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 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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

Usually in the most petty of ways.

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.

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.

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

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.