Do you ever down vote anything? Do you down vote on other forums like Reddit? If yes, is there extra hostility? If no, why NOT down vote things?

[DrPepper12]

Is down voting really such a faux pa that nobody seems to do it?

Is it the case that you know how the algorithm works and you wouldn't want it done to you?

Is there a particular social media platform where you would like to see a downvote option added?

Should voters in actual elections have the opportunity to downvote choices (some countries allow you to spoil your ballot to communicate this) and communicate to political parties to put up different slates or candidates?

Yes I down vote.

No I don't down vote

No I don't but it should be acceptable to do

No I know the algorithm

No I wouldn't want it done to me

Something else

[WhiteSteve]

I only down vote certain pro-right wing nonsense that shows up on my YouTube feed. I was subscribed to these dudes who used to be some idiot college athletes who just reacted to (usually older) music, particularly hip hop, or funny clips or comedy routines….. and then they suddenly went hard right. I think they’re grifting, and maybe even have been contracted by the Turning Point USA CPAC.

Next thing I know, they threw out their BLM poster, and I horrifically watched these guys get “red-pilled” (L-O-fucking-L) in real time. Before I knew it, they’re flying on Vivek Ramaswammy’s PJ down to the border in Texas to highlight the “migrant crisis” (it was super underwhelming, but they still were like “OHMYGODDDDDD, tHe BoRdEr iS WiDe OpEn!!!”, lmfao, as the BP agents are helping this lone family of four. Still acting like there was a stadium worth of people just crashing the gates, lmfao. And all kinds of other fuckery, and now their channel is just “WoKe LiBeRaLs fRoM ‘tHe ViEw’ MeLt DoWn OvEr MaGa GrEaTnEsS!”🤦‍♂️😂

And three of the four are SOOOOOOOO fucking stupid. And they think they’re educated, University of fucking Louisiana, lmfao, and you got in because you can all run fast, you’re track stars. And I don’t even like saying that as a white guy, about black men…. but I have to call this one how I see it. One of them seems like a smart guy but he’s too much of a hardo and doesn’t have empathy. One is a dimly lit bulb who managed to graduate with a Kinesiology degree, but again…. I lived with college athletes, and I never saw them crack a book once, but they all graduated…let’s just have real talk for a minute here😂 The other two, especially one, are so monumentally fucking stupid that I can’t believe they’re real. Whatever the opposite of a shout-out is, big one of those to The Cartier Family🖕🖕With your Candace Owens and Dr. “Uncle” Thomas Sowell, GTFOH😂👉👉🚪 Sad sight to see, especially with all the white MAGA people in their comments cheering it on and fucking COMMENDING their weird transition, while they take the most vile angles on the issues of the day. Like they don’t HAVE TO be these kinds of people, yet they actively choose to be, and that’s tragic, honestly.

Anyway, spun out as usual, lmao, but the point is that it was such a train wreck that I couldn’t look away for a couple years, didn’t watch the videos but kept the subscription because I just wanted to see how crazy they went.

I’m also suspicious (and I’m not a big conspiracy guy) that there’s a concerted effort to retrain our society to embrace conservatism, and since the election, and especially since the inauguration, I’m getting right wing, pro-MAGA content on my feed. There’s no reason for it beyond that one channel, but I never really clicked on their videos, so I’m wondering why I’m suddenly being inundated with pro-Conservative/anti-Liberal content that I didn’t ask for or have any track record of consuming. I notice that outfits like Prager U and The Epoch Times have ads that run while I’m watching specifically Progressive content. That’s pretty fucking weird. I’m certainly smart enough to sidestep it, but I fear a lot of our population ISN’T, and is going to be talked in to the idea that having ghoulish right wing social positions is good and acceptable, which is the exact opposite of what any decent society should be striving for.

So, to your direct question, generally no, and I’ve found most sites are seeming to transition like here or YouTube where the down vote isn’t registered to a publicly-seen total. So there’s not much point to it if no one sees it, I assume to keep the vibes positive. Trying to “ratio” people is internet nerd shit I don’t get into either, haha. I really don’t even frequent many sites in the first place. This is where to find WhiteSteve on the interwebs, I don’t do social media or much of anything else.

But lately I’m trying to downvote the right wing tomfoolery on YouTube, mostly because I’m allergic to abject stupidity, and most of their entire platform is based in that, so I don’t want that coming across my feed. Like the cruelty of the MAGA movement is actually secondarily offensive to me AFTER the stupidity. Like “how can adult humans buy into this?”, it defies all reasonable logic, not to mention he’s the most obvious con artist I’ve ever seen in my life, scamming these people right in their faces, and they simply don’t recognize it, and that’s fucking SCARY.

So there’s last few weeks I’m trying to downvote anything I get like that on my feed. I’m offended that YouTube thinks I’m this dumb😂

[Syntosi]

Down voting is irrelevant. It is a feature they leave in as a form of stress relief for emotional users. It is not a particularly useful metric in measuring how good or bad any piece of content is, partially because it can be so easily manipulated. I assume you have heard of the term "engagement" before in the context of internet content as a measurement of how people interact with something. That is currently the industry standard of how content is rated AKA what will be promoted by the platform and what will be forgotten.

The sad part is that "downvoting" is engagement. Raging at someone online is engagement. Anger, hate etc.. are all powerful emotions which can keep people engaging with a piece of content or a user and by extension keep using the platform. As such, even controversial people will find great success online specifically because they are controversial (and they have taken full advantage of this to be their worst self as you can probably see).

If I for the sake of argument wanted to downvote something, then the more effective method would be to simply not consume that content or engage with that person. That is the only real way of suppressing their position on any given platform.

So yeah.. the downvote button on pretty much anything is just a stress relief button that stops you from taking your anger and going somewhere else, like pestering the support staff on the platform or something.

[dustybiker2]

Here the function hasn't worked for years. If people are ignorant or just plain stupid and posting only for hits and or to stir without fscts they should be down voted.

[DryGermanGuy]

It works on the mobile app, insofar as you can see the total number of upvotes and downvotes and the individual users upvoting.

[dustybiker2]

@DryGermanGuy Do you use mac? I think they removed it from the IOS app version. But it has been a couple years since I tried that rust bucket option

[DryGermanGuy]

The iOS app on an iPhone, yes.

[dustybiker2]

@DryGermanGuy huh. Good to know then.

[sawno]

I do it. I don't think it has any effect anymore on this site though.

[blondfrog]

Rarely, and I will tell you why. Cause if I really dislike something I just confront that person instead. I feel that's way more powerful than a dislike ever will be.

[seeyounexttuesday]

I don't. IT doesn't matter in the slightest either way.

[Likes2drive]

I almost never down vote and really don’t care about it, it has to be a really really bad opinion for me to down vote something

[NathanDavis]

nope... that's pointless

[UrsulaY]

How will people learn of not corrected when wrong?