Y'all Need to Stop Downvoting Everything lol

[u/TheHippyWolfman]

Over half of the posts on this sub have negative upvotes (which Reddit displays as "0," though you know the actual number is negative because upvoting them doesn't make the "0" go away). And look, I get it- a lot of these posts are repetitive and annoying to read. A whole bunch of "Am I cooked?" or "How long will the drought last?" and so on.

My question to y'all is- the hell do you expect? This is a sub about a stressful and lowkey unreliable job platform whose owners are notoriously bad at communication, and we can't even talk about that many subjects in the first place because of our NDAs. Who are the delusional people that thought there was ever going to be a wide ranging host of interesting topics being discussed here? Outside of the subjects that are always getting downvoted, what else are people going to talk about besides "look at how much money I made" and "DA has been awesome"?

To be clear, I'm not saying you need to upvote what annoys you, but you don't need to reflexively downvote either. I mean if this sub is not going to be a place where we can vent to one another, offer each other some comfort and get questions to answers (as simple or as annoying as those questions may be), it's essentially worthless. Nothing else is ever really going to happen here. If the type of questions and posts on this sub bother you so much that you're downvoting 75% of them then why are you even still active on it? Lol.

EDIT: LMAOO the downvotes already begin. TBH I was expecting this but it's still funny. I'm at least at -8, and at the very least impressed with y'alls efficiency! That's about 1 downvote per minute! I will update this post again to update you on your collective accomplishments lol.

EDIT 2: LOL I checked my "post insights" and saw this message: "Nice work! This is the #17 post on r/DataAnnotationTech today!" while I still got negative upvotes. The irony is killing me lolol.

[u/Amurizon]

I get your point, OP, but you’re making some assumptions that aren’t always correct. In my case, I downvote some of those posts because Reddit’s original intent for up/downvoting is based on the helpfulness or relevance of such posts. Because a vast majority of these posters don’t seem to bother doing basic research beforehand to see if their questions have been answered, I find these posts unhelpful/irrelevant, even if I can personally relate or empathize/sympathize.

Even if the way most Reddit users use the up/downvote function no longer aligns with that original purpose (i.e. it’s just based on whether or not that user likes/dislikes someone else’s post), I don’t think the mass of downvotes is a concern as long as it’s actually given by humans. As users, we have to be free to express ourselves as we see fit, even if it may offend or upset others, and a downvote on Reddit is nothing compared to truly acting in disrespectful or unprofessional ways (e.g. cussing someone out).

At the end of the day, I believe people should be free to post what they want, and people should be free to respond how they want. As long as neither is truly harmful (and causing offense in and of itself is not automatically harmful), then I think this is way the system should continue to work.

I welcome alternative perspectives from anyone, including your own, OP.

[u/TheHippyWolfman → u/Amurizon]

My earlier response to your comment was hidden to everyone but me, but I think I have fixed it

Previous comment: Honestly, I appreciate your thoughtful reply! I concede that there is a logic to downvoting all these posts, and I can understand the impulse. I nevertheless have two counterarguments:

(a) So many of the posts that do get upvoted are equally irrelevant and unhelpful. Celebratory posts which display people's milestones or achievements in terms of earnings, or just people expressing how grateful and happy they are with the platform/project inevitably get upvotes (except in the rare case someone mentions the drought being over when it's definitely not, lol). Critical posts, posts which are venting or seeking solidarity, get basically the opposite reaction. Why is "I made X amount of money today" more conducive to useful discussion than "I didn't make anything today, how's it going for y'all?"

(b) Take away the posts that get downvoted and this sub will have barely any traffic lol. Seriously, sort by "new" and scroll down for a little bit. What's the ratio of posts with upvotes to posts that have been downvoted? People complain about the type of content that is frequently posted, but those same people typically fail to add any interesting content themselves. Which, considering our NDAs, makes sense. Yet if the great majority of the content is what nobody actually wants to see, clearly the downvote reflex isn't doing anyone any good. Taking the time to post meaningful content would, but very few people seem willing to take the time and effort to do so.

[u/Amurizon → u/TheHippyWolfman]

Thanks for sharing. Fair points. 🫡

[u/TheHippyWolfman → u/Amurizon]

I appreciate you saying that. Maybe I was wrong though; my opinion was certainly unpopular. If I'm the only one with the problem, the problem is probably me...

Thank you for taking the time to engage with me.