this post was submitted on 23 Feb 2026
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Vote manipulation is getting more common. Some recent examples:

While the accounts were banned, the malicious voting activity stuck around.

Should admins have the ability to discard votes, and if so, which admins? Should community mods have that ability? Can you think of any ways that tools like this could be abused?

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[–] Chozo@fedia.io 35 points 1 day ago (8 children)

I think votes should honestly be a bit more like old school SlashDot voting, where you had several different types of votes you could leave on a comment like Insightful, Funny, Helpful, etc. Have a few negative ones like Bad Faith Argument, Spam, Advertisement, etc. And also like old school /., you'd have a limited amount of votes you can give. Make them replenish once per day, or have users earn additional votes for receiving positive votes on their comments, or something along those lines.

That would prevent bombing an entire comment thread with downvotes, and provides much-needed context for any given comment's score.

[–] lambalicious@lemmy.sdf.org 13 points 23 hours ago

Hard agree on the first part, hard disagree on the second part. Making the system into any sort of rewards system with counterbalancing not only makes the overall system tastier to exploit for Fake Internet Points, but also makes migrating less sellable to new users because their ability or value to interact is reduced or even nullified for a non-deterministic amount of time.

[–] RobotToaster@mander.xyz 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

or have users earn additional votes for receiving positive votes on their comments

I found the slashdot system worse than the reddit/lemmy system, if you commented anything that offended the hive mind you got downvoted into oblivion and lost the ability to vote, which obviously ended up reinforcing the hive mind.

[–] HarkMahlberg@kbin.earth 2 points 21 hours ago

I suppose you mean the limitations per diem on voting is what encouraged the hive mind, but even without those limitations Reddit and Lemmy have developed hive minds of their own, with similarly SOHC behaviors.

[–] captcha_incorrect@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago

I would give you an Insightful vote but I don't have any left. /s

Jokes aside, I like both limiting number of votes per day (or otherwise) and having different kinds of votes. The reason why something is up/down voted can make for a better discussion. But I am agnositc towards renewing votes bases on engagement. On one hand, it would increase engagement, and on the other hand, it could scare lurkers away from otherwise upvoting good content.

[–] lath@piefed.social 11 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Piefed has some comment emojis available. Not sure how they show up on other instances.

I used a "no smoking' one on your comment. But did i use it properly or just to screw around?

[–] Chozo@fedia.io 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

On Mbin, it shows as just a regular upvote. Emoji votes would also be a great change, too! I like the way Misskey-like instances use them.

[–] HarkMahlberg@kbin.earth 5 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

I wish Mbin had even a fraction of the childlike whimsy that Misskey has.

I also miss old school PHP bulletin board systems, which had similar emoji style votes where each one had different meanings, probably similar to what the op was talking about.

[–] Chozo@fedia.io 3 points 12 hours ago

the childlike whimsy that Misskey has.

This, so much. I really wish I could read Japanese, because the really active Misskey instances look genuinely fun to be on. It reminds me a lot of the OMGPOP days, which I miss dearly.

[–] 47batic@piefed.social 3 points 23 hours ago

it worked. i also added a no smoking emoji to this comment.

[–] Blaze@piefed.zip 5 points 1 day ago

This shows up regularly. It would definitely be an improvement over the current binary system.

Piefed already has the emoji reactions, so that's a step in that direction

[–] grue@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

This! Lemmy/Piefed needs metamoderation.

The fact that scores were bounded to a predefined range ([-1, 5]) helped a lot, too.

[–] dil@piefed.zip 2 points 1 day ago

I like the idea of a weighted rating or star system

[–] neidu3@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Yeah, I haven't seen that anywhere else. I also liked that each user had a limited amount of votes to cast and thus would (presumably) spend them wisely.

Source: Excellent slashdot karma from when the site was good.

[–] Coelacanth@feddit.nu 4 points 1 day ago

I like this a lot.