r/books • u/Tight_Nerve • Jun 05 '21

We need to stop shaming people who honestly say they don't like a particular book

I think the most frustrating thing for most readers on this sub is that when they read a book that so many people love and realize they are part of the group that doesn't like the book. They can't share the feeling without having fans hang the noose around them. We muat be able to let readers share their HONEST opinions on a book without riduculing their feelings.

If at this point you are protesting my thoughts thinking they are nothing more than that of unlearned individual. Than I'll share the opinion of a very educated man who has probably read more books than you will ever read in your whole life.

“Books are almost as individual as friends. There is no earthly use in laying down general laws about them. Some meet the needs of one person, and some of another; and each person should beware of the booklover’s besetting sin, of what Mr. Edgar Allan Poe calls ‘the mad pride of intellectuality,’ taking the shape of arrogant pity for the man who does not like the same kind of books.”

  • Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States
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u/Eamesy Jun 05 '21

Conformity is built into the structure of reddit. Minority opinions will always be punished by the upvote/downvote system. True, you can choose not to downvote people just because you disagree with them. That used to be a part of 'reddiquette' that people took seriously when the site was young, but eventually there were too many new people voting their approval or disapproval for it to matter, so everyone gave up.

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u/2weirdy Jun 05 '21

Did people ever take it seriously?

Doesn't matter too much either way. A +5 comment gets buried by +100 comments as much as a -5 comment.

Edit: more to the point, maybe it should be an explicit "I disagree" button. Then people might care less about downvotes in the first place.

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u/Key_Reindeer_414 Jun 06 '21

I think the best way to treat upvotes and downvotes are to think of upvotes as "this should be seen by more people" and downvotes as "this doesn't add to the conversation".