I don’t know if Lemmy is got suggested global guidelines or if it’s up for each instance to provide them.

On Reddit, downvotes are supposedly used to mark posts and comments that do not fit the community they’re on, harm the users, prevent discussion or are otherwise harmful (malware, etc). In practice, it’s used as the disagree button.

While Lemmy’s currently smaller community seems waaaay less downvote-heavy, regardless of the intention as it grows the downvote button will be used much in the same way as Reddit. It’s a natural tendency.

No better example than the “UnpopularOpinion” subreddit: the entire goal is commenting an opinion that is unpopular, yet if you did that, you’d be massively downvoted because people disagree with your opinion… I mean yes? That was the point? In theory it should be upvoted for being relevant to the subreddit.

A comment that is dangerous, too hostile, or just plain misinformation.

I generally reserve my downvotes for three things. People being jerks, people dishing out incorrect information, and reposts.

But I’m also a beehaw main, and downvoting is disabled for the entire instance. I only downvote on my lesser used accounts for other instances.

I try to reserve downvotes for things that I think have negative value. If I simply don’t like something, I ignore it and move on; just because I don’t like it doesn’t mean that it lacks value for others. If I don’t understand something, and it’s important enough for me to act on, I’d rather have a discussion and learn.

I’ll downvote posts that don’t fit the purpose of a community, or which were clearly posted to start an arguement. I’ll downvote comments that are insulting, inflammatory, or otherwise malicious.

One thing that will most certainly get my downvote is anime I hate anime