Do you rarely vote on anything at all?
Do you upvote when something is interesting but rarely downvote? Do you downvote when something isn’t interesting but rarely upvote?
Do you vote to signal agreement or disagreement?
Do you vote to encourage insightful replies regardless whether you agree or not?
I rarely interact with the voting system on sites, aside from the occasional missclick, that is. While I think it can be useful when searching for answers or tutorials, especially on topics you’re not familiar with and can’t judge competence vs BS, I think in more social spaces it leads to both echo chambers and karma farming, and it feeds social media addiction by giving you little validations for every upvote you receive.
I also think it prevents people from having more meaningful interactions. Rather than replying with 'This was insightful", “I disagree because…” or “that was really funny” You just make a number go up or down.
I rarely downvote unless it’s an obvious troll. I’ve always seen downvotes as meaning not related to the topic, not a negative opinion. If it’s worth engaging I’ll introduce my own take and why I think they’re wrong. For discussion purposes, as that’s why I’ve always been on such places starting back when they were called discussion boards. I will upvote for something I agree with, but for the purpose of it hopefully seeing more light. I’ll comment on it as well, trying to avoid just a “me too”, although sometimes I think my longer comment may as well be that sometimes. I try to bring something new if I can.
My biggest problem is that I engage so much in the topic and comments I often forget to upvote the main post. I hope anything I do within has the same effect. In theory more comments helps, right?