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[–] 14 points 3 months ago (2 children)

The votes represent, in some sense, a social consensus, and consensus actually does matter quite a lot to people.

If you ever see people arguing about which movie is objectively better than some other, that's what they're doing. They're fighting for social capital.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Seeing the social consensus can be legitimately useful in many situations outside subjective opinion though. YouTube dislikes are the classic example. They were a very reliable way to know when a tutorial was not worth your time.

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  • Oh yeah, I don't hide them. Votes even on reddit can be a useful temperature check for audience engagement.

    I do think it's funny when people whine about getting downvotes, though; it betrays just a little bit of discomfort with whatever else they're saying.

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