By removing visible vote tallies, comments that have 1000 upvotes and 999 downvotes show the same value as a comment that has 2 upvotes and one downvote. To some it makes no difference, but for others being able to watch your votes up and down was all part of the fun. It certainly drew me to Reddit. It also breaks a lot of smaller subreddits routines like holding competitions that didnt take downvotes into effect. Personally I think it all smells a bit fishy. Officially its trying to fix a problem that never really existed (people being confused about fuzzed downvotes), but realistically it makes it a lot easier for promoted content to go unnoticed which leads some to believe Reddit will be benefiting financially from the change. I'd be fine with Reddit benefiting financially, but they need to be open about it, or at least make the changes optional for smaller subs.
Exactly, the fact that they moved so much of everything behind the scenes was the thing that caused me to come here.
I agree. It seemed to get a lot of the mods of smaller subs angry. The lack of notice is what got me. It reminds me so much of the end of digg.
Yeah, usually they seem to ask and reply to criticism but now they just call it a "knee-jerk-reaction".