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 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.