How do you use upvote on HN?

Totally arbitrarily. I'll upvote things I agree with and sometimes things I don't if I think it's a valuable opinion.

For downvoting, I'll generally downvote "Reddit-like" comments and things I disagree with at a level so fundamental that I don't want to dignify it with a response.

Mostly by interest on the subject, many times I upvote the headline, without reading the article. If I don't like the article or the link, sometimes I remove the upvote. My heuristic is "I would like this subject discussed on HN ; This subject deserves more exposure"

I upvote interesting articles and comments that provide new insight, regardless of whether or not I agree with the perspective.

I only downvote comments that provide no insight whatsoever, while insulting, like "so you think that ... yeah, I can see why you're ", or one-liners like "you're wrong" that only assert their incorrectness without saying why.

I basically never vote on anything. I dislike the psychological effect of gamification of conversation. I understand the benefits, but at Reddit, the voting system has a distinctly addictive effect and very quickly degrades all discussion to the lowest common denominator, causing the most popular opinions and jokes to become the loudest and most repeated beyond the natural level. Every sizeable community there quickly becomes repetitive and bland as a result.

I know it's partly community, but it's impossible to completely remove the way that voting-based discussion affects the behaviors of people.

I upvote submissions I'd like to see more discussion about on HN - the comments are why I am here instead of just using my feedreader.

Usually to counter negative voted posts that aren't actually negative, just some people not agreeing with the content, but factually accurate. Rarely when I believe that a post was very well written and I couldn't have said it better.

upvotes for stories: If I read it and enjoyed it

upvotes for comments: if it has an interesting new angle / perspective relating to the story, threads of people arguing about something interesting and bringing up novel points.

downvotes: mostly people doing single line comments, especially on subjects touching 'politics' if they are just repeating common talking points/one-liners.

I don't. I used to when votes worked both as votes and as bookmarks.

At some moment I started bookmarking stories in the browser and gave up voting because somehow I felt humble and decided that my opinion wasn't important for stories, that I'm better as an observer of what's popular. I still upvote some stories every other month for different reasons.

When some submission seems stupid or infuriating I use "hide" instead of flagging it.

I upvote comments when there's something interesting in it or when I see a grayed comment that's factual or when I believe it's just their opinion, they're entitled to it! Why did somebody downvoted that?

I use to upvote every answer to my comments... except when I forget (it happens) or when I think my point wasn't understood. It's not about disagreement, more like "you're not really answering to what I said". Otherwise have it. Sometimes I have a laugh thinking that the other person, that's disagreeing with me in a chain of answers, wouldn't believe that it's me who is upvoting his comments.

I downvote when I feel very bad faith or stupidity. If I realize I'm downvoting too much in a row, I just close the browser and have a cup of tea. Usually I resist downvoting, specially if I realize I have no clue about the topic. But sometimes I can't ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I try to upvote those submissions that in my view best adhere to the guidelines:

"Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity."[a]

[a] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

If the subject and content are very good or inspirational, or funny, basically if I appreciate the article, I will upvote. I don’t upvote all mind, I believe I comment and don’t upvote, not sure what drives the rank, in the list, comments and or upvote / timing. Am not actually concerned with the ranking, same with articles, I’m far more often interested in the comments than the actual article

If I see a story that has been made dead or flagged that I think should not be I vouch for it and then upvote it.

If I post something then I am on new page, then I quickly look over page for things I think are high quality in something I am familiar with, then I upvote. Even though, realistically this makes my current submission less likely to get to front because i am upvoting its competitors.

From guidelines: "Anything that good hackers would find interesting."

I always read, or at least skim the story, because most of the time it's clickbait. Sometimes it's really obvious that many people don't read it. There was one with the headline of "Should you trust your gut?" and the story had little to do with guts, but the responses were mostly about guts.

For stories, I usually read them first unless it’s clearly something I already know the story behind and want to boost.

In comments, I (try) to use it for things I feel add to the conversation and should be seen even when I don’t agree. I can admit they sometimes get the other vote though when they get my goat.

I'll upvote a story after reading it if it's interesting and I think that it provides value to the community. Or I guess after reading the first post if it's on Show HN or Ask HN.

Meanwhile for comments, I'll upvote them if I feel they're interesting, contribute to the discussion or give perspectives I wouldn't have considered it before.

I pretty much never upvote for agreement/downvote for disagreement, and wish platforms separated 'this content is good/bad' from 'I agree with this content/disagree with it' in the rating system.

