A vote on kbin/lemmy is closer to a retweet than to a vote on reddit in terms of its potential impact on folks. You are publicly saying you support/do not support a post by voting on it (which might be taken as publicly thanking someone with an upvote or publicly saying fuck you with a downvote in some contexts); that can be a workable system, but it’s surprising if you’re coming from reddit where basically no one but the admins (and whoever they told/sold the data to) actually knows what you voted up/down.

Hell, consider all the drama around “YOU DOWNVOTED ME!!” / “No I didn’t!” BS that was so common even when it was just suspected – now it can be confirmed (again, for better or worse), for kbin users. I was on reddit for a long time and just thinking about that crap makes me feel tired… -.- Downvoting on kbin is potentially picking a fight every time. The end result is that I’ve basically never downvoted anything except some spam bots. I don’t need that shit in my life again – even for some of the posts that I think really should be downvoted, I’m just ignoring now. (Not getting into it further. Don’t ask. I won’t respond.)

If your IRL identity is associated with your account (or can be figured out eventually…), upvoting something really spicy could also end up causing you the same kind of drama IRL as retweeting or commenting strongly on the post – e.g. job loss, loss of business, targeted harassment/violence campaigns, loss of friends/romantic partners, etc…

I really don’t need more drama in my life, so I’m a bit more mindful of how I’m voting (for better or worse) and some stuff I probably would’ve voted on before, I am just leaving alone now.