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Lemmy votes ARE public, should they be anonymous? (discuss.tchncs.de)

submitted 2 months ago by lalo@discuss.tchncs.de to c/fediverse@lemmy.world

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Currently, almost anyone in the Fediverse can see Lemmys votes. Lemmy admins can see votes, as well as mods. Only regular Lemmy users can't. Should the Lemmy devs create a way to make the votes anonymous?

There is a discussion going on right now considering "making the Lemmy votes public" but I think that premisse is just wrong. The votes are public already, they're just hidden from Lemmy users. Anyone from a kbin/mbin/fedia instance can check out the votes if they are so inclined.

The users right now may fall into a false sense of privacy when voting because the votes are hidden from Lemmy users. If you want to vote something and not show up on the vote list, please create another account to support that type of content and don't tell anyone.

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[-] Cataphract@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 months ago

Everyone's fleshed out a lot of the discussions so I'll just bullet point my opinion to try to better explain the discourse I'm seeing on here

I view "Lemmy" like it's a Community Center with group discussions, Community gatherings, and/or lectures with public comments. If you're in the crowd "Booing" (downvoting) without standing up and making your position clear, you're not adding anything to the discussion.
Downvote/Upvote is not like "Booth Voting" at all. You have ONE vote in a democracy, that's the core principle. You don't vote Yes for a candidate then vote No for another. You don't see a ticker above the booth tallying everyone's vote that was before you (voter manipulation, why hidden scores became a thing).
I think this would go over a lot better if mods had the choice of how to present the votes. Opt in or out of showing voters, opt in or out of showing scores or eliminating downvotes or even upvotes if you want. Give the power to the community and create useful tools for mods to try out.

[+] FlorianSimon@sh.itjust.works 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

[deleted]

[-] Cataphract@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

That's just not the same at all. How many times do you get to vote on the referenda? I'm really interested to know where this mindset comes from that a social media upvote/downvote is anything like a real political "vote". It's completely different except the name, is that where the confusion is coming from? Is this an age/demographic thing?

You can vote no or yes on a referendum. The Upvote is for comments that contribute, the downvote is for off-topic not that you disagree with the policy! By continuing this logic you're exposing you want to continue "Voting" on whether you agree with a topic in "privacy". That's not how public discourse works, which this is. You guys are acting like everyone is a guest speaker and you're the X-factor judge deciding if they should continue or get off the stage.

Anyone looking at the actual voting system on here would not say it's democratic or fair/balanced. There are no protections or even logic to construct a system like that because we're not voting on policies! This is a town square, not your local council. You're wanting to walk into the square and vote on the flowers or people walking by, that's not how public interaction should work!

In every single thread the downvote is abused as a "I disagree" or as a reactionary "I don't like this person". It does absolutely nothing for the conversation, it's solely for others to feel better if the numbers match their own personality or to dissuade the person who's being downvoted from voicing their opinion.

This whole event is rather sad and disheartening like a depressing xkcd