[Joe G.]

Originally Posted by TimTheGreat

You don't downvote because you disagree, you downvote "bad" posts. Like if someone posted a photo of a cat, you'd downvote that, not because you don't like the photo, but because it serves no purpose to FRC.

Just because you and I don't, doesn't mean others won't.

In addition, when a subreddit reaches a certain size, "not upvoted" is basically just the same as downvoted. These communities are dependent on topics and comments catching the interest of the small percentage of users who browse by new in order to achieve widespread visibility. Again, see the list of posts I made which naturally gravitated to the top. All universally appealing for a quick laugh, but of very little genuine lasting value.

I think that's an overly-idealistic take on things. Anywhere there is voting involved, the end result to some degree reflects a popularity contest. And even if it didn't go down, it would probably stay not much better than neutral and would nonetheless be partially drowned behind hot-button or hugely popular threads like the game hint and the never-gonna-die over-3400-posts-strong "You know you've overdosed on FIRST when..." threads.

This brings up another interesting point: Reddit's algorithm results in all posts, no matter how popular, drifting off the front page after a few days (and I don't believe that individual subreddits can alter this). Here, on the other hand, you see threads like this remain relevant for years. During the season, hot-button threads generate discussion lasting weeks, which doesn't work with reddit's rapid-fire algorithm.