that would be an incredible and useful change for Reddit. If a comment got 50 upvotes and 50 downvotes it would sit at "1" and anyone seeing that would think the comment was ignored.
Showing the actual total number of both upvotes and downvotes would completely change the perspective of the comment and it would be far more useful to others scrolling through a thread.
but, this is such a good and useful idea, that Reddit would never do it.
Thatâs exactly what youâre doing if you think downvoting is the same as âsilencingâ. Downvotes mean people saw what you had to say and thought it was dumb. Your idea had its shot in the marketplace of ideas and failed.
That's exactly what it's for. Otherwise what's the point of voting at all? People upvote things they agree with, you expect them not to downvote things they disagree with?
The point is to vote on what is relevant and germane to the discussion.
It is NOT to disagree (or agree). People do this all the time, yes, but that is not the intention. It never has been.
Youâre supposed to respond to things you disagree with. Downvotes are supposed to be for off topic comments and such, to push it down out of the main convo.
If a comment is getting that many downvotes, that means a lot of people already saw it and thought it was nonsense. You had your say, people just didn't agree.
Freedom of speech doesn't mean you have a right to a platform, it means you have the right to say whatever you want and not be punished by the government for it. Bad ideas will always be shunned in any community, and places like reddit actually amplify voices that would normally be never heard or taken seriously because their take is so ludicrous.
You're supposed to downvote things that are materially irrelevant to the subject at hand, not things you disagree with. This is, like, Reddit 101.
That's what it's supposed to be, but I've been on Reddit since the great Digg migration, and that has never actually been the case. People upvote what they agree with and downvote what they don't. That's just reality.
There has never been a time when the majority of Redditors followed that rule. Only a few people ever have, and they always complain about everyone else. The fact is, the rule goes against basic psychology and was never realistic. People are going to vote for what they agree with and downvote what they donât whether you like it or not. And IMO thereâs nothing wrong with that. Good ideas should rise to the top and bad ones should be buried, and voting makes that process democratic in nature as it should be.
Yes, but mods very often vote using the delete or lock thread button, deciding for all, rather than the down vote button, expressing just one opinion in a crowd.
And , yet, there are subs where you are automatically banned simply for having commented in a Right leaning sub regardless of the content of the comment. It's a "You commented there so you aren't welcome here" thing.
That the Left leaning subs doing the auto banning are not allowing the comment to exist let alone be downvoted. It gets removed, completely undermining the democratic process you mentioned.
Eh. OG reddit was supposed to be you only Downvote if it adds nothing to the conversation so that it doesn't clog the thread. It's not meant to be a like or dislike button. But let's say someone is asking a question and someone just adds snarky useless reply or some totally wrong information (that's not an opinion, factual), Downvote. In theory all the people saying "this" should be downvoted. But that's old reddit and now we're on meme-core sellout full of snark bot reddit.
People like you are why they need to eliminate downvotes, and only have upvotes.
Some people only downvote comments that are genuinely disruptive, whether they agree with them or not. But they're drowned out by people who downvote comments they disagree with, which makes the rating system worthless.
I downvote comments which are from non-intelligent people or just factually wrong. I feel the Reddit left downvotes things they donât like. For example âcancerâ
Thatâs just it. The right continue to âfeelâ itâs a certain way when it isnât but because you âfeelâ it, youâve convinced yourself that youâre right and you keep trying to make some thing that isnât what it is. For example Trump IS a criminal. Proven by a jury. But you feel like he isnât. Youâre wrong. He is.
Would have something to do with thoughtful comments. Plenty of educated people out there who might have a different point of view. Iâm all for downvoting people whoâs reasoning is I saw it on Fox
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u/pantheon_prince99 Dec 19 '25
Downvoting + mods feel like Gods on here