Hard disagree. Down votes shouldn’t be disabled, and I’m disappointed that Beehaw has chosen to do this.

What about comments that give dangerous advice to an unknowing audience?

That’s one good reason for down votes. People may upvote it not knowing any better, and when someone comes along to correct them, the damage is done. Other knowledgeable people can’t downvote it to make sure that dangerous advice gets pushed to the bottom, they just have to hope those that upvoted come back, see the rest of the discussion, and remove their upvote.

This comment just feels stupid again. Like the person writing it. Pretentious, aren’t we?

Beehaw.org says

I’M NOT WORRIED ABOUT IT. I’M NOT WORRIED ABOUT ANY OF IT. THERE’S WORSE SHIT ON THE LOCAL NEWS.

That’s exactly my point. I know it’s not difficult for the people already here, that’s why we did it.

What other social media platform requires you to answer open-ended questions about “why” you’re joining? I can’t really think of any. It’s an unfamiliar concept to the majority of people.

Combine that with the concept of “federation” that may make many users feel as if they’re signing up for some silo within the community, and it’s a recipe for low adoption.

Like I said, I don’t disagree with the concept or the process. I’m fully aware of the reasons, and I generally agree. I’m just explaining how this will be a major adoption roadblock for the vast majority of users.

I don’t really have a good solution either; I wish I did. I don’t think everyone and their bot needs to flood Lemmy, but I also don’t want people too dissuaded from joining if the sign up process appears arduous, even when it’s not.

Having to write a cover letter explaining why I’m a good fit for the instance.

It’s not a difficult ask, but it’s going to turn a vast majority of potential users away from the service.

I understand the need for it, but a typical user is going to be confused by:

• Having to “sell” yourselves to some unknown individual, or group of individuals
• Choosing an “instance”, when most users have never heard of such a thing, and don’t understand how a federated system operates
• For the above: Understanding different instances and which one allows cross-instance posting
• Simplicity. None of this is “simple” in terms of making a new account for a social media platform. This is unlike any mainstream platform out there.

Again, I understand the need for all this. But your average user, which Lemmy desperately needs more of if it wants to become the safe haven for Reddit refugees, is going to be incredibly frustrated and dissuaded by the whole process.