How do you personally use upvotes/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.

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.”

I upvote things I like. I don’t downvote things I don’t like, I only downvote lies, misinformation, or harmful takes.

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 upvote things I find interesting. I upvote posts that I comment on. I don’t downvote.

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.

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.

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.

There’s no aggregate karma on lemmy, so farming is meaningless.

Upvote posts and comments that are particularly interesting/valuable/topical/insightful, which often means that I agree. Downvote those that detract from meaningful discussion. Sometimes downvote on disagreement is a fine line, and it mostly depends on why I’m disagreeing with the author. If their opinion is racism, sure they get a downvote, and if they’re particularly abusive maybe also a report. But if they just see things differently that’s neutral.

I probably only vote on about 5% of the content I read, and engage in comments in 1%. As a poster I expect similar numbers from others. I don’t get over collecting fake internet points, but it’s important feedback to understand that people out there are reading your content and that someone finds it meaningful or useful enough to upvote. If you were just yelling into the void with no engagement, you’d likely stop pretty quickly.

I’m vaguely aware that I’m feeding the LLMs of tomorrow, but I engage in the fediverse to interact with humans today, and it’s important to see that some humans get value from the content. Formulating comments is a lot more effort than clicking the up arrow, and there’s often no real need to elaborate - 20 “I agree!” comments would just be annoying for everyone to read.

It’s a Like/Dislike button, and I find it pretentious to treat it any other way.

I try to not downvote subjective opinions and download objectively wrong posts and comments

I don’t often vote one way or the other. If I get a really good laugh out of a post, I might give it an upvote. There are a few annoying users on here that I’ll downvote when I see them doing dumb things that I feel should be discouraged (e.g. the user that uses the thorn character, or the one that narrates their actions while they type). Otherwise, it’s just whenever I feel strongly about something.

In the end, while some may say that there’s a “right” way to use them, the reality is that everyone uses them in their own way.

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

I rarely downvote unless it’s an obvious troll. I’ve always seen downvotes as meaning not related to the topic, not a negative opinion. If it’s worth engaging I’ll introduce my own take and why I think they’re wrong. For discussion purposes, as that’s why I’ve always been on such places starting back when they were called discussion boards. I will upvote for something I agree with, but for the purpose of it hopefully seeing more light. I’ll comment on it as well, trying to avoid just a “me too”, although sometimes I think my longer comment may as well be that sometimes. I try to bring something new if I can.

My biggest problem is that I engage so much in the topic and comments I often forget to upvote the main post. I hope anything I do within has the same effect. In theory more comments helps, right?

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…

Usually in the most petty of ways.

I upvote when I really like the post, it’s not something that I do often. I don’t dislike, rather, if I see that a user is posting a lot of things that really I don’t like I do block the user.

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.

Trolling, support other trolling, love art, fuck AI.

Upvotes mark that I read the content, downvotes for things that either don’t contribute to the discussion or are unduely hostile.

I upvote this post and all of the comments in it (unless they’re wrong)

Up for things I like, appreciate the effort, appreciate the reply.

Down only for things like spam, posts in the wrong sub, reply is in bad faith or being a total dipshit. Disagreement alone does not warrant a downvote.

I upvote intelligence, and downvote ignorance.

I upvote nearly everything, helps drive engagement and keep Lemmy healthy.

Its pretty rare that I downvote, guessing a 90/10, 0or 95/5 split

top level posts, i usually upvote anything i commented on or just liked for any reason. i almost never downvote them

for comments, more or less the same except i will happily downvote stupid or belligerent comments, i don’t buy this ‘does it add to the discussion’ thing, if that was true it would apply to upvotes as well. piefed has an ‘attitude score’ so when i downvote a comment, i will upvote surrounding comments at random to keep my good boy points at an acceptable level

the other attitude score related thing is upvoting almost anything that has been highly downvoted regardless of its quality just because it seems funny to raise my score by upvoting stuff that everyone else hates

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!

My personal upvote border:
* This is the best thing I’ve seen today
* Someone made a post/comment made in good faith that adds value to the community
* Someone replied to me in good faith, as far as I can tell

Neutral (no up/down-vote) border:
* Someone made a post/comment that I didn’t think much about
* Someone replied to me, but was not in good faith and/or seem factually dubious

Downvote border (I rarely do that):
* Someone made a post/comment that is factually wrong
* Someone seems to be trolling, making an agenda, or doing something else nefarious

I think maybe because of the lack of a meaningful “karma” system, people on the fediverse seem to be much more upvote-happy… less so than the beans era, but still a lot more upvote-happy than just about any Reddit community I still follow

upvote things I enjoy or agree with.

I downvote things hate or disagree with.

one exception though. if what they said is correct or justified, even though I disagree or hate it, I’ll do neither.

for example, if a comment said “all men are pigs”, I wouldn’t do anything. technically wrong but also not wrong.

if a comment said, “all men are pigs and deserve to die.” it would get a downvote, unjustified violence against a group is unreasonable and illogical.

if the comment said, “my husband is a pig. he squeals every time I peg his ass.” that would get an upvote, because it’s hilarious.

