If a niche community has people that persistently downvote every post
- is that healthy for the community?
- is that healthy for lemmy in general?
Examples that come to mind are political communities, linus tech tips, diet communities, etc. There will be a group of people who will not make comments, posts, but will strictly downvote everything that is in the community.
This is a continuation of a discussion @[email protected] and I started elsewhere, but it deserves it’s own space for meta-moderation discussion.
The purpose and shape of a community should be up to the moderator. If someone wants to grow a “community” full of complaining and whining (and there are absolutely people who do) that should be up to the mods.
That said, I think downvote abuse is super annoying, not healthy for “Lemmy in general” and would personally prefer it banned in communities I participate in.