I knew I would get a reaction like this. You're attacking the strawman you created that downvotes are hurting people's feelings and this is why people would want them disabled / hidden. This is not what I said.

People will consciously or subconsciously let these numbers influence them. Whether it's positive or negative doesn't matter.

You're right that they hold no real weight as the range of motivators is extremely diverse, but we will still try to infer value from the patterns and act accordingly.

[–] ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works -1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

nobody knows who the fuck any of us are it's not like there's any actual consequences here. Get banned and spin up a new account on another instance or 9 ffs, the downvotes can't hurt you

There's communities dedicated to geolocating and doxxing over political hot takes so don't be so confident with that sentiment.