I have a very similar attitude as yourself. I want to emphasize as well the main content I don’t upvote is content I don’t understand, like posts about animes I don’t watch etc. So I have very few down votes tbh.

I upvote when the argument is good or I want to give a little more visibility for the argument expressed in the comment. And if it’s a joke, to show that I enjoyed the joke.

I downvote if an argument is in bad faith or not thought of thoroughly at all.

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 updoot basically everyone I interact with, or anyone I think has shared good insights, funny jokes or some other thing in that order. Or when relevant to a community like the unpopular opinion community where you upvote what you consider unpopular and downvote what you consider popular

I downvote when I think someone has a bad take, or is being hostile or spamming

And I don’t interact when im either feeling neutral on it, a good take is proposed in an asshole way, or someone whose comment is disagreeable enough for me not even consider engaging

It depends, on the community, on my mood, on the type of comment or post, on where I found it, and more.

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

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 :)

Anything entertaining, or that gives a perspective on their opinion. Anything not outright atrocious or wrong. I have a light finger for likes.

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

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

I used to rarely if ever up or down vote. Basically it has to be extrememly bad or extrememly good. I use the don’t show me things in my feed I have viewed or interacted with so I upvote everything so that it does not show up when I refresh. one reason I don’t like public up and down voting is because no one uses the same standard so its all a jumble of jumbles.

I upvote what I like and downvote what I don’t.

I think the point of view described in the reddiquette is the most beneficial for good communities:

Vote. If you think something contributes to conversation, upvote it. If you think it doesn’t contribute to the community it’s posted in or is off-topic in a particular community, downvote it.

(Yes the link goes to reddit’s website and I understand people are avoiding it, just keep in mind there was a time before everything went wrong and the reddiquette dates back to the early years)

So I don’t upvote what other people say just because I agree with their opinion, or downvote because I disagree, but rather based on whether they’re contributing to the conversation in a useful way. I frequently upvote people that argue with me, as long as they’re addressing what I wrote in good faith.

This idea goes back further too - back when Digg was the most popular such website, the idea was that you “digg up” things that you think should be more visible (things that you think are worthwhile for other people to see), and “digg down” (bury) things that aren’t.

For example, if I upvote an article about genocide, it’s not because I approve of genocide, but because I think it’s important for other people to see the article.

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.

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.