I’ve seen a good bit of debate on Kbin surrounding downvotes, so what are your thoughts? Should they exist? Should they be shown separately? Should you be able to see who downvoted?
I personally like downvotes and especially like that they’re shown separately. You’re able to get a much better idea of how people feel about something, and you can more easily express a minority opinion. Of course, there are downsides (e.g., brigades), but I think the pros outweigh the cons.
I agree. And I have already seen it. People going to inspect the vote history on all their own comments, then complaining that another person is going around downvoting them. Because I am exceptionally nosy, on 2 occasions I actually went to check to see if it was true. In both cases it did seem to be the case although neither downvoter was really vigorous. Like half the commenter’s recent posts were downvoted by the same person.
OTOH my understanding is that it is required in order for votes/boosts to propagate in federation. If there was a technical workaround that people felt confident in, I think it would be better hidden. For that % of people where it really just makes them crazy and they can’t resist checking.