Congratulations! You just had a run in with DJM/Universalmonk/BarryGoldwater/ I lost track of the rest of his alts.

I think your image needs a few more pixels, I can't read any of that's it's all pixelated

OP, could you provide a Ctrl+C Ctrl+V of the conversation? It's practically impossible to read it from the picture.

Anyway. I don't think the voting system is the right way to handle this shit; if the mod is a troll (as other comments here say), it's probably better to gather people affected by the troll, then contact the admins of the instance of the community in question. A few things might happen:

1. Admins don't intervene. Avoid instance, throw shit on the fan, call for defederation, yadda yadda.
2. Admins intervene. Problem solved.

Either way don't interact with the comm. Not even downvoting. You're basically giving it activity.

image of tiny unreadable text:
break accessibility for no reason.

Is this a web post for ants?

This is precisely why the fediverse needs private voting, and is the number 1 reason to support Piefed.

Just checked my inbox... At what point does it become harassment?

EDIT: Well it was a shitty 6 days while it lasted.

I want to say CLM... If a community really doesn't want downvotes, why not setup the community on an instance that doesn't do downvoting?

If downvoting is "manipulation" just because you don't like it... why allow downvotes at all? Lemmy supports disabling downvotes. It's a checkbox for the admin. It's easy.

What do the pixels say?

Looks like you DMed them, and now you're getting pissy that they went off on you? Don't be a douche and go bitching in PMs then.

BPR, and judging from the young age of your account, you're an alt of someone else trying to start shit. There's no way somebody brand new to Lemmy would know to start a post here after a single week.

taps temple Can't get harassed in DMs if you constantly forget that they exist.

Turns out I'm still signed in and Lemmy's image compression is shit. The week on Lemmy was enlightening and after I post this I will delete my account. Anyway, here's a re-typed transcript because he edited out some of the weirder bits about milfs but I kept screenshots:

Me: Wait, wait, wait, you can’t be serious! You ban people for downvoting AND every single thing in your community is downvoted? Shit, life must be tough

DMJ: I don't ban people for downvoting. I ban people for serial downvoting without interacting with the community.

Here's the deal: That whole thing that ya think is fun, like downvoting every article in a community you don't like is now starting to be seen as not cool. Lemmy has updated mod tools.

I'm not the only one on Lemmy who thinks this way. More and more mods and admins are getting tired of people trying to control narratives by just going around and downvoting a bunch of stuff at once.

Lemmy admin has updated mod tools just because of people like you. It's actively talked about now. Look up "serial downvoting" and you'll see that Lemmy admin has seen a pattern in what you all do and they are putting a stop to it.

Brah, you didn't read the article, think to yourself, "hmmm, interesting, but some incorrect info. I should downvote because that's not right."

No, you didn't do that. You went, "Fuck this MAGA asshole! Right-wing assholes have no right to be on Lemmy!" And just started downvoting every article. Without reading them. Without giving any thoughts.

You thought that maybe, just maybe, if you and enough people downvoted everything, maybe I would stop posting!

Guess what? Not happening. In fact, the more people downvote me, the more shit I post.

You are perfectly free to downvote anything you want. And I am perfectly free to ban you. See how that works?

And you just inspired me to post a bunch more stuff today. And that whole thing about maybe you should just come up with alts and downvote.

Cool, still won't stop me. I'm never ever ever going to leave Lemmy. I'm never ever ever going to stop posting articles that I want to post.

Also, my life isn't tough at all. In fact, I took early retirement, and I can do what I want whenever I want, all day every day. Forever. I get to fuck around on Lemmy. Or go to the pool. Or fuck milfs. Doesn't matter. Through hard work, I became financially independent and won't ever work a day in my life for the rest of my life. I'm also healthy and fit as fuck, so man, I am gonna live a really really long time. Ooops.

Feel free to just block and ignore me. Or hey, come up with alts and waste your time downvoting my posts. I'm not going anywhere.

Ever. :)

Me: Ha ha ha your skin is PAPER thin, man. This is neurotic.

Me: [picture of Voyager's search screen showing "serial downvoting" having 0 search results]

Me: What an asshole

DMJ: Brah, I didn’t invent, nor push for, the tools to ban serial downvoters. Lemmy admin noticed it and has been talking about it with mods. So is there skin “PAPER thin,” too?

You’re the one all butthurt about not being able to downvote shit in a community you don’t even like.

You know, you could just move on and stay away from communites that you hate. You realize that there is more to life than bitching about politics on Lemmy, right?

And you didn't and won't bully me off of Lemmy by downvoting. I’m posting more stuff right now, so get your alts ready.

And be sure to click that downvote button really hard! Make sure you can hear that mouse click!

OR you can be the change you wanna see, and create your own community and mod it however you want. And when you get serial downvoters, just let them run free. Nothing stopping you from doing that.

DMJ: Awww, I see you are really mad that I stopped you from downvoting in a community that you hate.

Damn. Hmmm, what can we do about this, I mean, you had such fun trying to control the narrative and bully. And now you can't. Crap! What can you do.

Well, you can create a bunch of alts, and then go around and try downvoting all over again.

Yeah, do that! I would very much love knowing that you are so pathetic and so pissed off over it that you spend your time creating alts just to downvote posts on Lemmy!

hahahahaha, please please please do that! You wasting your time doing that instead of making real change would be the most hilarious thing ever.

I think we could be friends if you do that. I know you don't have a lot of friends. I can be your friend.

Wanna be friends now? Want me to hold your hand as you push that downvote button really hard? Would that make you feel better?

