Edit: obligatory explanation (thanks mods for squaring me away)…

What you see via the UI isn’t “all that exists”. Unlike Reddit, where everything is a black box, there are a lot more eyeballs who can see “under the hood”. Any instance admin, proper or rogue, gets a ton of information that users won’t normally see. The attached example demonstrates that while users will only see upvote/downvote tallies, admins can see who actually performed those actions.

Edit: Obligatory RIP my inbox.

  • May
    13•1 year ago

    SAME its happened on Reddit where I would have a back and forth w someone where we disagreed but it was respectful, and then in the middle of it I’d notice the other person’s comments being -1 even new ones. Meaning someone who isnt in the convo would start downvoting the other person, and I’d be like ‘what if they think I did it? What if that damages a mutual understanding they were close to reaching? What if that turns them off from considering a different point of view bc they assume I’m doing it and that I’m hostile?’ Then sometimes I’d be like “sorry someone is downvoting you its not me”

    • @Corkyskog
      1•1 year ago

      Funny enough that was actually a trolling method discussed at one point on 4chan. Basically the troll was to find new back and forth between two people and quickly downvote the person after someone replied so it seemed like they were doing it. Not sure if it ever became a thing or not, but trolls are aware of the psychological aspect of it.