Do you rarely vote on anything at all?
Do you upvote when something is interesting but rarely downvote? Do you downvote when something isn’t interesting but rarely upvote?
Do you vote to signal agreement or disagreement?
Do you vote to encourage insightful replies regardless whether you agree or not?
I rarely interact with the voting system on sites, aside from the occasional missclick, that is. While I think it can be useful when searching for answers or tutorials, especially on topics you’re not familiar with and can’t judge competence vs BS, I think in more social spaces it leads to both echo chambers and karma farming, and it feeds social media addiction by giving you little validations for every upvote you receive.
I also think it prevents people from having more meaningful interactions. Rather than replying with 'This was insightful", “I disagree because…” or “that was really funny” You just make a number go up or down.
i mostly dont. unless someone is making asanine comment, or a smart ass.
Usually in the most petty of ways.
I actually don’t understand how it’s supposed to work but recently, if I see a post about something I want to stay top/hot, I upvote.
Also, when somebody has a funny/interesting comment, I will upvote.
I wish it was just a “this post/comment is good for the community” for up and opposite for down, but people will always (en masse) default to their emotional reaction when presented something that hits them one way or another.
Happened on that other site, happens here. People just love slapping that downvote when angry or upvote when pleased. I guess they feel some small sense of control that way.
I’m guilty of it myself, too, sometimes.
But usually I forget to vote. I only remember to do it when the post is really good or really bad.
I upvote things I like. I don’t downvote things I don’t like, I only downvote lies, misinformation, or harmful takes.
This. Upvote what you like, is helpful, particularly informational or positive input. Downvote insulting content, lies, bad faith…
I’m downvoting this because I don’t like it! /s
I upvote comments that contribute to the discussion in a productive way. My instance doesn’t support downvotes.
I generally upvote stuff to reward engagement and effort. Anything I pass by that looks like a creative work someone is putting forth themselves I’ll upvote. Also pretty much any response to anything I post or comment on. Often times comments I respond to as well.
I only downvote utter bullshit, i.e. people spouting things that are categorically not true, or bad faith arguments, or just people being argumentative in general when there’s no reason to be so.
I don’t give enough of a flying fuck if we hypothetically disagree, only if your position is so odious that it is in fact literally objectively wrong or intentionally misleading.
Or utterly useless bots that no one asked for. I’ll downvote those, too, but I haven’t seen too many of them anymore in the corners that I regularly haunt.
largely agree with this
- good faith arguments or just good quality comments or posts get upvoted
- lazy comments or posts get nothing
- bad faith or unnecessarily combative or ill intensioned comments get downvoted.
I almost never downvote a post, I’ll either block the instance, community, or person instead - I want a good feed
I think down voting things you disagree with or want to discourage is a perfectly valid way to use them, and better in most cases than responding and further escalating a shit fight.
If something you post gets heavily downvoted, that’s information. You now know that your opinion is unpopular in that community. If you get down voted frequently and it really bothers you, it might be time to do some introspection on what you think or how you present yourself. Not all opinions are created equal, and you’re not entitled to people’s attention.
I can appreciate the opinion that discussion would be better, but I don’t think it’s realistic. Many times bad takes are coming from people who have no intention of listening, and just want to spew hate or argue. Down voting and moving on is a much better use of people’s time than arguing with these people. If for no other reason than preserving one’s mental health. It sends a message without feeding the trolls in other words.
As for how I use them? Funny/uplifting/valuable posts = upvote Don’t get it/not interesting to me = nothing Shit take/spam/obnoxious person/wrong community = downvote
I upvoter things I like or unique takes I disagree with that still seem interesting and in good faith.
I intentionally joined an instance that disabled downvotes.
I upvote things that are on topic with the sub and contribute to the discussion, and downvote things that are offtopic and derail the discussion. I’m weird like that.
I upvote if I want to promote the behaviour and downvote for the opposite. When I downvote I try to leave a comment saying why, if I think they’ll read it and be interested. Sometimes those comments are very unpopular and I get a chance to reevaluate my position.
For shared information like links (which are most of the posts I see for the communities I’m in) I upvote if I think it is important for people to see or interesting and downvote if I think there is important context missing, it’s misleading (or sometimes if the source is) or is someone spamming.
For commentary (so some posts) I upvote / downvote based on how much I agree. If I have something to add I’ll add it but if I don’t then “me too” isn’t a meaningful interaction to me.
Mixed links with commentary annoy me a bit since you can usually spit them. And same for long posts. But, I’m not going to downvote or anything, I’ll just avoid the interaction unless some part of it is exceptional.
A peeve of mine is when it seems like people are downvoting links / posts when it seems like the downvotes are because people disagree but also seem to think it’s important to be aware of. Say, a recent Trump action. Obviously it’s hard to guess intent but votes for subcomments can make it seem like a lot of people do this sometimes. But… a vote without an explanation leads to reading tea leaves
Similar but I don’t leave comments.
- if someone is sufficiently trolling or argumentative, or blatantly misinforming I’ll downvote.
- if a comment adds value to the discussion, I’ll upvote it, even if I disagree with it
- if it’s a response to my post, be more generous
I do this when I’m sober. When I’m drunk I downvote everything to frustrate LLM and profiling. When I’m on weed I upvote everything for the same reason. When the pills kick in, I up and downvote chaotically because I’m out of my gourd. On shrooms I don’t vote because my phone is always just out of reach as I swim ineffectively in the rainbow coloured vacuum of space.
Ahaha. The morning after I’m drunk I wake up to people pointing out I was harsh, blunt and wrong
Sounds like a plan. I’m in.
Just like I’m feeling when I read it.
Good to know, worth reading it, fair, great thing…
Bad, wrong, unneccessary, nobody should read it, etc…
I upvote things I find interesting. I upvote posts that I comment on. I don’t downvote.
I upvote posts or comments that start with an odd letter, so A, C, E, G, etc. and downvote any that start with an even letter.
Eventually I will shape the world to my will!
I Quite Enjoy Your Strategy.
I upvote when I think other people should see the post as well. I downvote when the content is bigoted or similar and doesn’t add to the conversation.
