They added functionality that allows you to hide your comment history, so now you have even less information regarding whether you are talking to a real human being or not. Before, they didn’t even have to advertise. Now, they’ve enshittified themselves so much they desperately need new users.
Thanks for the correction, I was going off of the FAQ page, https://join.piefed.social/features/, that had a post to a thread that has not been updated.
So in that regard, is it what lemmy instances already do when they don’t want instances like mbin to see downvotes? Or does it completely eliminate federation of votes and only shows tallies from the host instance? Either way, the decision is taken from the user and basically undoes the federated aspect of the platform for a dubious concern. At the very least, it should be up to the user.
PieFed private voting is just sad as well as toxic. Inevitably PieFed instances will be abused to facilitate manufactured downvotes from instances due to their inherent anonymity. We are already blind enough online, not being able to see upvotes or downvotes does nothing. Being able to go to mbin and see the way people vote hasn’t resulted in some huge controversy. Even the most recent controversy involved admins shouting brigade due to downvotes they didn’t like, and PieFed does nothing to prevent it.
I’m not saying people wouldn’t react to being able to see who downvoted or upvoted them, but I would liken it to a toddler phase getting used to socialization. Once people get acclimated to it, it essentially adds transparency that can explain trends, reveal stalking and remove suspicions. Without it, people just get fed up and make their own assumptions, which just feeds toxicity and division without any real awareness.
The fediverse is prone to manipulation, and PieFed makes it more so with this change without really providing a reason except that people feel uncomfortable standing behind their downvotes. Downvotes (or upvotes) from the people who can’t stand behind them shouldn’t count. The whole reputation system also sounds a bit like a love letter to reddit karmawhores, and the whole design seems to be designed to take away power from users and move it to particular instances admins to curate content through things like visibility.
The new account icon tells very little in comparison to the comment history.
If, say, my account was created today as I’m posting in a very politically radicalized topic, it can be very suggestive about the type of user I am. If the account seems to be speaking from experience and awareness of the social network they are speaking to and it is new, it can indicate they are an alt, like a newly created one from one that closed down like lemm.ee.
But aside from that, it can do very little. It is the comment history that is most revealing to the type of user you are interacting with. With comment history and a recently created account, it can pretty much nail why someone created the account for sure, whereas if you just have a new account participating and just see a single comment with the signs of a dog whistle in a very politically radicalized topic from them, that might be suggestive, but nowhere near what a flurry of hate filled comment history would be that you might have been denied the chance to check up on with Reddit.
Some people can outgrow their comment history, akin to what “right to forget”, but I’d argue for something more like the ability to be able to tack on that you have done that, how, why, and what shows it, so more akin to a right to forgive. The only thing that should have a hard right to forget IMO is strictly doxxable and harassable private data.That’s a different but tangential type of discussion.