I disagree that people should always leave a comment as that is going to both cause more arguments over small details and if there are many downvotes then it is going to basically spam their inbox.
Sometimes it is nice if one of the downvoters explained if it wasn’t obvious, but sometimes the comment is just so bad that explaining is worse than a bunch of silent downvotes.
The downvotes also clearly seem to mean different things to different people.
Generally I think they’re just used for spam, extreme racism/homophobia etc, cruelty, bullying, or offensive content - but some people are clearly just chucking them around willy-nilly for very little reason.
Sorry I wasn’t clear, I mean that some people (I assume) use downvotes just to mean “I don’t agree with the thing you said” rather than “this is extremely offensive/cruel/horrifically bigoted/spreading dangerous misinformation” etc - even on something really minor like “I prefer this tv programme to that one” or “I like this foodstuff made in this way”.
If something is extremely offensive/cruel/bigoted/etc, it probably needs to be reported and not just downvoted… Unless it’s some community for hateposting, that kind of stuff is almost always straight up against the community rules.
I disagree that people should always leave a comment as that is going to both cause more arguments over small details and if there are many downvotes then it is going to basically spam their inbox.
Sometimes it is nice if one of the downvoters explained if it wasn’t obvious, but sometimes the comment is just so bad that explaining is worse than a bunch of silent downvotes.
Nothing was said about requiring it, but I agree that it’s a bit annoying when there’s downvotes without anyone justifying even a single one of them.
The downvotes also clearly seem to mean different things to different people.
Generally I think they’re just used for spam, extreme racism/homophobia etc, cruelty, bullying, or offensive content - but some people are clearly just chucking them around willy-nilly for very little reason.
People having reasons that don’t align with yours doesn’t make them willy-nilly.
Sorry I wasn’t clear, I mean that some people (I assume) use downvotes just to mean “I don’t agree with the thing you said” rather than “this is extremely offensive/cruel/horrifically bigoted/spreading dangerous misinformation” etc - even on something really minor like “I prefer this tv programme to that one” or “I like this foodstuff made in this way”.
If something is extremely offensive/cruel/bigoted/etc, it probably needs to be reported and not just downvoted… Unless it’s some community for hateposting, that kind of stuff is almost always straight up against the community rules.