I would like to propose replacing up and down voting on comments with emoji reactions. Since Lemmy doesn’t have a consequential karma system, I don’t believe the gamification of comment upvotes helps engender a discussion with a diversity of opinions. Instead of a binary choice, we will be able to express a far greater range of reactions. I see emojis as being especially helpful as a replacement for downvotes since it will help the author understand why the reader disagrees. While I agree that replying instead of downvoting is a better choice, it’s not realistic for everyone to have the time to do so.

For posts, voting serves a useful purpose in creating a curated list of most popular posts in each community. This is important for people who don’t have time to follow all posts in their subscribed communities.

  • it_could_be_worse@beehaw.org
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    1 year ago

    I like this idea but it requires a consistent standardized use of emojis to be effective. Upvotes seem to have a general “positive” meaning while downvotes implies negative feeling. I would love to have an emoji that meant mixed reaction, agree, disagree, funny, etc. but figure out the standard for it will be really important to understand how users are affected with the post.

    • RandomBit@lemmy.sdf.orgOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      I’m not sure this is possible since reactions tend to be in the context of the comment. For example, if a comment is expressing anger at an injustice, an angry emoji would probably be interpreted as “I am also angry” at the injustice and not disagreement or anger about the comment. If someone is expressing a personal loss, a sad emoji would me likely mean sympathy.

  • lemmy689@lemmy.sdf.org
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    How many emojo reactions do you propose we should chose from? From strongly agree to meh! to strongly disagree, so three reations, add mild opinion reactions for five. Is that what you mean?

    • RandomBit@lemmy.sdf.orgOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Apps like Signal and iMessage allow any emoji. I don’t have a strong opinion about a limited set vs any defined in Unicode.