It's no surprise that this would be common, especially in some subverses. But those that are supposed to be serious and for discussion often get poisoned by this. Up-votes and down-votes can make things rather one-sided and into a hive-mind of sorts.
How can we, mods or the community at large prevent hive mind mentality? Even if people don't downvote comments or posts that go against their beliefs they are less inclined to upvote than someone that agrees and makes other good points. Doesn't this foster some sort of hive mentality and where is it a good thing and where is it a bad thing? If I don't have an opinion yet about a topic and the highest comments are all about x is really y does this mean that it is right?
Does this promote conformity and stifle discussion indirectly?
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[–] nilceps [S] ago
I think the problem lies with the fact that a user can punish/award other users so popular opinions are elevated while unpopular opinions are buried just by merit of democracy (The bigger group is able to punish/award more than the smaller group). This could drive out the other group to make their own little world where they are the majority and similarly can punish/award those things they want to.
I think that problem is the biggest in opinionated subs as opposed to topical subs though even there such a divide can exist (See /r/fitness with SS+SL and /r/bodybuilding with PPL).
I'm just thinking out loud here but smaller groups fracturing to make their own doesn't seem that smart as it just leads to opinions going to the extremes and discussions turning into circlejerks.