The other problem with this, content aside, is the classification of a post as “successful” or “unsuccessful”, implying that how much interaction your post receives is a scoreboard and you should be using the platform solely with the goal of scoring higher in mind. Which is basically exactly what happens in most big Reddit subs, and is a large contributor to the platform growing increasingly shitty.
People used to post on internet forums because they were interested in the discussion, or had something novel to share, and now it’s just to make an imaginary number go up.
If I have a problem I can’t solve, and I make a post, and get 1 upvote and 1 reply that solves my problem, I’d call that post far more successful than a repost of a repost of a cat video that gets 100 replies and 10,000 upvotes.
My most successful reddit post was when Peter Mayhew responded to me in a random post many, many years ago. I haven’t been back since June, but that is my most successful post regardless of reddit standards.
This is by design. All reddit wants is engagement, they don’t care about discussions, quality, etc as long as people are scrolling away on their app (emphasis on their app, considering what they did to 3rd party apps). They’re obviously going to say “look at how big the number got on this post! You should be super proud of yourself!” They want people to feel that slight dopamine hit so they can chase the next hit by creating even more inane content to keep even more people on the app to maximize the amount of eyeballs looking at ads. Everything they do is about the IPO.
It’s a bit off-topic, but that’s the main reason why I don’t think that “aggregate scores” (karma) should be ever a thing in Lemmy. Not even optional - because even if you don’t care about karma, the other people around you do it, and they’ll still shit on the same common environment because of karma.
I understand this but at the same time…assigning a “worth” to posts and comments is helpful when it comes to finding useful information. If I am looking to solve a specific issue on an HP Xx.bb.x laptop or how to overcome tennis elbow…there might be 10 Reddit threads asking the same question. 9 of them have a few comments and zero useful information. One comment has a complete fix and is even referred to as the correct answer on other posts.
In a time when Google delivers pages of useless results…designating a post or comment as the “best” is valuable. Highly upvoted comments and posts typically hold good information, or a funny story or something people agree with.
Is it possible for us to have the benefits of voting without the nonsense that comes with it?
Is it possible for us to have the benefits of voting without the nonsense that comes with it?
Isn’t that essentially what Lemmy has? You can vote on comments, you can see the score of an individual comment, but there’s no aggregate score on user profiles, so the incentive to karma farm just isn’t there. Sure, there’ll be people who just really want to get high-scoring posts, and operate with that mindset, but I think it’s far, far less than on Reddit.
KoboldCoterie already said what I would. I’m also OK with individual scores for posts/comments, it’s just that scores for your overall contribution instil the wrong mindset in the platform.
But even for posts/comments, there are some problems, it’s just that the benefits outweigh them. People upvote stupid shit that they tend to agree on, or that they find passable, without taking into account if it’s actually contributive.
The other problem with this, content aside, is the classification of a post as “successful” or “unsuccessful”, implying that how much interaction your post receives is a scoreboard and you should be using the platform solely with the goal of scoring higher in mind. Which is basically exactly what happens in most big Reddit subs, and is a large contributor to the platform growing increasingly shitty.
People used to post on internet forums because they were interested in the discussion, or had something novel to share, and now it’s just to make an imaginary number go up.
If I have a problem I can’t solve, and I make a post, and get 1 upvote and 1 reply that solves my problem, I’d call that post far more successful than a repost of a repost of a cat video that gets 100 replies and 10,000 upvotes.
My most “successful” reddit post was a screenshot of the among us dog calling it “cute”
Made it apparently to the top of r/all for a short duration. Does it matter for me? Nah
My most successful reddit post was when Peter Mayhew responded to me in a random post many, many years ago. I haven’t been back since June, but that is my most successful post regardless of reddit standards.
Cheers.
This is by design. All reddit wants is engagement, they don’t care about discussions, quality, etc as long as people are scrolling away on their app (emphasis on their app, considering what they did to 3rd party apps). They’re obviously going to say “look at how big the number got on this post! You should be super proud of yourself!” They want people to feel that slight dopamine hit so they can chase the next hit by creating even more inane content to keep even more people on the app to maximize the amount of eyeballs looking at ads. Everything they do is about the IPO.
It’s a bit off-topic, but that’s the main reason why I don’t think that “aggregate scores” (karma) should be ever a thing in Lemmy. Not even optional - because even if you don’t care about karma, the other people around you do it, and they’ll still shit on the same common environment because of karma.
I understand this but at the same time…assigning a “worth” to posts and comments is helpful when it comes to finding useful information. If I am looking to solve a specific issue on an HP Xx.bb.x laptop or how to overcome tennis elbow…there might be 10 Reddit threads asking the same question. 9 of them have a few comments and zero useful information. One comment has a complete fix and is even referred to as the correct answer on other posts.
In a time when Google delivers pages of useless results…designating a post or comment as the “best” is valuable. Highly upvoted comments and posts typically hold good information, or a funny story or something people agree with.
Is it possible for us to have the benefits of voting without the nonsense that comes with it?
Isn’t that essentially what Lemmy has? You can vote on comments, you can see the score of an individual comment, but there’s no aggregate score on user profiles, so the incentive to karma farm just isn’t there. Sure, there’ll be people who just really want to get high-scoring posts, and operate with that mindset, but I think it’s far, far less than on Reddit.
Ohhhh I gotcha. I’m totally good with that.
KoboldCoterie already said what I would. I’m also OK with individual scores for posts/comments, it’s just that scores for your overall contribution instil the wrong mindset in the platform.
But even for posts/comments, there are some problems, it’s just that the benefits outweigh them. People upvote stupid shit that they tend to agree on, or that they find passable, without taking into account if it’s actually contributive.
Interesting perspective, it makes sense.
Dunno, I’d consider the fact that I was the 69th upvote to your reply very successful.