Ask Lemmy

Upvote if it is not spam so it becomes hidden.

Downvote if spam so it becomes hidden.

Block any community I have zero interest in interacting with. Any regional, political, or sport community

Upvote: cool!

Downvote: twat.

ignore: mostly

Upvote: useful contribution

Downvote: clear nonsence I think is worth my effort (itt rarely is)

Neither: rest.

Upvote: I really like that post.

Downvote: Jerk.

Do Nothing: My default

Upvote:

• I can tell some effort/thought went into the post/comment

• It contributes to the correct community

• Is somewhat original

Downvote:

• It doesn't belong in the community

• Is spam

• Post/comment is rude or contains unnecessarily offensive material

• It's a Reddit'ism such as commenting "This" below something they agree with

Neither:

• It's a hot take I don't agree with

• It's been posted several times (including cross-posts because I typically sort by all)

I mean, the problem with upvotes and downvotes is that at one point they were supposed to have specific uses, but they're unenforceable, so it's really just a "here, community, you manage yourself with the numbers".

Of course, "misuse" of the downvote is rampant, and so you should always interpret them with a grain of salt when you see them, on your posts or otherwise. Just because you got downvoted doesn't necessarily mean you're in the wrong or that you deserved it.

Likewise, just because you got upvoted doesn't necessarily mean you contributed much to the discussion or that the info you provided is true. So be critical of yourself and your own conduct, and use your best judgment when voting, but at the end of the day, it's internet points and you should judge a post or comment on its contents and not immediately by its votes.

Upvote = I agree, or I think you're wrong but you make your point clearly, or you've made a high-effort post and I learned something.

Downvote = you're being rude, off-topic, arguing dishonestly or spreading misinformation.

Neither = move on.

It depends if I agree or not. Usually I don't upvote or downvote.

Do I want to increase the chance of other people seeing it? If so, upvote

That's my only rule. Downvotes are disabled on this instance

Upvote when it's a hot take I agree with. It's gotta be a hot take though. Not the most popular opinion.

Aaaaand that's it. Literally everything else I just read and move on.

Upvote: I like this post/comment (for any reason)

Downvote: this post/comment is off-topic/spam, objectively wrong, or contains logical fallacies

Neither: in all other cases

Based on these criteria, I'm very liberal with upvotes and don't downvote much.

For me I:

👍 anything positive-sum

• could be anything from useful tips to strangers encouraging/complimenting each other

👎 anything zero-sum

• racism, sexism, anything that incites hate/violence or is joyful for oneself at the cost of others

and neither for anything that is ambiguously between P-S vs Z-S, or requires further knowledge/skill/context in order to correctly parse

• like any topics that requires advanced physics I abstain because I wouldn't know left from right so it wouldn't make sense for me to upvote or downvote

My own principles: Upvote things more people should see - good points, questions that improve the conversation, things that made me laugh Downvote things that fewer people should see - bigotry, derailing the conversation, bad faith arguments, spam I don't vote at all on the majority of posts and comments I see

I haven't seen the post you commented on and I don't want to take a stand right here right now on asklemmy but I could see how that comment could be seen as derailing in some conversations about nuclear power. There are many other factors than cost when it comes to power sources as well.

I also up vote anything that stimulates conversation, even if I disagree with the comment. Unless it's click baity or the sorts. What makes lemmy great is the posts with great comment threads that you can get lost in, where people are polite

I vote on every post I see. That combined with the "hide read posts" setting means I always see new stuff on the front page.

I upvote any post that I want to see more of in the community it was posted to. Posted game news in a gaming community? You get an upvote, whether or not I actually like or care about that game. I also upvote anything I don't have any particular reason to downvote. It's my default vote.

I downvote any post I want to see less of. Clickbait titles or misspellings are an automatic downvote. Off topic posts are always a downvote. And any post that comes off as salty gets downvoted, especially if the post is salty about being downvoted. I just don't want to see any of that, so I use my vote to discourage it.

I intentionally upvote a lot here, to show people their posts are appriciated and they are part of a nicer community here.