When you're doom scrolling through a bunch of posts you've already seen trying to find a good post you missed, it's hard to know at a glance what you've seen or not. Of course if I've upvoted something I've seen it but I keep getting distracted by stuff I saw but DIDN'T upvote. It makes the whole doom scrolling experience worse not being able to mark a post as seen, but not approved. How do I know if a post without a vote is one I didn't like or one I haven't seen yet and might like? There just isn't a way so I keep accidentally re looking at posts I didn't like. It's bad folks.

This is.... literally the only good thing I can think of in defense of the downvote.

Perhaps we need a way to locally mark a post as seen but not approved to help doom scrollers like me focus on what really matters; new content to shitpost on, without being distracted by bad content that I don't want to engage in.

That's my rant. Any other defense of downvotes is wrong.

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[–] Frank@hexbear.net 10 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I keep getting distracted by stuff I saw but DIDN'T upvote

Are you confessing that you pass up comrade's posts without upbearing, comrade?!?

[–] Infamousblt@hexbear.net 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

It's almost always content from outside Hexbear. Some is good some is bad. I'd never pass up a true comrades post

[–] Aryuproudomenowdaddy@hexbear.net 3 points 2 years ago

Ngl I stopped really looking at the all tab, it all seems like it's filled with tech bros and redditors and I almost immediately go back to local.

[–] TonyToniToneOfficial@lemmy.ml 9 points 2 years ago (3 children)

We need a sideways vote

[–] Infamousblt@hexbear.net 6 points 2 years ago

A left vote. We can push the content we don't like left, with a left vote

[–] beef_curds@hexbear.net 5 points 2 years ago

If we get this, i want to be able to vote along the z-axis too. For deep posts.

[–] iByteABit@hexbear.net 4 points 2 years ago

Reject centrist arrows, embrace left arrows for good heart-sickle posts and right for LIB posts

[–] queermunist@lemmy.ml 9 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Downvotes are just crowdsourced moderation. If you have actual moderators that align with their community they aren't really necessary.

[–] nat_turner_overdrive@hexbear.net 8 points 2 years ago

generally i just upvote everything to mark it as read

and for solidarity of course

[–] iByteABit@hexbear.net 7 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

If you sort by new you can tell what you haven't seen because it will be over the first post that you remember seeing.

The other solution would be implementing a little 'seen' indicator besides the posts you've scrolled past, but using a downvote for that would give the wrong message if for example you see something that's neutral to you but you just downvote it to remember that you saw it.

[–] InevitableSwing@hexbear.net 7 points 2 years ago

Three things in preferences would be good.

The option to hide posts you've voted on.
The option to hide posts you've clicked.
A hide button

I'm mystified why Lemmy doesn't have what reddit has had for ~18 years.

[–] Feinsteins_Ghost@hexbear.net 4 points 2 years ago

Years ago, I recognized my kinship with all living things, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth... While there is a bad post, I am in it, while there is a downvote element, I am of it, and while there is no downvote, I am not free...

[–] JohnBrownNote@hexbear.net 2 points 2 years ago

maybe we could have an optional downvote button but not tally them

[–] Infamousblt@hexbear.net 2 points 2 years ago

Please note I don't think we should actually bring back downvotes. They're bad, folks.