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Displaying Upvotes and Downvotes Separately
(lemmy.world)
Is there a setting that will allow me to view upvotes and downvotes as separate numbers rather than one combined score? This is the one setting in Jerboa that I can't seem to find in Sync. Jerboa:
Sync:
This missing feature is absolutely crucial for transparency.
Big tech industries are hiding downvotes, which obfuscates the true value of shared content in the eyes of the users. I was excited to see Lemmy natively going against this trend, and saddened to see that it's not featured in sync (yet?).
Sync for reddit had a % value that mentioned the ratio of Upvotes to downvotes and that also served a similar purpose.
From an user experience point of view showing downvotes separately can result in more negative votes but the feature is useful for transparency nonetheless.
You raise a fair point. Hiding downvotes could help avoid bandwagon negativity, as users may be less inclined to pile on additional downvotes. However, I still believe transparency should take priority over these concerns.
Showing the full picture - both upvotes and downvotes separately - allows users to more accurately judge content quality and community sentiment. I think we should trust users to make reasoned judgments, rather than hide data from them. A slight potential increase in negativity seems a small price to pay for maintaining transparency and accountability on Lemmy.
Edit: I do agree that displaying a relative percentage, as you mention, could serve as a compromise.
That bandwagon can go both ways, would be nice to have some sort of data showing consumer behaviour in this regard. Pretty sure youtube knows a lot about it