I rarely ever downvote. Everybody’s opinion is valid. Downvoting is petty.

It all depends on the person:

Posts or comments from women: downvote about every second one, randomly.

Posts or comments from black people: downvote every single one, thoroughly, with extra pressure on the button.

Posts or comments from stupid people: sometimes downvote, sometimes upvote, according to my mood swings. Sometimes create an additional lemmy account in order to have a second downvote.

/s

I have only one strict rule: I see the Moomin comic, I upvote it.

I only upvote if something is actually worth upvoting, which basically depends on my mood. I rarely upvote.
I downvote low-effort, some reposts, posting things on comms where they don't really fit (or they are forcing it to fit, like posting social media screenshots in any of the many memes comms), opinion pieces posted as news, misinformation/propaganda about my country, clickbait... I downvote a lot.
The rest I just read or check and keep moving, I don't believe in upvoting everything just to make comms feel alive.

• Upvote - good point/interesting/funny/agree/posts I like to see
• Downvote - strongly disagree/inappropriate/poor comment/posts I don't like to see

Upvote:

• comment was helpful, insightful, humorous, or provoked good conversation
• reply to me that I agree with, appreciate, or disagrees with me in a respectful or thought-provoking way

Downvote:

• unprovoked user demonstrates a hostile, combative attitude
• comment unrelated to topic/thread

Block:

• I recognize user based on downvote behavior in multiple threads or user is particularly egregious in particular: bigotry, demagoguery, sea-lioning, or other deliberate offensiveness.

My account is on an instance that doesn’t implement downvotes, which I wasn’t sure about at first, but have grown to like. For me, it’s either worth an upvote, worth commenting on, or I just move on. It has changed how I engage with Lemmy a bit.

Sadly if I don't vote, my app doesn't consider it read. So I upvote nearly everything.

Im lazy so something has to strike me as particularly good or bad to upvote or downvote. On the bad side im usually looking at the users past comments at that point to see if I should block them. I think in kbin I could subscribe to people and a good one might make me do that figuring it means feeds they were active in would get bumped up. I don't see that option in piefed though.

I don't downvote, I dislike this feature. In theory I upvote when it's funny or interesting, but I don't often think to do it. I try to upvote posts in little communities to say "hey someone saw your post and enjoyed it, please continue to share things!" even if I don't comment.

Upvote: Good comments, or stupid comments that are funny (which are basically good posts anyway)

Downvote: Image posts with words censored, dumb mean jerks, comments that feel like spam

I forgot to upvote most of the time. but when i do, it's usually something that made me chuckle or laugh.

Downvote, everything that has AI nonsense, musk, trump, big tech and the lot of them.

Neglectful / high threshold. A post or comment has to be extremely one way or the other for me to click one of those arrows, and as for boosts, basically forget about it, even if they are the right thing for stellar content. I would like to give out more (of all kinds), but never seem to be able to bring myself to do it.

I think seeing a ratio that already looks right might play into it a bit (since I'm on an instance that shows both up and down), but there are plenty of 0/0s that don't get anything from me either.

Getting into the further "why" is deep existential, psychological stuff that's probably well beyond the fluff level of an internet points discussion, and I might not even be able to begin to examine that without the help of a qualified therapist or something.

Incorrect spelling of words. *behavior, not behavi our. You are pronouncing the word correctly but spelling it wrong. 'Our' is not the same word as 'or.'

Upvote stuff I like such as positive news, shitposts, windows bad and Linux good posts.

Downvote rarely, only if the post is factually wrong or misleading and I've spent the time to confirm. "Person shreds other person" is a shit headline and unless he hit a 10 point debate combo with a knockout I'd Downvote.