Is it a PTB move (!yepowertrippinbastards@lemmy.dbzer0.com) to ban a user if their only activity in a community is downvoting posts?
The behaviour baffles me a bit. If they dislike the majority of the posts in a community, why are they subscribed? Or if they are browsing by /all, why have they not blocked the community? Are they under the mistaken impression that Lemmy has an algorithm which uses downvotes as an indicator for “show me less of this”?
Has anyone else encountered a “serial downvoter” in any of their communities?
Is it? It’s already been established elsewhere in this thread that there’s a pyramid of users. The majority lurk. The cast majority of what’s left only ever vote. The majority of the rest only comment. And only a small fraction actually create posts. We’re not going to change that just by hoping.
But you’re right, it would be better if they posted. And that’s why I suggested DMing them to initiate a conversation. I’d ask them if they could post more of their own stuff.
I agree with the pyramid of users, but I would add a distinction: everybody is free to lurk, there’s no impact on the platform. Systematically downvoting on-topic content due to personal preferences without explaining why only demotivates the (in this scenario) only poster and reduces the visibility of their on-topic content.
I’m not hoping to change a voter to an active poster, just reducing their negative impact on the community.