Somewhat vague but I think of it as "this doesn't belong here." It seems to be the most fitting - something could not belong because it's irrelevant, or because it's rude, or because nobody wants to see it. All up to interpretation, I suppose, but better that than a hard rule than I either don't feel good about sometimes or that prevents me from downvoting things that probably should be downvoted but don't explicitly break that rule.

Sad part of the design is that I need to interact with a post to get it off my feed so if it's an some stupid meme or whatever i just downvote and move on to clear up all the repeats.

The setting is off by default but you turn on hide post after interaction in the settings.

On Reddit, up/down was intended to be used as relevant or not relevant. Then Facebook came around with the Like button and changed the standard.

Coming from the perspective of Digg, Reddit was about sharing external content and giving something an upvote was used to promote that content while a downvote was used to discourage that content from being seen. It was democratic in that the users were relied on for ranking posts without the need for moderators having to establish rules and remove things.

Then Reddit employed an algorithm and most people visit Popular and All making it a shitstorm of irrelevance. People upvote stuff they like that has absolutely no reason to be posted in a sub. Never mind everything that's gone on with Reddit in recent months, it's users' inability to properly use the upvote / downvote buttons that has caused the site to become absolute trash.

Here, we have the added tool of the Star to indicate that we like something while at the same time downvoting it because it's not relevant to the sub. The problem is that the vast majority of people don't want to think about or put any effort into anything. At this point, anything that looks like a thumbs up is getting selected because they like it.

If you disagree with someone, you shouldn't do anything unless you have something to say. Engage with them in conversation and express your point of view - this is "social media". If others feel your point is relevant you should get an upvote; if you're off topic you should get a downvote.

Reading over the other comments here, I think most people are expressing a similar perspective. It's about rankings, not feelings.

Downvotes = disabled on my instance

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

The only times I've really been downvoting is if someone is giving out completely incorrect information, like in a support thread or something, and confusing matters. It's not a personal judgement or anything, just trying to keep things clear for the person asking the question.

If I disagree with a comment, well no biggie. Sometimes it's worth discussing like adults and sometimes it's just a subjective opinion. If it's offensive, I'll report it and block the user.

Everyone will come up with their own metric and the results will be an average of both and other things.

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.

More like get this shit outa here

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

Upvoted. Feel bad that i disagree. 😵

I like it to gauge what the general consensus is. Agree or not.

It's weird how nobody ever goes off on these philosophical treatises about what a downvote is REALLY supposed to be for unless they copped a shit ton of downvotes for their awful takes

To quote the famed philosopher T. Soprano: "Alright, but you gotta get over it."

I think of it like a digital facial expression. Upvoting is akin to smiling or conveying some other positive emotion like affirmation or understanding (even if the subject matter is inherently negative). Downvote is the opposite- someone says something irl that makes you frown or grimmace, or you know they're telling you a lie, your expression can convey that without a single word. Here, downvote.

There's no real etiquette - if you feel like you want to give an up or down vote, just do it and don't put too much thought into it.