My experience

A few hours ago, I commented on a post about a nuclear power plant in Georgia on lemmy.ml:

Why expensive nuclear reactors instead of cheaper renewables?

What happened? 8 likes, 11 dislikes

I am totally honest with you now: This makes me sad, because it’s the same behavior that I experienced on Reddit and why I deleted my account there. Different oppinion => Downvote!!! Now my comment has a “-3” score and I could think about deleting it. I won’t do it, but others would maybe do it. IMO, that’s how we create echo chambers.

I want to post what I like to (not what the 60-vs-40-majority of the platform likes me to post)…

So let me ask you these question:

  • When do you upvote 👍?
  • When do you downvote 👎?
  • When do you do neither 👍👎?

My answers:

When do you upvote? 👍

  • same opinion as mine
  • a post that I think should get more attention

When do you downvote? 👎

  • discrimination
  • trolls
  • irrationality, ignoring facts

When do you do neither? 👍👎

  • different opinion => I write a comment instead
  • posts I classify as “not interesting”
  • slazer2au@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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

  • TheInsane42@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Upvote: useful contribution

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

    Neither: rest.

  • Corroded@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 year ago

    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)

  • all-knight-party@kbin.cafe
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    1 year ago

    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.

    • jet@hackertalks.com
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      1 year ago

      It’s not really misuse, it’s a thumbs up and a thumbs down, up to the user to interpret how to use. There’s no rule given in the interface when you use the buttons. Oh you’re voting something down does that mean it should be removed from the community? No the app just leaves it up to the users to interpret.

      We could change the symbols, amplify and minimize, something like that to make it clearer that it has less to do with your agreement with the idea in the post

  • spittingimage@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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.

  • Ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    1 year ago

    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

  • Porcupine@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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.

  • xigoi@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 year ago

    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.

  • marionberrycore@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    1 year ago

    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.

  • wildwhitehorses@aussie.zone
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    1 year ago

    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

  • recursive_recursion [they/them]@programming.dev
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    1 year ago

    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