Hacker Read

UncleMeat · 2022-02-04 21:39:33

Downvotes are not censorship.

mchouza | karma 346 | avg karma 4.87 · | 2010-09-21 12:29:56+00:00

Downvoting is downvoting, it's not censorship.

pvg | karma 14880 | avg karma 1.9 · | 2018-06-28 10:56:21

Downvotes aren't 'censorship'.

ferrari8608 | karma 709 | avg karma 4.2 · | 2016-04-02 23:54:59+00:00

Here, downvoting is a means of censorship. It's not about the points but rather about being seen even when disagreed with.

Jimmc414 | karma 9306 | avg karma 6.54 · | 2021-02-04 15:26:15+00:00

Downvotes should not be tools of censorship.

mercurial | karma 6387 | avg karma 2.62 · | 2015-01-08 07:45:32+00:00

Downvoting is also an expression of freedom speech. It's quite different from censorship.

bitwarrior | karma 231 | avg karma 4.12 · | 2015-06-15 01:20:47

Are you conflating downvotes and censorship?

andybak | karma 19613 | avg karma 3.44 · | 2022-06-20 09:53:43

In that case are downvotes censorship too?

CivBase | karma 5170 | avg karma 3.58 · | 2021-01-30 15:07:53+00:00

Downvotes are not moderation, a censorship speech, or a statement anout the user's humanity. Votes are just a measure of popularity within a community.

metaphorm | karma 3215 | avg karma 2.18 · | 2017-03-29 16:15:56+00:00

it's not the same as censoring. its ranking. a downvote is an intent to rank some content lower than other competing content.

regularjack | karma 828 | avg karma 4.31 · | 2022-10-28 14:38:57

This site has a downvote button and an upvote button. The fact that people use that feature of the site (downvote), means the site is working as intended. It is not censorship.

dependenttypes | karma 1649 | avg karma 1.33 · | 2020-06-25 12:17:34

Down-vote does not mean censor. It is just a community-oriented way to sort comments.

jazzyk | karma 1982 | avg karma 2.22 · | 2015-07-29 14:03:15

Down-voting can be used as censorship, if not used properly. As in downvoting because you don't agree with the opinion, rather than because the post is irrelevant, ad-hominem, or content-free. If you don't agree, post a rebuttal.

glitchc | karma 3920 | avg karma 2.41 · | 2018-06-28 15:47:17+00:00

Downvoting falls under soft censorship. The term is loaded and has many contexts. Wiki has a good article, it's worth a read.

And to those downvoting this discussion, thank you for proving my point.

reply

maxencecornet | karma 391 | avg karma 2.15 · | 2019-02-06 07:14:25+00:00

There is a huge difference between being downvoted and not being able to express your opinion because of censorship

IMO you should be able to express any opinion, and of course you'll be downvoted if you are a bigot or a religious nutcase

Right now Reddit is going full censorship, which I hate

reply

XajniN | karma 56 | avg karma 0.58 · | 2024-06-20 06:25:50

That’s not a reason to downvote. Downvoting is a censorship tool.

eddof13 | karma 90 | avg karma 0.83 · | 2022-09-22 14:05:41

fine with downvoting, just no banning or censoring for unpopular opinions

liberal_098 | karma 27 | avg karma 0.87 · | 2020-05-08 11:46:29

> Downvotes don't mean censorship.

Good question. I think it does if downvotes result in inability to express an opinion (as opposed to simply having downvotes shown).

If downvotes are used to suppress freedoms then downvoting is a means of censorship. In other words, there is no big difference between prohibiting something by one person (dictatorship) or by 10 persons (collective dictatorship) (if it is not prohibited by law of course).

reply

lovelyviking | karma 771 | avg karma 1.41 · | 2021-04-21 03:30:03

By the way, downvoting can be abused for censorship here. I think only upvoting has right to exist.

drchopchop | karma 1275 | avg karma 7.5 · | 2020-12-07 21:05:39+00:00

Well, the article is linked a few threads below, you can be the judge yourself. The whole concept of up/downvoting is based on having some kind of an opinion on a topic, which doesn't necessarily equate to hard censorship.