I hate that I always compare Lemmy to Reddit, but Reddit used to have (not sure if they still do) guidelines called “Reddiquette” that included guidelines about upvoting and downvoting. I don’t remember the specifics (and sending too much of my browser traffic to Reddit makes me feel dirty) but one of the guidelines was not to upvote/downvote on the basis of agreement/disagreement with the content.
On Lemmy, I’m honestly a bit lax about upvoting and downvoting at all. (I’m trying to be better about it.) Buy when I do upvote/downvote, I try to do so on the basis of whether the comment/post “adds to” or “subtracts from” the community or conversation. I can disagree with one comment’s take on some subject but still upvote them if they’ve given me a more nuanced perspective on the issue. If they’re just parrotting well-known talking points and not being thoughtful with their posts, I may downvote them evren if I agree with their ultimate stance.
I’m just mostly wondering how folks on Lemmy think about upvotes/downvotes and what implications that has for the content here.
If it contributed to the conversation, I upvote. Especially if it’s well-written and informative.
If it’s off-topic, incorrect, or repetitive, I downvote.
If it’s banal or uninteresting but not actually deleterious to discourse or distracting from the topic, I don’t vote.
I upvote almost all replies to my comments, including those disagreeing with me, unless they clearly didn’t take the time to read and understand my comment.
I vote on almost all comments I reply to, as well.
I use this method as well but I also use the criteria that if I learned something new that is interesting or useful in my life I will upvote. If it’s useless drivel or based on conspiracy theories then I downvote.