I upvote posts I enjoy reading or hearing about. I upvote comments that are intelligent and/or well said. I rarely downvote.

I upvote comments I like that contribute to the conversation; downvote dumb jokes and people just trying to get easy upvotes. And also comments I don’t like/disagree with, though I try avoiding that if I can help it cause it’s bad etiquette (especially if it contributes to the discussion).

The other day I upvoted a post I agreed with. A reply disagreed with it and made a thoughtful argument against the post I agreed with. I upvoted that too. Thoughtful discussion and insight is always something I appreciate.

If it seeds division, doesn’t provide a path to discussion, is overtly toxic, is in bad faith, or is flame bait. It gets the downvote.

I upvote things I like sometimes when I remember. I downvote things that don’t at all belong in the community they are in, get important facts disastrously wrong and then double down, and hateful content.

I use upvotes as a ‘read’ button. Sometimes when I enjoyed a post, I up it it as well. Rarely do I downvote unless I noticed the post/comment was already negative.

As long as it’s not bad faith or outright egregiously dangerous or hate, even stuff I vehemently disagree with gets an upvote.

I upvote if I think other people in the community would want to see the content, and downvote if I think they wouldn’t.

I downvote the bot that posts nothing but links to reddit. I could block it and move on but somebody has to tell it that it sucks. Sometimes I’ll go to the profile and downvote every post until I get bored or catch up. This is a way to quickly tag the bot post for when it shows up in Top Hour feed (often). None of the posts lead to any sort of discussion here. It’s a neverending stream of shit in communities it moderates so reporting is a waste of fuckin time.

This is Lemmy and not reddit. I am here for Lemmy not reddit content. I am certain there are a lot of reddit refugees here. People who left and don’t want to look back. If I wanted to read clankers replying to clankers in threads I cant participate in provided to you by clankers I would have stayed on reddit and tried to not get permanently banned.

The worst part is that sometimes the posts have a compelling topic. I’ll read the post title (and not the user who posted it) and be excited about the discussion it could bring about. The disappointment in seeing it being a link to reddit by that bot after reading the title is almost palpable.

Upvotes are a different story. Since it means less here than it does on reddit I try to do it more often for human posts. There is less incentive to farm karma here so I am more willing to do my part in boosting good contributions made in good faith.

the instance i use does not have downvotes. i personally like this, as if someone disagrees with something, they must express that via their own words, which i find to be a lot more productive and useful!

my basis is, if the comment contributes meaningfully/helpfully to the subject at hand—whether that is via explanation, personal storytelling of something relevant, something funny or kind that makes other people smile/feel joy, among many others—then i elect to give an upvote.

if it is unintelligible to me (like a reference i don’t get), overly provocative, actively harmful (anti-vaccination stuff etc.) or otherwise not made in a real effort to contribute anything useful or interesting, then i elect not to give an upvote.

that is just my reasoning though :)

If i comment on a post or reply to a comment, I upvote it. Case in point.

If i think a post is in the wrong place, I downvote it. For example, I follow a lot of art communities. In artshare I upvote literally every post because I think creativity should be encouraged, and sharing your creative journey should be encouraged. However, I feel like the traditionalart community is for sharing professional art pieces. I’ve already seen your same piece in 4 other communities,et me have one place for polished art.

Eta: if someone comments on a post I make, I almost always up vote. Unless the comment is complete garbage, im grateful for the engagement.

If I can look at a comment and perceive it as helpful, funny or overall a positive addition to the discussion at hand, then I will like/upvote it.

Being said the inverse is not true. If a comment is negative or takes away from the conversation at hand, I will likely ignore it or leave a comment in response to the comment/post

I very rarely will downvote a comment or post, due to a combination of the fact that I have the system disabled completely on my end, so I don’t even have a button or the ability to see it. and I find down-voting with how it’s implemented on Lemmy counter-productive to a healthy ecosystem. I had the same issue with Reddit when I was on that platform as well.

I upvote things that required effort or present seemingly honest thoughts that are are not dismissive against anyone. This includes jokes, L takes, W takes, anything.

I don’t downvote much. Mostly when people engage in demagogy or don’t read post/comment they respond to, as I hate with a passion both weaponised ignorance and twisting words.

If I don’t agree with a post or comment, IMO there is already function for that and it’s called reply. Maybe I am the one in the wrong after all, downvoting and moving on won’t let me check.

Also hi. You decided to do this after responding to me. Have an upvote for effort shown ;p

I will always downvote mods obsessed with power. The mod of !pics@lemmy.world is such a mod. There is even a post about that on !support@lemmy.world. But it seems like it was not very well taken. Well, I saw it and I fucking hate that dude. We had the option of doing something better here, but power still got to mods head. Fuck him.

Other than that, I don’t think I downvote much. I am just happy people are here.

I tend to upvote submissions that promote the community, comments that do good jobs explaining things, and comments that have productive controbution. I don’t downvote people that disagree with me. Those are reserved for people being assholes. My vote/view ratio is pretty low