Forums like reddit and hackernews show a total score for every post and comment: Upvotes − Downvotes. This encourages conformism. It encourages people to "read the room". It's even worse then a real room, where you see everyone's reaction to what you say. In this virtual room you only see a final score, the approval or disapproval of the community as a whole.
I think this is precisely why reddit aggregated the votes into a single figure. It intimidates those outside the bubble from adding potentially valuable content, and creates a positive feedback loop which amplifies groupthink for those who are. Added to that, on reddit, there clearly exist voting rings, where an individual can call in a 'tactical air strike' on a viewpoint or commenter they dislike. Throw in capricious moderators who uniformly appear to suffer from personality disorders, and you have a perfect storm.
I think this is precisely why reddit aggregated the votes into a single figure. It intimidates those outside the bubble from adding potentially valuable content, and creates a positive feedback loop which amplifies groupthink for those who are. Added to that, on reddit, there clearly exist voting rings, where an individual can call in a 'tactical air strike' on a viewpoint or commenter they dislike. Throw in capricious moderators who uniformly appear to suffer from personality disorders, and you have a perfect storm.