes and then having a post get swamped with replies of memes or other stuff that would make it scroll fast wouldn’t also feel bad. I remember on MSB when for awhile there would be some people that would utilize spamming that stuff if they wanted a person to shut up/drop a subject/they decided that the topic was done so they just decided to drown it in scroll through. I always rolled my eyes at that, but I do know that it didn’t feel great for some of the folks that were targeted by it).

So I’m not sure that feeling is something that can be avoided by some kind of structure or mechanical thing. It’s a vulnerability thing. It’s easiest solved by maybe if it was safe to ask people (or tell them) hey, I’m feeling kinda down about my place in this game/community/friends group, I’m sure it’s just brain weasels but I could really use some positive talk/hearing about something recently i’ve done that you liked, ect. But that is hard. really hard. Don’t want to seem “needy”, I would say most of us are conditioned that is a dangerous or disgusting thing.

The times when I’ve felt unsure, unseen, or unwanted (knowing the latter is 99 percent probably brain weasels) I think it’s never been upvotes that have helped me but reaching out to people and asking them to confirm that I’m an okay person and mostly fun to be around, that I contribute something. I mean I worry about that too (are they rolling their eyes), but it seems to have a more immediate and helpful effect.

But the information is available and you could hook into it.

If you wanted.

@junipersky said in Heckler's veto:

Who are these people with TIME to see who upvoted what?!

I’ll cop to this, but only in the context of the waning days of Derp’s power trip. Was mega disheartening to be facing down silence, and see most of the staff there instantly upvoting some garbage takes.

On that note: I think the only real thing I have to say on this one is that there’s a very real thing in human behavior about momentum. When we see a post with zero upvotes, some people might pause before delivering that first upvote.

It’s like taking the last appetizer at a group dinner. Several people might want to, but they don’t want to be the first one to reach for the last jalapeno popper.

Downvotes would indeed suck. Of everything in here so far, huge agree to variety of different reaction possibilities. It’s one of the things I love about Discord.

I would be very happy to have ‘cat’ or ‘scream’ or ‘carrot’ as a response to posts here, as additions to ‘upvote’, for sure for sure.

Who are these people with TIME to see who upvoted what?!

I’ll cop to this, but only in the context of the waning days of Derp’s power trip. Was mega disheartening to be facing down silence, and see most of the staff there instantly upvoting some garbage takes.

On that note: I think the only real thing I have to say on this one is that there’s a very real thing in human behavior about momentum. When we see a post with zero upvotes, some people might pause before delivering that first upvote.

It’s like taking the last appetizer at a group dinner. Several people might want to, but they don’t want to be the first one to reach for the last jalapeno popper.

Downvotes would indeed suck. Of everything in here so far, huge agree to variety of different reaction possibilities. It’s one of the things I love about Discord.

If downvotes have served any purpose, is that once, on a different not here or MSB, downvotes were visible and after downvoting about a topic, that person reached out to me to just ask why. This delved into a rather lengthy discussion that we both came out of it for the better. Now, do I expect this in every situation? No, but it did help me take the stance of “If you disagree with me or don’t like me, I’d like to know why.” as I’ve become a large proponent of open communication when that communication is viable. Not everyone will, and that’s fine.

you are saying this like this situation is a good outcome! this is so foreign to my way of thinking, lol

i think if you contact me personally and privately for any reason you should go to jail

I’m kidding. Sort of.

@Meg I don’t envy your direct message inbox.

(psst @hellfrog – live up to your name and give @Meg hell for not having 100% upvote rate from her)

i have given her hell by making the two posts she won’t upvote

Best I agree gif.

And one of the things that came out of those days was the rueful acknowledgement of the Usenet Nod, which was basically that no one responded to your post. Because if they thought you were WRONG, you’d fucking hear about it (at length), but most people, if they see a post that they mildly agree with, then they’re just going to nod at their computer and move on to the next post. They’re not going to go out of their way to respond.

If we did away with upvotes, there would just be silence after a lot of very good posts, because people would just Usenet Nod, and spend their energy telling that other asshole over there that they are wrong on the internet. Likewise, most posts that don’t have a lot of upvotes aren’t disliked, they’re just nodded at and moved on from. So, when at all possible, just imagine that most of the forum goers, if they aren’t currently calling you names or telling you where they think you screwed up, are reading your post, smiling, nodding, and then moving on to the next post.

Oh I’m sorry, I didn’t intend to start a discussion of downvotes as like an actual potential thing happening. I was just talking abt the anonymizing thing and wandered off into the weeds.

All good, fam. I was just piling on to get ahead of it. I like (in theory, there have not been any serious disagreements in the short time I’ve been here) that this community is willing to speak up when they see something they don’t like. But downvotes to me are the equivalent of throwing rotten vegetables at the stage.