There are only two things I think about when it comes to vote count:

1. if I make a joke, and it’s not being replied to but being downvoted I want to know if people understood the joke, understood it even was a joke, or if the joke was just not funny.

2. If I see a question being asked that doesn’t appear to be in bad faith being downvoted, and not answered, it pisses me off.

I don’t care about the rating on other people’s content. On my own I only care so far as to use it as a guideline for whether I actually was interesting.

On reddit I was a trolling karma whore, but here? Here I’m much more about engaging with people and getting 3 upvotes tells me that I gave the community something meaningful.

It lets me feel like my time here is being useful if I get the upvotes. I try to limit myself to positive/fun/helpful posts or adding additional facts from other articles to someone’s post of I feel more info is needed to get a full story, so if people reply or at least upvote, it feels like it was worth adding my contribution. If my humor/help isn’t needed or wanted in a place, I don’t want to both waste my time and annoy people.

It depends, once I got like 20 upvotes and it was amazing to think them at 70% of Lemmy users read and agreed with my post!

i hate useless circlejerk nonsense getting updooted to the ceiling, and good but disagreeable information being downvoted into the earth.

Sometimes when I’m not doing too great and see loads of shit during my daily doomscrolling, I can get very synical, harsh and bold. When I get several downvotes, it can be a sign I’m in this negative depressing mood and I need to light up and be more open to others. It usually takes a while as first I fee like explaining myself making things worse, but in the end it let’s me think “hey dude, stop, take some distance. You’re not like this and your behavior is pulling you further down. Do something fun instead, stay away from comment sections and put away your phone completely and meet some friends or something”.

It’s a struggle sometimes.

Upvotes always help with the short endorphins boost, even though I don’t want to admit it. I got rid of all social media except YouTube and Lemmy. Yes, I’m I search of approval, again, not what I’m proud of. Because I want to get rid of this addiction and doomscrolling.

Yes and I’m trying to stop it from happening.

Yes and no. The same comment on different communities can have vastly different results, so I think it’s too easy to just “justify” why the ratios you don’t agree with are there, while the ones you do are obviously “fair”

I dont think it changes my pov, but it def does for other people on a large scale

you could say the same message in different parts of the same thread, and by chance one will accumulate more downvotes and one will accumulate more upvotes

for example: https://sh.itjust.works/post/39444493/18993947 and https://sh.itjust.works/post/39444493/18993522 say the same thing, but one has 42 updates and 8 downvotes and one has 120 downvotes to 23 upvotes

people need to stop looking at these numbers

I don’t usually feel one way or the other about other people’s upvotes/downvotes.

But I try to use my upvotes/downvotes as a barometer for how well something I posted or commented on was received by the community. If I’m being massively downvoted, I will try to consider what about my post or comment warranted the negative reaction, and I might reconsider what I said, or at least how I said it. If something is upvoted, it does give me the warm fuzzies knowing that other people agreed with, or enjoyed, my content.

When I see someone downvoted for no good reason, I tend to support them; upvotes don’t sway me at all. My own stuff I see votes as a guide to how well I fit a community (except in one controversial group which attracts down votes – there voters are meaningless

I check my downvotes every so often to see if I’ve made an ass of myself.

Edit: Good point. Warning added.

No, not at all. When you get a ton of downvotes but zero responses, assuming you didn’t just post literal nonsense, I consider it proof I’m correct and it’s just a truth people don’t like. When you’re wrong people will downvote you and tell you why, which should be a learning experience that a person should be humble enough to accept but just downvotes or responses only attacking you not you points is pure validation you’re speaking an uncomfortable truth

The intention behind most downvotes is

I pay almost no attention to the scores on other people’s posts, but admittedly, I do sometimes feel disheartened when I see what I consider an extremist view getting heavily upvoted. As for downvotes, I have those hidden, so in that sense, they’re a non-factor for me. But you’re asking whether I care. Of course I care and anyone claiming otherwise is lying. We’re social animals - we care what others think of us. That’s why I hid the downvotes in the first place: so they wouldn’t affect me. Mean comments are enough to deal with; I don’t need to hear the audience booing too.

My perhaps unpopular opinion is that while the voting system itself should remain, the scores should be hidden for everyone - and I mean both upvotes and downvotes. Downvotes don’t mean you’re wrong, and upvotes don’t mean you’re right. They’re just indicators of how popular your opinion is with the audience. That dynamic encourages people to self-censor unpopular views and, conversely, to post meaningless one-liners just for the applause.