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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[–] thoro@lemmy.ml 7 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (7 children)

I typically operate under the assumption that basically anything I decide to post on a public forum is not private.

Call me crazy, but I care less about the instance admins being able to see my vote history than regular users. For me the latter will produce a chilling effect on how I operate with the site moreso than the former, even if admins have more power that can be abused. I was already aware of the votes not actually being public and the idea admins could see that info seemed to be a given, but I still think there's a difference between having a motivated malicious user go out of their way to look (making an instance, looking on a different platform, etc) vs making it simple for lay users to see that info within the platform itself (which I what I think is under discussion, currently).

And honestly, if a solution could be determined to help make votes anonymous but still allow admins/mods to deal with bots/trolls, then I'd be all for it.

[–] CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 4 points 3 weeks ago (6 children)

For me the latter will produce a chilling effect on how I operate with the site

Why?

[–] thoro@lemmy.ml 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Because if lay users can see how I vote within the app, then I might start being harassed by people for daring to downvote them or daring to upvote someone. And may stay tracking my voting habits.

In which case, I'd probably stop voting.

Having a barrier to that info is better than no barrier even if it's not impossible, imo.

[–] CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 0 points 3 weeks ago

If someone tries to harass me about how I vote I'll just block them.

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