If I downvote someone, I usually do so without commentary, so perhaps my viewpoint will help you see the flip side of the coin. Giving everyone the benefit of t

If I downvote someone, I usually do so without commentary, so perhaps my viewpoint will help you see the flip side of the coin. Giving everyone the benefit of the doubt about best intentions, I'm already well aware that they think their comment is a valuable addition to the discussion — after all, otherwise they wouldn't have made the comment. When I downvote, either they're breaching the community spirit/rules/what-have-you, or I simply flat-out disagree with their take. Often this is straw man arguments, picking apart quotes without context and so on, but it could be a number of things. The crux of why I don't comment is almost always the same: I'm not interested in investing my time in debating them. I already know they think their comment is good, I already know I think their comment is (subjectively) bad, I'm not interested in hearing their righteousness in finer detail. If I want to have a discussion with someone on their comment, I will add a comment myself and usually upvote because their commentary invites further discussion which is good. In short, I look at (subjectively) bad comments the same way I look at spam email. I'm not interested in wasting my time to be convinced by someone else that their content really is good, when for me it clearly isn't. My downvote will hopefully help save others the time the same way spam filters help save time for everyone.