Reedsy Message

Hi everyone, 

I’ll start by saying that this is more of a message than a story. It doesn’t fit the prompt but there are a few things I would like to say.

Number one, I know downvoting has been a big problem on Reedsy lately but only recently after reading Upvoter’s story “Goodbye” did I realize that upvoting can have the same consequences. I have been a person that upvotes others frequently, and I’m sorry for the negative effect it could have had on others. My intention was to help the author’s I gave the points to, not put down others. While I feel that everyone I gave the points to genuinely deserved them, no one person should be able to influence the leaderboard that much. 

I appreciate all the people on here that have gotten me higher on the leaderboard, but there are other people that deserve the spot much more than I do. I’m sorry to anyone that I may have bumped off the leaderboard or unfairly taken a spot from. I will no longer upvote authors for no reason or go on any upvote sprees. Additionally, if anyone wants to downvote me I completely understand.

I hope that going forward the number of points on the website can matter less. A lot of writers on here have been discouraged by the downvoting, but we should all remember that our number of points does not determine the quality of our writing. 

I also hope that we can support less popular authors here on Reedsy. I’ve come across many extremely underrated authors here. Let’s make it our goal to stop by a new account and read a story by a new author frequently. We’ll never see just how amazing these stories are unless we take the time to read them.

As Amber Evans said,

"Support each other. Lift each other up. Reedsy isn't a site for upvoting or downvoting. I've been downvoted. Again and again. But I'm not going to give a little rant and say how the downvoter is an awful person. I'm going to help those who have been downvoted by, not upvoting, but commenting. Critiquing. Giving them a like on a good story. Reedsy is an example of real life. There will be upvoters. There will be downvoters. But there will be diversity and stories, and we should focus on that. This is not an Instagram site. Points. Do. Not. Matter."

That’s about all I wanted to say. Thank you to anyone who took the time to read my message. I really appreciate it. I'm open to hearing anyone else's point of view on the issues with points.

Thanks for listening, Reeders, 

-Maya