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Voting policy questions
I tend to be generous with votes if I like specific posters and want to encourage them. I like to assume that's ok, but is there an official take on that?
And what about people who are likely to share an IP address with me? I'm on a small node with fewer than 200 users, and at least 2 or 3 come here (got invited by one). I don't necessarily know them but will that look like alt accts boosting votes? Is there a whitelist or something like that for verified individuals on the same address maybe?
Keep in mind there are two different types of votes: Submission votes and comment votes. Though I guess both are used for sorting and not much else.
Since sorting is their primary function, that's what I have in the back of my head when I vote. Especially for comments, where my only concern is "should this comment be above that comment". Therefore I never vote on the top comment. It's already the top comment, so what's the point? I've suggested before that it shouldn't even be possible to vote for the top comment, but that seems to be very much a minority opinion.
I think a valid reason is if you believe the point being made or story being shared is important enough to remain the top comment. If you few sorting as a "race", then the top comment being very far ahead tells a different story than if it is only one vote ahead, for example.
Great, thanks a lot.