Ernest just posted some comments clarifying recent changes to Votes, Boosts, Favorites, and Reputation Points:
- Upvotes & Downvotes function akin to Reddit
- Boosts count as two Upvotes (link)
- Favorites are added to https://kbin.social/fav if you Upvote (link)
- Reputation Points have been updated
In addition to that, Ernest stated that “there is no connection between reputation points and sorting algorithms. It’s just info in the profile” (link)
how can I downboost
Hit the boost button twice. The second tap will reduce boosts.
I almost wish reputation and things of that nature weren’t publicly visible. A huge part of Reddit that I hated, the circlejerk-y opinions and same tired lame jokes being told over and over again, were caused in large part by people seeking karma (and that’s not even addressing the actual posts, just the stuff in the comments). I would hate to see that eventually start to come back.
There’s obviously some downside to that and it probably warrants a more nuanced solution if anything.
If it does have to return, I’d like it to wipe regularly. Every 3 months or 6 months everyone goes back to zero. Give EVERYONE the same “badge” that just says “so and so was here in year X” or whatever and leave it at that.
Or go back to what forums did and only count post count and word count and turn those into EXP.
Reddit turned into an echo chamber because of karma, people didn’t want to express a different opinion than what the ‘masses’ have already decided on, because they would be downvoted and lose karma. The downvote feature itself being misused there too.
Reputation should be hidden or removed imo, keep the up/downs/boosts for sorting.
people didn’t want to express a different opinion than what the ‘masses’ have already decided on, because they would be downvoted and lose karma
Critical difference. Reddit had groupthink literally enforced by the software. If you had negative karma in a subreddit and you tried to post, it would say “You are doing that too much, please wait 8 minutes to post again”, even if your last post was 2 weeks ago.
Wait so when am I supposed to boost? Upvotes sort now, so I should usually upvote and boost when I think something should be at the top?
Unless Ernest changed this too and I missed it, boosts still work with the microblogging portion of the fediverse, such as Mastodon. Upvotes and downvotes only interact with the “threadiverse”.
So my understanding is that boosts are now reflecting on threads as 2 upvotes, whereas on microblog posts they reflect as boosts and as 2 upvotes but only on the threadiverse sites.
(Someone correct me if wrong please!)
Boosts don’t count as 2 upvotes, just as two reputation points on your profile page, reputation doesn’t do anything.
Yes it does. That’s literally what Ernest said and I even linked his statement on that in the post. It would behoove you to read it.
A boost is more like a retweet, anybody who follows you elsewhere in the fediverse will see the thing you boosted in their feed.
An upvote(=a favourite) doesn’t get broadcast in the same way. This is why a boost is weighted as a more significant endorsement.
Upvote = “I like this”
Boost = “I think other people will like this”