I'd like to imagine I have a consistent pattern in my voting, but it's probably affected by my mood as much as anything. If I'm grumpy, I downvote, and might be guilty of upvoting argumentative comments. If I'm in a good mood, I'll upvote things for being encouraging or insightful.

One general rule I tend to stick to is downvoting lazy comments:

* Using your age as evidence you are right

* Invoking "clickbait" because an otherwise interesting article has an interesting headline

* Moaning about downvotes, the OP not having read the article, or about HN having inconsistent hivemind just like Reddit.

* Hackneyed criticisms, especially when they're off-topic - e.g. "why doesn't this site support users without JavaScript?" or "70s programmers did this so much better"

My problem with upvotes is that a confident, well-written, persuasive comment on a topic about which I know nothing could very well be complete BS. Since I don't know the subject matter or the OP, I have no idea whether it's authoritative.

I sometimes hit down vote semi-automatically, but then force myself to really look at what I just voted on, and normally I end up removing the vote. I try to only downvote trash comments, not just things I disagree with. When I see something that could be interpreted as typical nasty internet vitriol (eg blatant racism, sexism, etc) I will downvote it. If it's kinda borderline and I'm not sure if there's ill intent, then I'll look at the commenter's post history. If it's 50% ranting about black people, then they get downvoted, otherwise there's the benefit of the doubt.

I also keep showdead on, so a lot of my upvoted comments are "rescue votes", from when I see a dead comment that I don't think should be dead.

I also make a point of periodically browsing new, and trying to upvote two or three interesting articles that have no votes.

I usually never upvote threads, the same way I forfeit my political right to vote. Maybe it's just autism, but I don't understand why anyone goes voting -do normal people think their vote makes a difference? My one vote will not decide what's on the frontpage and what's not. To be precise: I only see it because it's on the frontpage already and I feel to busy for sifting through new.

Actually, I do not believe the frontpage is organic at all. Sometimes you see uninteresting crap with zero comments entering the frontpage, leaving it with... zero or just a few comments.

I do sometimes upvote high quality comments and I try to actively downvote and flag spam, which is rare. And I generally upvote people responding to me (unless it's a negative response, which gets a downvote) to encourage giving me responses, as I like to engage.

(Farce alert) I only upvote in the most selfish way possible : I upvote myself with my other accounts, I upvote all replies and I downvote all other concurrent replies.

I'm kidding...what's the point ? [1]

Seriously, I'm always interested on how MICRO level disparate motives like these here aggregate on the MACRO level (in every area). I sometimes only view the monthly top HN, and I'm often like : "hum, why is this one so popular while this one is not ?"

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/leaders

1. Comments which improve the discussion, whether I agree or not. Usually these are longer informative posts or those giving a particularly interesting view on a subject. 2. Upvote comments which are correct - especially if someone is replying to me correcting (or clarifying) something I said. 3. Comments which make the point I was just typing in.

So you have one "thankyou" case and two "signal boost".

I've noticed that my positive posts usually receive a lot of upvotes and my biggest ratio'd posts are those which are correct and negative.

I upvote articles solely because I want to read more discussion from HN members on it. If I like an article and it doesn’t have many comments I’ll upvote. If it does, I won’t.

I upvote comments either because:

1. I didn’t see it get enough discussion and want to read more, same as articles

2. I want to “bookmark” the comment and come back to it later either as a reference or to read follow up discussion

I rarely downvote except for comments that seem to be flame bait or something triggers me on a primal level

Upvote:

- stories: I think this is interesting

- comments: I think this is interesting and/or I agree with this

Downvote:

- stories: I don't think this is interesting

- comments: I disagree with this comment or don't think it adds anything

“This is neat” or “I want to read more comments about this”

I will never upvote something without at least skimming it. Mostly I finish articles then return to HN to upvote them, but occasionally I upvote after leaving the article partway (e.g. because I already know about the subject, or because the first part contained enough information that I'm satisfied, or because I don't understand the subject well but it looks very interesting.)

I usually upvote what I read, often before reading it because it could pass quite a long time before I can do it.

This was a question about upvoting stories, not comments. However many people described how they vote comments, so here's my take on that.

I never upvote to agree with something and never downvote to show disagreement. Actually I probably never downvoted anything.

I upvote for interesting contributions or to say thanks.

The older I get the more I shun the idea of rigorous process or frameworks. If something feels upvote worthy, it gets an upvote. Pure gut.

Usually after reading what it points to. I also upvote potentially controversial things because I want to hear people’s opinions on it.

