Asklemmy

=This is Bad content, which i want to see less of

For me, downvote typically means either "this adds nothing to the discussion" or "this was made in bad faith"

I think voting based on quality of content (and NOT whether you agree with it) is the best approach for healthy discussions. If somebody is a low effort troll, then for sure downvote (and maybe even consider reporting).

OTOH, if somebody makes a well written and thoughtful post about why Totoro is the best Ghibli movie ever, and meanwhile you think Totoro is not even in their top 3, then I would still recommend NOT downvoting 😃

100% you should feel bad. I hope everyone i downvote cries themselves to sleep

Neither; downvotes = this doesn't contribute to the topic and/or doesn't contribute anything relevant to the conversation.

Let say there is a news story of a horrible event. I will up vote it so people see it and read it to learn. I am not up voting it because I am promoting the horrible event.

Downvote = “I think this should be a little lower in the sort priority”

It’s the opposite of an upvote.

Up = I like this

Down = I hate this

If you have more ups than downs: The viewers commonly liked it.

If you have more downs than ups: The viewers commonly hated it.

It's simple and it's how it's always worked, and likely will continue to work, regardless of any deeper sentiments some people may have about it.

I wish there was a new button that simply meant "I have no opinion on this one way or another." But I guess that's simply non-engagement.

Depends on what kind of post it is.

General discussion threads, sure - 'up' = 'good content', 'down' = 'irrelevant'. Irrelevant could be because it's not to do with the matter at hand, it could be hateful, trollish, whatever.

Post asking for a specific fact, like in ye olde askahistorian? Up = correct, down = incorrect. Doesn't matter how well written or how good the intent is, downvoting for disinformation.

One of the things that Slashdot got right was being able to upvote / downvote with a reason. (Perhaps only being able to upvote / downvote occasionally too, which stops brigading.) Made it possible to filter on why things were good, save ruining your fake internet points when you were mistaken about something as opposed to being an arsehole.

If I want an article to be read by others, I give an upvote. I'll downvote if I don't want it. It has nothing to do with my side of the idea or the event. For example, a rape news was shared. My upvoting does not mean that I support the incident, it just means that it will come to the fore so others can see it.

Disagreement is maybe best communicated by the absence of an upvote?

There is a quote "You can not not communicate" but on the internet you can. If I get no upvotes, I don't know if no one has seen it or people actively ignored it and it's a bad advice to feel disagreed on when no upvotes.

I personally feel frustrated when I get downvotes but no comments because I don't know why I'm downvoted. Some instances here in the lemmyverse (like mine) don't have downvotes enabled so I don't even see downvotes.

I think it's best to engage in a conversation if you disagree in a constructive way and downvote without comment if you feel this is beyond help.

Downvote for bad technical advise, I think the person is a bad actor/bad faith argument, or if the person turns ~~hostile~~ to ad hominem attacks. I try not to downvote if I'm putting the effort into debating someone.

edit: for clarity

Don't feel bad. I down vote things I don't want to see. Others much want to see that but I am putting my 2cents in.

This isn't reddit getting downvoted won't mean you can only post every 10mins. You can post as much as you want

The latter. If it's just disagreement a quick reply is best, and sometimes it gets worked out just fine.

Originally up- and down votes were intended to crowd source filtering and rating content in a community. So voting up for things you want to see more of and vote down spam or content that is unfit for the community. But people will tend to upvote things they agree with and downvote those they deem wrong - I also find myself doing something like that. I now try to follow these rules:

• Upvote things I like (or agree with)
• Don't vote on things I don't agree with or think are dumb
• Downvote things that I feel really don't belong here.

It helps that lemmy currently shows the number of up and down votes instead of just the score, it gives a bit more inhibition before downvoting stuff.

neither.... it should be an indication of how much its related to the topic at hand...

Depends on what kind of "I don't agree". If somebody asks for people's favorite food, I'm not going to dislike all other answers... But if it's a more serious question, and an answer just has a really bad take that I don't agree with, that's getting a dislike.

I enjoy reading thoughtful content that I disagree with. I downvote based on perceived intent of the comment or post. If it’s just mean, hateful, trolling, wildly off-topic, or anything like that it will get a downvote.

I only downvote hateful stuff or obvious bots and spam. The same as I do on anything with upvotes and downvotes.

Downvotes = “I disagree” or “this is bad and you should feel bad”?

I withhold downvotes until it means "this is disinformation, or misinformation so wrong-headed it could mislead those new to the topic"

A downvote for me is: this is content i don't want in my feed

Downvote = I disagree

More like get this shit outa here

I think someone else mentioned the same here, but as I've browsed down the opinions, I wonder if it's good for different communities to have their own subculture on what votes mean.

For sure, outsiders dropping by might vote 'counter-culturally' and unhelpfully, but you can get a general sense of understanding in a community.

For r/all-alike stuff I'm sure things are different.

Downvotes = disabled on my instance

There's some part of my brain that applies display:none to the upvote/downvote function on every platform.

So if I don't vote on your content it's not because I hate it. My brain is just wired to automatically edit out anything that's not content. Mostly this means ads, but voting features seem to have been caught in the net too.