The vast majority of things I see, I neither upvote nor downvote. They have to be either extraordinarily good (exactly what I would have written or extraordinarily insightful) or extraordinarily bad (bad faith, blatant falsehood) for me to do that. When I disagree with something, I write a reply explaining why, or upvote one if there already is one, but I don’t downvote what I merely disagree with.
I sort of agree, but I think any comment that facilitates further on-topic discussion is worth an upvote. It doesn’t need to be exceptional in any way. In rare cases I’ve upvoted incorrect comments before to put more visibility on the correction in the response.
But 100% agree with not downvoting comments just because I disagree. Anyone I bother replying to, even if I vehemently disagree, I probably don’t downvote — because they led to more conversation.
It’s only when I see a comment so self-evidently idiotic or trolling, that I downvote and move on without further engagement.
I think upvoting incorrect comments is a bad thing; if incorrect comments have a net positive score, readers might get the impression that they are correct.
It’s situational. My one upvote isn’t usually going to have a big impact other than offset some of the downvotes. I would want the response to have higher upvotes than the incorrect comment and if I thought my vote was tipping that scale I wouldn’t. But like most voting processes, I’m just one drop in the river and for the most part the river will go where it goes.
The vast majority of things I see, I neither upvote nor downvote. They have to be either extraordinarily good (exactly what I would have written or extraordinarily insightful) or extraordinarily bad (bad faith, blatant falsehood) for me to do that. When I disagree with something, I write a reply explaining why, or upvote one if there already is one, but I don’t downvote what I merely disagree with.
I sort of agree, but I think any comment that facilitates further on-topic discussion is worth an upvote. It doesn’t need to be exceptional in any way. In rare cases I’ve upvoted incorrect comments before to put more visibility on the correction in the response.
But 100% agree with not downvoting comments just because I disagree. Anyone I bother replying to, even if I vehemently disagree, I probably don’t downvote — because they led to more conversation.
It’s only when I see a comment so self-evidently idiotic or trolling, that I downvote and move on without further engagement.
I think upvoting incorrect comments is a bad thing; if incorrect comments have a net positive score, readers might get the impression that they are correct.
Readers can think for themselves
It’s situational. My one upvote isn’t usually going to have a big impact other than offset some of the downvotes. I would want the response to have higher upvotes than the incorrect comment and if I thought my vote was tipping that scale I wouldn’t. But like most voting processes, I’m just one drop in the river and for the most part the river will go where it goes.