I upvote interesting stories

I upvote some comments I agree with and all comments that I disagree with that I think might lead to interesting discourse (eg, I want to be sure other people see the comment and respond to it). In other words, I most often reliably upvote when I want to see more objections.

I downvote all flip, lazy, joke comments, and cynical one-liners.

I never upvoted the item itself. However, I frequently upvote comments. Those that I find valuable to my own personal experience, or answers to my own comments, in particular when the answer is helpful or when I see the author took the time to write a good answer even if I don't agree with it.

I use it as a bookmarking tool, eg for a tool I’d like to test out but don’t have time atm, an article to read later etc.

Anything that I agree with, finds funny, deserves awareness and/or is factual, BUT only if I feel like upvoting, so naturally I don't upvote everything that falls within those criteria; I also upvote other things once in a while, but those are usually my general guidelines.

If I feel like my life has been made better by the comment/link, I upvote.

If the comment/link is not actionable, and/or results in wasting time or my life worsening, or encourages social problems, especially a breakdown in communication (such as baseless emotional appeals or polarizing comments), I downvote.

When I open the website/view what is the link. But I suspect lots of people are upvoting only from the titles.

Sometimes this happens also to me, but then I read the article and if it’s a “scam” I remove the upvote.

Generally speaking, I upvote a story when I found it interesting, I learn something new, or the story made me think.

I use upvote so that I can see at a glance which comments I have read in a thread with alot of comments. It doesn''t matter whether I like the comment or not. I use it like an email "read email" flag, but "read comment" in the case of HN

I am basically a long-time lurker, and recently decided to make an account here.

Basically, for me, i just wanted to have the ability to kind of 'boost' posts i thought were interesting / informative and i want those posts to be seen by more people.

I think for the vast majority the upvote button functions as a highlight. In other words, everyone who says they want to see this post in the front row presses the upvote button. Compared to other platforms, I think this is healthier.

For things that add to the conversation whether I personally agree with them or not.

I seldom upvote (and I can't downvote). Why bother? Can't see whether or not it's had any appreciable effect. Can't see the vote count. I already know other signals are used to determine rankings.

I almost never upvote a story... only ever comments i think warrant more notice.

Upvotes: When I want a story to reach others.

Favourite: When I want to save a story for myself

I only upvote headlines if I think the article is valuable to the community. I see a lot of stuff that I don't think is all that valuable, so I wish there was a downvote button as well for headlines.

I upvote anything that can be interpreted as opposition against SPAs. From something as naive as a new Django release, to the HTMX manifest, and even an article literally saying "I hate SPAs".

I don't upvote or downvote too much, but I favorite things that I think will be useful for projects/ideas bouncing around my head.

Might start voting more after reading some of these comments.

I go straight to comments normally and if those are insightful and interesting i upvote the story. Hardly ever read the article; unintended usually but the article said enough.

I upvote to add the article to my “Read Later” collection. This also means the article is either interesting or might be useful to get back to when I have more time.

After reading and enjoying and gaining something from what I read, or a comment saying what I was about to write (usually written better than I would have myself)

I upvote all the ones around the ones I want to downvote.

I upvote when it brings something to the discussion, or when a post correctly corrects unsubstantiated post/s but I have no time to post myself.

I upvote if, the content / comment is interesting / awesome / deserves more support / says what I was going to say.

The latter, though I have to admit, in many cases, I end up upvoting comments more than submitters.

I read the article and if I think it’s interesting or the comments might be interesting, I upvote.

Far too liberally, to balance what seems a bit of a harsh feel to the moderation, at times.

I always click the link before upvoting. I've been fooled by titles many times.

I upvote anything funny, anything I strongly agree with, and any robust comments

I agree with tons of comments or articles that I don't upvote.

An upvote is reserved for a comment that I think nails a perspective that I think is spot-on but uncommon. For an article, it's usually something that I think is interesting but not likely to be super popular (something about language qualified the other day – it's nerdy, but not computers, so I boosted it). The goal is to get more people to see it and discuss it, cause that's why I like this board: Discussion.

For downs, only people who are unnecessarily snarky or completely missing the point with arguments that aren't addressing the issue on which they comment.

I read HN every day. I maybe vote (either way) once or twice a day.

I like to click on buttons

If I've read it before and I consider it up vote worthy, then I upvote.

If it's something I've read and I want save it for later, I also upvote it.

If I didn't read it before and it's upvote worthy, then I upvote.

If it's something I'd like to see discussed on HN, I upvote.

Tldr: only if I've read it

Both, it depends.