Is it ok to upvote everyone that answers my question, or leaves a comment, just to appreciate the time they spent writing?

Question

When I post a question I have the habit of upvoting any comment/answer that I get, to appreciate the time people have dedicated to me, even if it is a small comment (with the exception of answers/comments that I consider rude or not very respectful, which I don't downvote, I just do nothing assuming that if the moderator doesn't consider them disrespectful it is because they are not).

Of course I always set the question as answered when one of the answers actually solves my problem.

In a recent post, I have done this and have found that these upvotes are corrected because they are considered "dumping upvotes". So it seems what I do is not considered good practice on Stack Exchange, is this correct?

Answer 1

The tooltip on the upvote button says

This answer is useful.

That's the only criterion you should consider when upvoting an answer. Time spent should never be a consideration. It doesn't mean you may not upvote an answer that didn't solve your issue; if it provides you additional insight, it can be useful as well.

In a recent post, I have done this and have found that this upvotes are corrected because they are considered 'dumping upvotes'.

That sounds like you've upvoted several other (unrelated) posts, and that indeed gets reversed. Stack Exchange is about the content, not the users. It can't be repeated too often: vote for the content, not for the user.

Answer 2

The standard interpretation of an upvote for an answer on Stack Exchange is that the answer was “useful”. I generally interpret “useful” to mean that it included relevant and accurate information that increased my understanding and/or knowledge of the subject at issue, even if it did not solve my particular issue. To upvote an answer that does not contribute to my knowledge in this way would be to “break” the Stack Exchange model.

Answer 3

A simple example should give you some insight.

I ask some question on Stack Overflow. I get several answers and I upvote them. Because I'm not really good at the topic, I can understand the one answer that really helped me, but I don't understand the implications of the other. Now somebody who knows more about this topic writes a comment below such an answer, pointing out that this answer is not only misleading but even incorrect.

Would you say that this warrants an upvote, because the writer of the wrong answer made an effort, most likely even in good believe, but is still wrong?

If multiple answers are given, and they are useful, then you should upvote them. If you don't really understand the answer (which happens sometimes to me), then either research or try to clarify. You can leave the upvote to others in such a case, who might know more about it, but you should not upvote because future readers with a similar problem should easily recognize what a good answer was. And if they find another answer more useful, they can still upvote those on their own.

And as a sidenote: If every answer is upvoted, what would be the meaning of a vote? It could be just as well discarded, because it would only say "Somebody has seen your answer."

Answer 4

While your motivation is pure-hearted and understandable, time spent shouldn't be a criteria for voting.

You have to remember that people posting here do so voluntarily and choose to spend their time doing that. I understand your need to show appreciation to someone who bothered to answer your own question, but simply upvoting because of that without relation to the actual content does more harm than good.

The point of voting is to show the quality of answers compared to each other in the same page. Therefore voting should be based on the content. If you really feel like it, you can post and award bounties to specific answers, without affecting the natural order of votes.

As an example, I answer many questions simply because I like it and I don't expect anything in return. On the other hand, I have a few questions which got some unhelpful answers. While I appreciate the intention, those answers simply weren't what I was looking for so an upvote seemed unnecessary.