Maybe there's guidelines, but I think the point of community moderation is to use it how you see fit. The big thing to keep in mind that if you want to downvote

Maybe there's guidelines, but I think the point of community moderation is to use it how you see fit. The big thing to keep in mind that if you want to downvote opinions just because you disagree with them, no one will know, so who cares? I don't vote much in big threads, cause I'm not sure it's "fair" to lower ranked threads to only vote on the top threads. This is hardly a hard and fast rule for myself though, because sometimes the top thread is top for a reason and deserves a vote! For upvoting, I vote based on if it was something I was going to say (no need to say it again), if it was interesting, if it was provocative but soundly sourced, or just all around well expressed. What I really focus on when downvoting is posts made in bad faith. If someone is setting up a false dichotomy, strawman, hiding behind "just asking questions", or otherwise being disingenuous, I downvote. I'm here for a discussion, not to play those types of games...