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 upvote things I like. I don’t downvote things I don’t like, I only downvote lies, misinformation, or harmful takes.
This and I also downvote people clearly being dicks. To me it’s not all about the content, but also how you decide to discuss something and how willingly you are to have a reasonable discussion.
That was the original intention of the voting system, but most people don’t read and follow the rules and guidelines, and presume the system is about popularity contest.
I consider unwarranted dickishness to be a subset of 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