For articles, if I think it needs attention I upvote. If it’s garbage shit I down vote. For comments, I usually use as agree or disagree.

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 don’t really downvote. I try to be helpful, so if someone’s just being rude, I typically just block them. Probably more efficient.

The default for Reddit was to hide posts with X downvotes, so people could manipulate that to hide posts they don’t like. Lemmy doesn’t do that by default, so there’s no real utility. Also users can choose to sort by time and ignore vote counts (I do) so your downvotes literally don’t do anything for those users. Thus, I just block people who go out of their way to be rude or offensive.

I upvote people who are helpful and/or kind. Otherwise, I don’t interact with that system.

I usually upvote for engagement and downvote for being a shithead.

I rarely downvote, only for people being assholes, misleading content, AI slop and so.

Upvotes for things I like or agree with.

A rarely downvote, but if I do it’s mostly because I think the poster is behaving badly and/or doesn’t contribute to the discussion in a good way.

If I feel that some post will have a negative effect on the community it’s in, I down vote. I up vote things I feel are exceptionally good.

My threshold for what counts as negative or exceptionally good, varies with my mood at that particular moment.

I upvote comments that contribute to the discussion in a productive way. My instance doesn’t support downvotes.

I upvote more than downvote. I don’t even downvote trolls and usually reserve the downvotes to obnoxious commentators.

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”

I agree. I see perfectly reasonable comments with hundred of upvotes but with one downvote and it makes me wonder why (maybe that one downvote is being petty for the sake of just having a downvote).

Downvoting is a lazy way to disagree. Back when Reddit was great, the etiquette was to explain why you downvoted and disagree, but spez did away with the guideline.

Upvote: agree/made me laught/is important/is good post or comment

Downvote: disagree/false info/unfunny

I upvote cats/dogs/owls/other cute animals, memes i find funny, things i find impressive, people being nice, things i find interesting/informative

I cant downvote thanks to my instance

I update almost every post and comment I see. I only very rarely downvote on purpose but because my app lets me swipe to vote, sometimes I swipe incorrectly.

I downvoted items maybe 3 items early on (been here 2+ years but new on Piefed). Went back and removed them later. I upvote things I like or agree with but think that others are entitled to their opinions regardless of whether I agree or not.

I like it - upvote. Really disagree, or it has musk or the orange fuck in thumbnail, I downvote.

What I picked up from imgur is, I laugh,I upvote. No exceptions.

I click the arrows.

I seldom use it:

• I barely ever downvote and only stuff that is very hateful or really too angry and that somehow managed to pass through my filters.
• I may upvote content I find really useful/enriching in a discussion.
• I do not use up/downvote as a way to show I agree or disagree with whatever I vote on. If I disagree with a content and think it’s worth saying it, I will write a comment.
• Related: I also don’t care about being downvoted unless there is a comment accompanying it to explain the motivation/reasoning behind it. People are more than welcome to disagree with whatever I say and even to dislike me as a person, I’m fine with that, but if they really want to help me realize (and maybe admit) that there was an issue in what I said, a mere downvote won’t cut it. They will need to put in some more work ;)

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 every post and comment I reply to, and every reply to one of my posts or comments, cause I think the fact that we’re communicating here is pretty neat.
Unless the reply really isn’t neat at all, then I don’t vote.
I downvote obvious trolls, ragebait, bad faith arguing and rule breaking.

I used to upvote anything I agree with or that is somewhat midly interesting, but then I realised that if I do that, then the truly good content gets drowned in a sea of upvotes.

(For example let’s say I upvote a comment in a thread that I think it’s really good and exceptional, but then I also upvote other comments that ya I kinda support even tho it’s nothing exceptional. Then I’m drowning the exceptionally good comment.)

Because of that I now tend to limit my upvotes so when I actually vote they weight more.

As for downvotes I personally think they are rude, and usually try to only downvote when something is factually wrong or downright reactionary.

Instead I prefer to upvote comments disagreeing instead.

Sometimes I tend to upvote a comment when I think it was down voted unfairly.

And also down vote commercial posts of commercial products that I see as nothing but advertisement.

I’m on blahaj zone and we don’t have downvotes, so I can’t downvote anyone which honestly feels a lot healthier to me personally.

I down vote things that are factually wrong. If it’s a matter of opinion and I don’t agree, I take no action. If someone is being an asshole, or if their comment/post has absolutely nothing to do with the post/community, I will down vote. I can’t always tell what is AI generated, so I might end up voting some of those, but my preference is to down vote AI generated content and bots.

Deleted by moderator

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.

Only on very rare scenarios so downvote bigotry or plain rudeness and upvote effort posts and such.

I just upvote things I like that I wanna see again. Although there are very few lemmy front-ends on PC that’ll let me see what posts I upvoted so it don’t really work out too well. So far I’ve only found photon and stability on that is questionable if I don’t go to the upvoted page right away

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.

Downvote button disabled. Wish I could also disable the upvote button.

How do you personally use upvotes/downvotes?

well I usually use Voyager, so it’s a sliding gesture with my thumb. I hardly ever bother clicking the actual button, the gesture is just much faster.