The number of upvotes was irrelevant until it became relevant.

Previously, I would regard upvote count as mostly white noise. It's way too easy to manipulate, too dependent on the maker's existing network of followers, and isn't a signal of quality at all. However, last month, I stumbled upon something which had merely 40-odd upvotes but was precisely what I was looking for, and 900-upvote something else which I could not use even within two minutes.

It changed my perspective completely. Instead of seeing it as a matter of count, I now see it as a matter of who voted and when. I see a difference between someone receiving votes over three days through people with a history on the platform versus someone gaining votes in the first 90 minutes via new accounts.

I do not have any sort of concrete guideline for that, but then again, I have enough experience of scrolling through the platform to make an educated guess.

Has anyone really developed a practice where you check upvote counts and who exactly voted?