I downvote for the following reasons: 1. Outright abusive language, personal attack on someone, sarcasm or obvious self promotion. 2. Irrelevant to the actual

I downvote for the following reasons: 1. Outright abusive language, personal attack on someone, sarcasm or obvious self promotion. 2. Irrelevant to the actual discussion even if it is otherwise well written. Some examples: humor/joke without any other valuable discussion, talking about a totally different topic. I never downvote even if I disagree with someone as long as they are not in one of the 2 categories above.I also don't downvote if someone makes an honest mistake or is wrong about something.