So this is one of those things like git, where you can't explain how it works on the surface to a normal person because it barely even makes sense if you don't know about the underlying plumbing. :\
Not awesome, but I guess that's what you get when you graft a reddit-like experience onto a fediverse that was more or less invented for microblogging.
PSA: while upvoting exists, to get the "move closer to the top" effect that reddit's upvote had, you need to click boost (kbin.social) en
a small difference, but important to how people use the site