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.

  • Paradachshund@lemmy.today
    28·
    1 day ago

    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

    • chunkystyles@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      3·
      11 hours ago

      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.