Some people need external validation. Personally I don’t care about votes. However I do give upvotes very often hoping to increase participation. I often upvote comments I disagree with when their in the negative as long as they aren’t being a dick. I think differences of opinion are healthy. It takes no time to read an opinion I don’t agree with and maybe upvote it when they are riding the down vote bandwagon. I like diversity and think our differences could be more valued. I don’t like the whole reddit style popularity contest down vote thing some think social media has to be.
I upvote posts that I have no interest in as well. I want people to feel welcome and create content. I’m far more of a lurker than a creator so it’s in my interest to have others creating content feeling happy about doing so even if I’m not their target audience.
I really don’t hit the down vote button much, if I really don’t like what they have to say I just scroll on. I want Lemmy to be a more welcoming place then reddit. So I try to make it so.
I have no issue blocking obvious troll accounts though.