I dont really understand the "we should downvote low-effort content regardless of its trans positivity" POV
Like i dont downvote any content at all unless its obviously trolling or whatever. Im just happy to have chapo content regardless of its quality. i felt lost for what felt like years (it was definitely weeks) after the subreddit ban and i was overjoyed when i learned about this place. Even when reading the shittiest of shitposts its heartwarming bc it reminds me im not alone, and im not crazy for seeing the world the way i do.
This isn't reddit, we shouldn't need to police content for quality the way we did on that site. This is probably a bad idea but im even tempted to say we should just do away with the downvote button. If someone's being a reactionary/stupidpol dipshit just report them and move on. Yeah its a bit reminiscent of the way TheDonald runs their shit, but then again they have way better unity than we do, maybe theres something to be said about removing the downvote button.
Btw to all the stupidpol lurkers on this site: you do know that workers solidarity requires intersectional solidarity in order to occur? Social hierarchies need to be dissolved before economic hierarchies can be attacked. Think before you do class reductionism.
I rarely upvote/downvote anything. I never liked voting even on reddit. If I don't like a post I just keep scrolling. I don't understand why people feel they have to have an opinion on everything posted. If you find "I love my trans comrades" to be saccharine, repetitive, or low-effort, just ignore it. That specific post was one that kept being brought up yesterday as a reason why people downvoted it. There's tons of 'low-effort' posts in leftist spaces. I mean Gritty posts have to be one of the lowest effort and tired things ever. I see a gritty post, I keep scrolling. It's very easy. The only way posts stay in your feed for a significant amount of time is if you sort by top day rather than new. It's not like you're being forced to see it.
I do think there's a certain reddit mentality of having to approve or disapprove every single thing that's posted. That if I don't like this or it doesn't please me, I must downvote it. Even on reddit that wasn't the intent of the voting system. You don't have to have a take on everything. It's okay for some things to escape your approval.
I relate to this. Upvoting/downvoting rarely crosses my mind. I can spend an hour on reddit without voting on anything. It's like with yelp reviewers. Like, I've never eaten at a restaurant and then immediately been like, the people must know!
I only ever downvote if it is clearly in bad faith, trolling, poisonous ideology, ect.
Good post, unfortunately cis people cannot understand the trans experience.
I've done multiple radio interviews about my experience and have been involved in community education regarding LGBTQ challenges for awhile. I just dont think someone who hasn't experienced transitioning can understand fully.
There comes a development of self awareness and introspection from transitioning that doesnt exist in most people who due to cisheteronormativity may not even be aware of their inability to comprehend the nuance of the trans existance.
Yes they may understand a cause and effect aspect of transition (person is sad, person get therapy, therapist suggest hormones, person does hrt for time, person is happy now) but the actual journey of the person and the challenges inherent in that journey will be opaque. I dont know if words can capture the utter isolation and lack of relation that can happen. The ice that fills the veins when another person walks into a multi stall bathroom when visibly trans, etc.
You are right! Sometimes get a little world weary but your optimism, warmth, and love are inspiring.
:cat-trans:
Tbf there’s technically no right or wrong way to downvote or upvote, and a lot of the disconnect comes from users not knowing their votes mattered/could be monitored/etc etc. whether there is a right way to upvote/downvote, to some people, is a secondary issue.
Like i dont downvote any content at all unless its obviously trolling or whatever.
Guess I've always done le redditing wrong but I've only ever downvoted people who are actively being dicks or posting something inflammatory, otherwise I just don't care
Anonymize all accounts, watch quality go up as low effort "power user" posting dissapears
Cull the top percent of accounts every month in some perverse stack ranking.
Social hierarchies need to be dissolved before economic hierarchies can be attacked. Think before you do class reductionism.
There's a spectrum of reasonable opinion here. I'm fully in favor of dissolving social hierarchies, am highly supportive of trans positivity, and consider myself an intersectionalist. I'm not even necessarily opposed to banning based on these kind of downvotes, but I feel like it was handled poorly by the mods (banning way too many people in the first pass, not discussing it first, pointing to the poll that said the voting history access would be used for another purpose). I also think that I personally put more relative importance on class issues than some people on this site do, and that economic hierarchy issues are more painfully underrepresented in broader politics than those related to social hierarchy.
The thing that's bothered me about this whole struggle session is that it's felt like people with similar viewpoints to mine are getting lumped in and branded as TERFs, class reductionists, fascists, stupidpol, etc. This alienates a portion of the community that are, in reality, extremely closely aligned to the rest of the users here. It baffles me that we try to be nonsectarian, and can accommodate such different philosophies as anarchism and Marxist-Leninism, while simultaneously having very little tolerance for slightly different opinions about the relative importance of social and economic issues.
Ideological differences aside, a demonstrable and concerted effort to undermine trans spaces and solidarity exists. This isnt an abstract conversation about ideology, thereis a tangible effect on our trans comrades. So if a couple people accidentally get banned and have to appeal then that is how cis can use their priviledge to aid.
Some things need downvotes. Just not trans positive content. People say lots of bad, shitty things that are not hateful and those things should collect downvotes
I still stick by the idea of a tribunal comm being the only one with downvotes. If a user gets flagged for a ban, they are put in front of the community and we use up/downvotes to determine the justification of the ban
