Bad faith arguments or inflammatory nonsense. We can disagree and I’ll upvote if you’re actually speaking in good faith.

Pretty much any form of, “Whataboutism” gets downvoted. No one was talking about C, why are you acting indignant about C when people were discussing A and B, you know?

I disagree, so I downvoted you. Guess that’s my answer.

I like to reserve it for special occasions. Comments that are very confidently wrong, needlessly edgy or rhethorically loaded. Anything that I don’t want to dignify with a verbal response but where I still want to express my aversion. The exception are “funny downvotes” like mass downvoting the fourth person in a chain or stuff like that.

“This”

Not your post, but anything that’s just an upvote in the form of a comment.

Also anything that’s egregious misinformation or bad faith posting.

Or anything that’s just spammy or bonkers crazy. I’ve blocked more people in my 1-ish year on Lemmy than I had in something like 10 years on Reddit…it definitely feels like Lemmy is the haven for Reddit refugees, including those who got banned for not really understanding how to engage in this type of space.

Also, any post that really doesn’t fit the community. Like NoStupidQuestions posts that aren’t questions or are really just AITA or DAE (social validation) posts in disguise.

I know that sounds like a lot, but for the most part, I don’t vote on things. I upvote most posts that are cool/interesting enough to get me to go to the source or read through the comments, as well as any good comments. And pretty much any comment that engages in discussion with my own comments without being annoying or rude, lol

I don’t have a downvote button but if I did I’d use it on misinformation. Things that are factually incorrect or unsubstantiated.

“Disagree”/“its bad”/“eww”

It’s not a “disagree” button, but it is a “you’re wrong” button. They could be wrong by trolling, spreading misinformation, spamming, being disingenuous, refusing to understand the topic or engage in good faith… None of those contribute to the conversation.

Whatever I want.

I have no obligation to downvote consistently.

I do what I want!

As the electronic version of [look of disapproval], the same way the upvote means [nodding while thinking yes yes]

If you’re a skater you know there are no rules at the skatepark, except those enforced by those that are at the skatepark…

Same as online communities, there are only ones that get enforced by downvotes.

Disagree.

All of these comments are like “down votes aren’t dislikes, heres how i use them: list of things they dislike”

I mostly downvote bad faith, hostile or just generally angry/mean comments independent of whether I agree with them or not. Basically I’m using it against the people that are polluting the air here.

Racism and homo/transphobia, which are often disguised as (mis)information. I don’t usually downvote people unless they’re being outright hateful though and then sometimes I block them too.

Also downvote & report spam, which is actually pretty rare on lemmy.

I downvote anything that I deem worsens the quality of the community. This includes, but is not limited to:

• misinformation

• trolls

• bad faith engagement

• uncalled for hostility and incivility

• very lazy, low effort posts/comments