On this site, we have the ability to vote any video up or down, but the criteria for doing so are totally undefined. It seems like everybody establishes their own criteria--I’d like to see a discussion what these are.

For example:
* What types of content make you want to vote up or down?
* When you do vote, are you conscious of the fact that that other users will see that YOU voted for a given video?
* Does the presence of certain users in the “voted for” or “voted against” list make you more or less likely to vote for a given video?
* Other thoughts?

I suppose this topic has come up before. If anybody has relevant links to previous discussions, I'd love to see them.

(Please note that responses to this topic may be used in a term paper I am writing about "voting community" sites as a new type of medium for communication and self-expression. I will discuss the basic genre, but will be focusing on VideSift because it is my favorite. See my profile text for more.)