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Posts critical of Trump are downvoted on , an hour old post with (+3 | -6) is already on the third page: https://poal.co/s/Politics/242360, for reference there are 3-4 hour old posts with a score below 5 on the first page.

There is an element of truth to it and is worth discussing beyond the lazy "this news org is kiked" arguments, it's definitely not spam.

If the algorithm doesn't attempt to guess if downvotes are legitimate before mods take action then most posts will get the voat treatment.

Posts critical of Trump are downvoted on /s/Politics, an hour old post with (+3 | -6) is already on the third page: https://poal.co/s/Politics/242360, for reference there are 3-4 hour old posts with a score below 5 on the first page. There is an element of truth to it and is worth discussing beyond the lazy "this news org is kiked" arguments, it's definitely not spam. If the algorithm doesn't attempt to guess if downvotes are legitimate before mods take action then most posts will get the voat treatment.

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[–] • 2 pts

If the algorithm doesn't attempt to guess if downvotes are legitimate before mods take action then most posts will get the voat treatment.

I'm somewhat on the slow side so bear with me here. Your concern is that the algorithm isn't active enough?

[–] • 2 pts (edited )

I don't think it's smart enough to ignore illegitimate downvotes and we're stuck with the voat culture that downvotes everything they don't like.

Downvotes shouldn't affect ranking if the post also has a significant amount of upvotes/activity because in 99% of cases it means the post isn't spam.

edit: Counter Strike: GO's player report function is handled by AI, users have a score based on their history of reports that either ended in a game ban or were false positives, if someone is report-happy their reports basically don't matter. The number of reports and their score determine whether the reported player's behavior are reviewed by the community, there is more AI going on with the conviction process but in the case of Poal it can just go to the mods for a final decision.

[–] • 2 pts

I don't think it's smart enough to ignore illegitimate downvotes

Now I understand, hon. It likely isn't smart enough though which is a pity, but also probably a large challenge.

and we're stuck with the voat culture that downvotes everything they don't like.

I think most people on free speech sites don't actually value the principle. If I had to guess why, it's likely thoughtless hypocrisy. There are a few old Poalrs and probably some fresh ex-goats that consciously object to free speech on principle, and that's more of a philosophical difference. The Voat tradition of downvote what you don't like will probably have to be nagged (and in some cases algorithmed) away. At least there they can't bully young accounts for being young. Though the temptation is always there for me.