PSA: while upvoting exists, to get the "move closer to the top" effect that reddit's upvote had, you need to click boost

a small difference, but important to how people use the site

Horrible idea. No one sees this button, no one knows what it does, and upvotes definitely should have that effect.

Ernest is likely working on it

We talking P. Worrell or the developer guy?

I’d give anything to have Ernest P. Worrell back and on the case.

But is he… earnestly working on it?

well he did fix the reputation calculations… https://codeberg.org/Kbin/kbin-core/pulls/462

that would be disastrous, and just serve to make sure this platform ends up like reddit

Agreed. I upvoted AND boosted your comment for redundancy.

They’re not redundant functions. They’re… Mixed up on kbin right now, because things were originally built with the up button boosting content, but that’s incongruent with how Lemmy does it, so it was changed.

But boosting isn’t really about sorting at all. It’s about republishing content, so that it can be sent out to instances that have started following a group after the content was originally posted.

I believe it is more akin to ‘re-tweeting’ for your followers.

All boosts you boost are not private and everyone can see everything you have boosted

Yea, i’m working on my own Fedi software and i’m struggling with the point of boosting in the link aggregator context. It’s an odd overlap with Reddit-style reposting to appropriate subs, but based on the user.

It makes sense in the Twitter UX, but i struggle to find it’s place in the Reddit UX.

I think boosts have potential to be used for crossposts, and the current implementation are just crossposts to your profile. Though they’re likely here right now just because Kbin is a mix between thread and microblog software

yeahhhhhhh if boost came with like a menu: “Boost to: -Your Personal Microblog -Magazine’s Microblog [pick] -Magazine as Article [pick]”

then the feature would be pretty baller

(actually im not sure if your personal microblog exists so…maybe just the other 2)

Boosting is super important in all contexts in the Fediverse.

When am instance subscribes to a content source - be that a user actor or a group actor - on behalf of a user, it only requests future content. Back catalogues are not fetched by default. Boosting re-publishes the content, so that it is received by new followers.

With a group actor, the boost triggers the actor to reboot the content itself, sending it out to new subscribers to the group, and filling in that back catalogue.

I like this comment but I don’t know what im supposed to do about it

if old content isnt fetched for a newly subscribed instance to see, how are users going to boost that content in the first place?

I see it as similar to the “save” function on Reddit, except it’s public. I’ve started using it on things that I think I might like to read again later (and so by extension anyone who’s “like me” would probably want to read it too).

“Boost” comes across as a bug, not a feature. People should have one vote, not two.

i disagree, it’s a great functionality that people should learn… and here’s the simple point… you can BOOST a comment you disagree with, so that your argument AGAINST the comment will get more visibility… reddit is dysfunctional, and this mechanism can help fix one of the problems reddit cannot get rid of… this mechanism can help discussion, and fight against things like brigading…

think about it a minute… someone makes a really TERRIBLE point that you can dismantle easily… tear it down, and BOOST the hell out of it… reddit cannot accommodate that… keeping those two functions separate is critical…

this will help keep every thread from becoming a popularity contest that is entirely predictable, once people figure it out

edit to add: i’ve only been using this platform for a few days… but i promise you, it works the way it’s supposed to… try it out…

Should they? It seems to me that we should have way, way more control over how we choose to sort things.

That should be one of the options, of course, but we can have so much more here.

I second this. It should be a simpler UX

I literally do not see this boost button anywhere. I just spent 2 minutes mousing over every button around your comment and I cannot find it.

Boosting is only available on kbin

@tryplot oh for real? I had no idea. My brain said “looks like Reddit upvotes, must work the same way”. The up/downvote buttons are placed prominently in a way that suggests they are impactful, whereas boost is just kinda tertiary / seems less important.

Agreed, location of voting and boost should be swapped, at least until voting means something.

They were swapped before, and were recently changed to this for Lemmy compatibility, but things like the algorithm and reputation counting haven’t been updated yet.

What does the upvote/downvote do, could someone kindly explain?

Of course, allow me to illuminate for you what it actually does: Nothing.

Edit: Wow thanks so much for the upvotes everyone that’s really productive! Hahaha

The upvote button does nothing, but the downvote button subtracts reputation.

that is currently the situation due to boost and favorite being switched to make kbin more compatible with lemmy, but post and user reputation are currently still counting boosts.

What’s the difference between upvoting and boosting?

Upvote is akin to “favorite” on ActivityPub, Boost is akin to reblog on ActivityPub.

As it stands now the upvote works as a favorite or like, downvote lowers reputation, boost raises reputation. It’s a bit confusing and there’s an open ticket on this. I’m not sure if all old actions will carry over or when the operations change it’ll get reset.

Is this a UI issue or a fundamental flaw of the Fediverse? In other words, is this only confusing because of how the UI and thread display logic respond to the data they’re getting? Is this just an issue of how the comments thread is ordered, and the fact that it isn’t what the user would expect? (I only ask because I’m curious and want to know how this place works)

To the best of my knowledge, this is a temporary kbin-specific thing. Pretty sure I saw Ernest mention there is a change in the works with the next update… in fact: https://kbin.social/m/kbinMeta/t/116811/PSA-every-interaction-you-make-with-various-posts-on-kbin#entry-comment-462816

As Bluskale mentions it’s a Kbin UI thing but it will be changing in the future.

if it works as a favorite where do you go to see your favorited content?

If you look to the hamburger icon in the top right of the screen next to your username that’s the channel selector. Favorites is the third one down in the list.

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PSA: while upvoting exists, to get the "move closer to the top" effect that reddit's upvote had, you need to click boost

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