When I first found out it was an interesting concept that I was pretty neutral on but the more I engage/lurk with the community the more I enjoy it.
I generally don’t post/comment much on Reddit because I tend to be extremely sincere and that’s not always well received. Usually I don’t get much hate, but what I do get is a lot of non-interaction mixed with downvotes. And it’s just really discouraging when I’m just trying to share my thoughts.
But having no downvotes here is so nice because I’m not afraid that I’m going to get silenced into oblivion. Either people will actually engage with me (and maybe disagree, but in a meaningful way), or they’ll move on and not randomly share their disdain via downvoting.
It’s such a small change but makes a big difference. I bet a lot of people feel the same as me - it’s more comfortable to engage here.
I’ve seen a lot of comments that were against the grain but still upvoted on reddit. I’m not saying they never downvote comments they don’t like but if you are getting downvoted consistently and without interactions it might be more than just being sincere.
I’m not saying that I got downvotes consistently. Just that it has happened for really innocuous reasons, and in general the threat of downvotes keeps me from engaging much at all.
I can understand how you might think that not knowing who I am, but I assure you I really do try to be genuinely nice and don’t court controversy (I haven’t the energy for it). It’s fine if you don’t believe that though, I’m just a random person on the internet.