24
What is the point of down vote spamming? (lemmy.ca)
submitted 8 months ago by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world
42 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I read in lemmy support that this is a significant problem. I don't get it. What does anyone gain in down voting without reason?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 2 points 8 months ago (5 children)

Sure, you could say that. I think it’s perfectly reasonable to communities that are potential targets of heavy downvoting to respond to it, no?

Their response is to ban people who disagree instead of maybe considering that AI slop communities are terrible and nobody wants them. You know, like how a MAGA community being down voted should maybe consider the crap they are posting isn't wanted. Yes, I am saying that AI slop communities are a comparable detriment to the fediverse in the same way as having a hate group community. Not an equivalent, but also bad and the large number of down votes should be a sign they are not wanted.

Pretty sure dbzer0 has multiple AI communities, no? So it’s more than just 1 person. Dbzer0 is the pro-AI (relatively speaking) instance here.

There is a difference between spamming a bunch of overly specific AI slop communities and a few general purpose AI topic communities. There are some dedicated AI communities that are successful, especially ones based on local models. Those are fine and I don't down vote those, just ignore them.

For example, there are a number of very specific AI communities like AI witches and AI mushrooms and AI cats with orange hair or some other overly specific topic and blocking a bunch of those is way more tedious than a couple communities. The low quality and volume of it is just spam nobody wants, and we should absolutely down vote spam.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 5 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (4 children)

    Their response is to ban people who disagree instead of maybe considering that AI slop communities are terrible and nobody wants them.

    Clearly if someone made that community, then at least someone wants them. I imagine there's some others that do want them.

    You know, like how a MAGA community being down voted should maybe consider the crap they are posting isn’t wanted.

    I mean, MAGA communities also get banned for conduct - but assuming they didn't, it would also make sense for the owners and moderators to ban downvoters too.

    Yes, I am saying that AI slop communities are a comparable detriment to the fediverse in the same way as having a hate group community. Not an equivalent, but also bad and the large number of down votes should be a sign they are not wanted.

    And people can solve it by blocking those communities. So what's the problem?

    For example, there are a number of very specific AI communities like AI witches and AI mushrooms and AI cats with orange hair or some other overly specific topic and blocking a bunch of those is way more tedious than a couple communities. The low quality and volume of it is just spam nobody wants, and we should absolutely down vote spam.

    Then they'll ban you.

    And you can't stop them from banning you. So what's the problem?

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 0 points 8 months ago* (3 children)

    No, one person making a community doesn't mean that any additional people want that content.

    The AI communities that do mass banning were initially doing it as 'vote manipulation', which can be seen by other moderators and if taken at face value can lead to future moderation issues due to word of mouth.

    Plus when you are banned from a community it takes extra effort to block in some interfaces. At the time I was using lemmy and you had to go to settings and look up a community you were banned from to add it to the block list because the sidebar hid the block option when banned as subscribe and ban are in the same interaction block thingy. Since they banned from about a dozen communities I had to document the names of those dozen communities so I could look them up in settings to block them from clogging up my feed.

    The problem is that they are intrusive, annoying, and how they handle down votes makes everything worse. Just because I down voted one stupid AI slop post that came through my All feed.

    AI slop communities are a spam problem.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (2 children)

    The AI communities that do mass banning were initially doing it as ‘vote manipulation’, which can be seen by other moderators and if taken at face value can lead to future moderation issues due to word of mouth.

    I mean, okay, I guess it's not "vote manipulation". "Bulk downvoting" is the more accurate term.

    Plus when you are banned from a community it takes extra effort to block in some interfaces.

    I mean just block communities you don't like when they appear on your feed. Pretty sure on piefed you can just click the little "..." and block the community of origin if you don't like it when you see it in /all/ or wherever you are browsing.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (1 child)

    Do you call a lot of upvotes 'bulk upvoting'?

    I don't bother blocking a community until I recognize the name because a single post might not represent the community. There are enough slop posts in communities I do like that my default is to just down vote and move on unless there is a pattern. No, I don't double check the user name and community for every post.

    By down voting it makes it easier to double check a community that I think I recognize by checking the community and if I just have down votes in the most recent posts then I block.

    Why should I go out of my way to do extra stuff instead of just down voting and blocking when I feel like it? They are the ones impacting everyone by spamming slop nobody wants.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

    Do you call a lot of upvotes ‘bulk upvoting’?

    Yes, but that sort of behaviour is far more socially acceptable on the Fediverse.

    I don’t bother blocking a community until I recognize the name because a single post might not represent the community.

    I mean given your zeal, I assume any community you see that is basically AI-slop - you'd block out of hand.

    There are enough slop posts in communities I do like that my default is to just down vote and move on unless there is a pattern. No, I don’t double check the user name and community for every post.

    Then that puts you at potential risk of being community banned down-the-line if you are seen as a repeat downvoter without contribution by the community owners.

    Why should I go out of my way to do extra stuff instead of just down voting and blocking when I feel like it? They are the ones impacting everyone by spamming slop nobody wants.

    You don't have to do anything, but just that downvotes on the Fediverse are public to community mods and instance admins and some make use of this to ban repeat downvoters.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent