It has been almost a year since we disabled downvotes on HC. @Alice@hilariouschaos.com and I are interested to check in and read the room.

In short, downvotes affect how content is displayed here, and certain types of content gets reliably downvoted on Lemmy. For a comparison, look at:

https://hilariouschaos.com/c/Conservatives vs https://lemmy.world/c/Conservatives@hilariouschaos.com

Downvotes are often not used in good faith, and content will be buried at the bottom based on them. However, they are also a valid form of expression and I doubt anyone here is fragile enough to be affected by them.

What are your thoughts?