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.
Trolling, support other trolling, love art, fuck AI.
For all that I talk a big game about “contribution to healthy discourse”… I use them as “I want other people to see this” and “I don’t want other people to see this.”
That’s a good way to think about it because that’s what it does. More people see posts and comments that have more points.
Usually in the most petty of ways.
i mostly dont. unless someone is making asanine comment, or a smart ass. or if those comment because egregiously trolly, i will block as well.
It’s a Like/Dislike button, and I find it pretentious to treat it any other way.
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 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 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
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.
Or do some reflection on where you’re sharing your thoughts. An anti-AI community won’t respond positively to someone hyping Google’s new image generation model, for instance.
If I’m getting downtown in a community, it’s a sign that maybe it’s not a good fit for me.
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 comments that contribute to the discussion in a productive way. My instance doesn’t support downvotes.
I upvote things I find interesting. I upvote posts that I comment on. I don’t downvote.
Same here … if I’ve read or looked at something, I’ll just upvote, just to encourage people to post or comment again.
Even if someone says I’m wrong on something or disagrees, I’ll still upvote. I’ve been corrected lots of times in the past (on many other platforms) so I don’t mind being told I’m wrong if I objectively look at my content and see how I was wrong.
The only time I’ll downvote is if I come across blatant hateful, ugly, racist, homophobic, misogynistic crap.
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 always make it a point to upvote content on smaller communities I subscribe to; I like to think it helps whoever posted the content to know that despite the very low engagement, people are in fact seeing it and appreciating it.
Upvote: Things I like or find interesting, other people’s OC and effortful posts (even if it’s not my thing), genuine stuff that makes the community thrive
Downvote: People who are super rude, antisocial content/communication, reportable stuff, misinformation.
I have a couple of users blocked.
