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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[–] Port-Chrome 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago
Maybe we should change the algorithm then? I would maybe give more influence to time early, so that when something is posted it gets a good while at the top so it can get voted on and then it would become more about score. So a dissenting opinion would at least get some time to be read before being pushed down. And cool ideas that might not have been seen because they were late to the party (as many people only read top comments) would get a chance to be seen and given a score.
Actually I might suggest this. Where would I do that?
[–] FiftyShadesOfBlack 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
/v/meta maybe? Or /v/askvoat - not completely on topic but more people would see it.