More messages not in the original image

DMJ: you try to portray yourself as someone that you’re not. You act like you’re not petty, you are. Funny how you posted “Lemmy.today and hilariouschaos.com for the same reason” when someone asked what communities or instances do you have blocked to make your Lemmy experience more enjoyable.

You said that you blocked those, but you haven’t. Not only haven’t you blocked them, you actively seek them out to downvote in them. When you get banned and you’re not allowed to downvote in there, you throw a fit. i bet you have a nice long list of alts so you can downvote, don’t ya? And that list is gonna grow today, isn’t it?

Me: Who do you think I am? After a handful of downvotes, you seem to think is your world ending and you ban me. You’re making a huge deal out of this. I’m not even talking about the ban. Whatever. I’m not allowed in your shitty communities anymore. From the looks of the modlog, half of lemmy is banned from the public diaries you call comms. Yeah, I think people should ban those instances, but… DING DING DING, we have a winner! Somebody realized I didn’t block them! Have a cookie. Get it yourself.

I’m glad you love whoever this person you think I am, but leave me alone. I don’t have a list of alts if you don’t count my soon to die lemm.ee account. I only downvoted you a handful of times because you are not worth my time. I’m apparently worth your time though. Paragraph after paragraph of what should probably be a therapy session are now in my inbox and I have no clue what the fuck you’re talking about half the time.

Post, don’t post, I. Do. Not. Give. A. Shit. You’re too scared/banned to post anywhere I care to spend my time, anyway. It’s more than obvious that I don’t need to do a thing for your posts to get the downvotes they deserve. Better go hurry and ban them too! If you want to be King of Lemmy then you better keep banning. Talk about controlling the fucking narrative…

DMJ: you should be happy I banned you, because now you don’t have to deal with me anymore. See? Win-win for you, guy!bYou are worth my time. I think everyone is worthy of being loved. I’m here for you.

Paragraph after paragraph of what should probably be a therapy session are now in my inbox and I have no clue what the fuck you’re talking about half the time.

Oh you can delete those, it’s easy. That way you won’t have to be so troubled by them. I can see that it’s weighing heavily on you. i feel so badd that I send you replies that take 30 seconds to read. How could I?! The horror!!!

It’s more than obvious that I don’t need to do a thing for your posts to get the downvotes they deserve.

You don’t have to do the work then. Others are. you ca be happy now!

If you want to be King of Lemmy then you better keep banning

“Better to be a King in Hell, than a Follower in Heaven.”

Thank you for your life-changing advice. Now we can be friends? Kiss and make up? Come on, let’s be friends. It’ll beeee fun!!

So friends?

Me: I’ve made my last post on Lemmy. Thanks for showing me how open minded and not-like-reddit it is. You sir can have a fantastic day. I will no longer be signing in.

DMJ: I don’t think you should stop posting on reddit. I did just see your post about me in the power tripping bastards community and l posted you a relevant post from that community as well. I feel that you misrepresented it, and make it sound like I am stalking you via DM, I’m replying to your DM’s and you DM’d me first. I have a shot of our entire conversation Don’t leave Lemmy just because you had a disagreement with me. Block me and move on with your day and continue with Lemmy. nothing we have talked about worth quitting over.

I mean, BPR, since you even admit you were blanket voting without any other criteria, then went back.

That's separate from the mod in specific power tripping though. Yeah, you got the reaction you wanted, but that particular mod is already well known to be batshit.

Look folks, there's always going to be edge cases where one of us is going to down vote persistent types of posts. I've done it, I've seen people that I know are reasonable, decent folks do it. But at some point, vote blitzing ceases to be a useful form of action and turns into just wagging dick to feel good about ourselves.

So, yeah, now that mods can see blitzes easily, we can all expect to see more bans for it. And, inevitably, there's going to be cases where it looks like a blitz, but wasn't intentional. So we can look forward to posts here because of those errors.

What's the answer though? You can't tell at a glance what a user's intent is, or if they're paying enough attention to realize they're even voting on things in the same community. But, that kind of vote manipulation is also a fucking problem. Mods need some ability to keep their communities rolling along as intended. Lemmy, and even piefed, are pretty damn sparse with mod tools. Limited options to shape how a community is guided and help keep a vibe beyond just banning people.

Having something other than gut instinct to use as a metric for keeping out bad actors is necessary. And the truth is that most people down voting multiple posts in a row aren't there to participate in the community at all. They're just reacting emotionally to titles and thumbnails.

Which is fine! Nothing wrong with that, and it's the best argument for down voting being an option because it's great at filtering out people that just want to gripe about the surface of things. A down vote makes it so that less of them come in and grump at other people.

But it does mean that mods are going to have to judge you based on that alone. Nobody has time to chase you down and ask your motivation.

And, OP, just in case, it doesn't matter what the community was, what the topic of the posts were. I'm not arguing over that side of things; I'd likely have down voted a few before having to decide if a report about the community to admins would do any good, or if I should just block it and move on. I'm talking about the reality of how voting as an aspect of threaded forums works, and the outcomes of it shape the nature of lemmy/fediverse activity.

All of it is about balance. Any tool can be abused by mods, admins and users. The tools' merits aren't solely determined by their potential for abuse. The benefits have to be weighed. It has to factor in what other tools are available (or aren't).

My advice to mods? Use vote records sparingly. If you're not intending to very rigidly screen for your community as a place of safety, chances are that it won't help much. You'll run yourself ragged trying to figure out who is and isn't engaging in fuckery as opposed to fat fingering buttons, or is voting their conscience and just happen to be opposed to the subject matter, or genuinely think that a post or comment isn't on topic and relevant/useful and think that about multiple posts.

It's a sucker's bet. Save it for when you're trying to get a new community rolling, or when your community is a vulnerable shelter.