Probably better to post in the github issue rather than replying here.
I was really confused seeing this post, because I always assumed that Lemmy votes were public. Because how else are instances going to sync them? And indeed, the API exposes them completely, this change will just make it easier.
Then I was really confused when I saw so many comments being against it. A lot of “I’ll leave if votes become public” in here. That’s a lot of people who somehow assumed Lemmy was private. Aren’t we all supposed to be Linux nerds in here?
So the API does disclose who upvotes and downvotes, however since the major front ends themselves don’t show to everyday users, it’s walled off to finding a frontend that is able to view them and to mod/admins of the instance.
Currently it takes someone to be somewhat savvy to be able to do that, this proposal is making everything public period, which would remove that wall
Aren’t we all supposed to be Linux nerds in here?
After the meltdown that occurred when Reddit ultra monetize their API Lemmy acquired a lot more casual users. Especially when makers of Reddit apps switched over to making Lemmy apps instead.
I was one of those people. But statistically, even the people who migrated from Reddit to here are not “normies”. My “normie” friends (which is all of them 🥲) just kept on using Reddit and didn’t notice anything. They weren’t even using 3rd party apps.
Aren’t we all supposed to be Linux nerds in here?
No! :) The most Linux I use is a Steam Deck.
I feel votes should be visible to admins but otherwise anonymized and private, or else I fear vote-harassment could become a forever-problem on Lemmy. As a woman who has been harassed on Twitter and Reddit in the past, I strongly urge the Lemmy community to embrace privacy on this issue. If there’s any way to make votes more private between users, we should do it.
If we don’t and users get harassed, they might leave. Lemmy needs more women. And you all are great but Lemmy also needs people who aren’t Linux nerds! Lemmy needs diversity.
If there’s any way to make votes more private between users, we should do it.
I very much agree with your diversity sentiment, but this part is just not possible right now. The underlying protocol (ActivityPub) just has no mechanism for private votes.
Yeah. I guess we shouldn’t expect that to change any time soon?
If that’s the case, maybe public votes is the best way to go.
Kinda same. I also have an Ubuntu homelab server, but I feel like I use my Steam Deck more often than I spend an occasional 3-day all-nighter to get something working on the server over SSH.
But my joke premise was obviously flawed anyway. We are supposed to be, but we clearly aren’t.
And to address your point regarding votes being viewable only by admins, it’s sort of pointless cause anybody can become an admin, just make your own instance. This just makes your statement to be “let only the more technically advanced people see the votes”, which just makes it unfair.
True, anybody can become an admin, but most people won’t. I think that a slight barrier to viewing vote identities is a good thing, and reducing that barrier to zero would result in more harrasment and unproductive discussion.
