Fedigrow

I have strong opinions here. I view moderating a small community as trying to grow a garden and set the tone such that other people feel comfortable contributing to that garden.

The core problem with negative only participation is it makes the community hostile to new contributors. Most people on lemmy are lurkers, and if they feel that their post will be met with overwhelming negativity they simply wont post.

Downvoting is a form of participation, its a negative signal by design.

If someone hates a community so much they feel they need to downvote it every time they see it, but they don't want to block the community, its totally reasonable for a moderator to help them block the community so it doesn't ruin their lemmy experience (i.e. ban them from the community so they don't see it anymore)

If their only contribution is downvotes, then it's not really a PTB IMO and should be done.

How do you see who is up and down dooting posts?

Have you tried messaging them?

While lemmy is still small I think its worth asking them what's up. Is there a timeout/suspension function? Suspend their account for 30 days.

It’s not considered powertripping as that is a form of vote manipulation.

If it's only downvotes, then a ban is justified.

Yep, they get banned. End of story. Though I'd be willing to unban them if they appealed and explained their behavior. Or if there was a mistake on my end, obviously

I'd say just ban them. Doesn't look like a healthy relationship for either side. Worst thing that can happen is they complain and you get to know the reason for their behaviour... And if they're under the impression it will get rid of the posts, banning them will accomplish that, so win-win.

If they only downvote everything, I think they deserve a ban.