I tend to upvote a post when it Links an interesting article or provokes an interesting conversation, and only downvote them when they voice an convectively bad opinion (like, bigotry or other unjustified vitriol).
I tend to upvote comments when they make a good point or at least try to support their argument, and only downvote them for the same reason as posts: when they are trolling, being unnecessarily aggressive, or trying to justify bigotry with fallacious reasoning or something
What about you?
I try to reserve downvotes for bad faith commenters, though I downvoted some of the ai generated jeans spammers too when that started to get real old.
…AI generated jeans spammers? What did I miss?
Jeans and beans
Sorry. I posted one because I couldn’t beat them, so I joined them.
- Up - I want you to be encouraged and continue in the discussion
- Down - Your being disruptive, rude, off-topics, combative, and the conversation is suffering because of you.
Sounds like a more concise description of my same strategy, yeah.
Memes: upvote if I find it funny
Text posts:
- upvote if agree
- do nothing if disagree, but the post is valid
- downvote if OP is trolling, or rude, or otherwise makes me uncomfortable
But, there are exceptions
What about comments?
Similar theory. That’s usually how I find out a poster is trolling. I ask for clarification and they double down on their original post
Upvote if it contributed to the discussion, whether I agree or disagree, whether serious or humorous.
Downvote if it’s off-topic, misinformation, belligerent, or a link to a video without a text summary. Downvote if the user did not respond cogently to the comment or post. Downvote bad advice, and bigotry, and anyone who miscorrects “octopusses” to “octopi”.
No vote if the comment is banal or I can’t understand the point they’re trying to make.
Um, I think you mean octopodes.
Fun fact, there’s a Wikipedia article that comes up for “plurals of words ending in -us” with a section jus for octopus.
No one corrects “octopodes” to “octopi” and if they did I’d have to assume it was sarcastic.
But yeah, like any self-respecting Classicist I obviously upvote correcting “octopusses” to “octopodes”. That’s just common sense!
I only downvote when someone is being an unreasonable asshole. It’s ok to have a different opinion and state it respectfully. Otherwise I sprinkle updoots like fairy dust.
Contributes value to Lemmy? Upvote!
Is a troll, propaganda, pointless, or a personal attack? Downvote!
By the propaganda logic you’d need to downvote half of all posts for Linux propaganda by Windows standards ;D
Upvote what I like, ignore what I don’t but it’s presented in good faith, downvote otherwise.
Somebody replies to a thread I made? - up vote.
Somebody replies to a comment I made? - up vote.
Somebody makes a post interesting enough for me to comment? Up vote + all other comments upvoted.Ignorance or bad info? Downvote.
Ignorance should be corrected with information, not punished and ignored. Of course intentional ignorance should be treated differently.
I don’t see it as being mutually exclusive. :)
Sometimes it’s not worth arguing with ignorant users.
In another thread I mentioned that lithium-ion batteries are allowed in checked baggage but to check with local regulator/airline rulings and laws.
User responded that’s prohibited in the TSA (and by that extent every other air space operating entity).
I responded with my local laws (Germany) and 2 air line guidelines saying it allowed and one saying nope.
Good a downvote later on.See here: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/comment/9642846
Mind you I was a bit forward but still correct.Man, I see so many wrongful downvotes on this platform. It’s crazy. I see people getting downvotes all the time for legitimate questions, for disagreeing with whatever incorrect answer has a few upvotes but feels good because it bags on some disliked ideology or institution, and even for people acknowledging they were wrong. Occasionally lately I’ve been thinking about quitting the Fediverse because it’s so full of extremists and edge lord kids. But there’s nowhere else that is any better anymore, and at least this place isn’t a massive for profit manipulation engine.
for posts:
- is spam? downvote. report if I am not on the best of days.
- is the post trying to follow the “let’s be awesome to each other” tenet? upvote.
for comments:
- do I agree or like it? no bearing.
- does it relate to the post, or expands on the info and encourages dialog? upvote.
However the mood strikes me. I upvote things that I agree with, enjoy, or otherwise approve of. Downvote mostly jerks, liars, and pictures I don’t like. Most stuff just glides right by.
Parallel to the join-lemmy.org documentation (see below) I upvote what I want to see more of, and downvote what I want to see less of.
“You can upvote posts that you like so that more users will see them. Or downvote posts so that they are less likely to be seen.” ~ https://join-lemmy.org/docs/users/03-votes-and-ranking.html
Yeah, but how do you qualify that?
Funny? Up. Useful? Up. Asshole? Down. Bonus: cats/bats/art, up.
Easy.
Ah, I suppose I can be a bit more specific about my process.
Posts: upvote if I care/liked it, downvote if I don’t care about the post so I will hopefully see more of what I care about, and less of what I could careless about.
Comments: upvote those that add value, and really only downvote those that specifically subtract value (mostly when people are being jerks)
Upvote:
- I really like what they said
- It feels like “this needs to be seen by more people (or by OP)”
- It’s useful and accurate info relevant to the OP
- It’s basically the comment I was going to write
- The comment replies to me, engaging in positive discussion
Downvote:
- It’s completely irrelevant or inaccurate to the topic at hand
- The comment is needlessly aggressive, especially towards another commenter
- Too many typos, spelling mistakes, emojis, or grammatical errors
- The comment is solely a link to an image
- It’s a duplicate comment (I’ll usually upvote the one with the most upvotes to counteract this one)
- It’s useless (e.g. “This”)
- Too many typos, spelling mistakes, emojis, or grammatical errors
Got it, no writing like a senator on Twitter. Or X, or whatever.
Scandalously
If I see a post and I want to see more posts like that in that community, I updoot. If I want to see less posts like that in that community, I downvote. Nothing more complicated than that.
So if you post a cute cat pic to a community about cats or cute things, I’m updooting it. Not even super concerned with how well I looked that specific pic, I want to see cute cat pics there and you provided one so you get the updoot.
But if I’m in a discussion-based community and you post something with a clickbait title, I downvote. Doesn’t matter if you’re technically still on topic, I want to see less of that nonsense so I downvote it.
Do you have a clear way of defining “clickbait” or is it just vibes?
For posts, it comes down to whether or not it fits the community. In /c/UnpopularOpinion, your opinion had better be unpopular. In /c/Funny…well, bad example. 😆
