Arguably worse than nothing in some situations. It's easy to speculate that upvotes/downvotes may contribute to bubbles, blind spots, and polarization when there is a tribal divide or some other kind of groupthink pathology.
edit- specifically, I'm thinking of politically-minded forums where the top comments are just comments that reinforce the accepted mentality without really challenging anybody's ideas
edit- specifically, I'm thinking of politically-minded forums where the top comments are just comments that reinforce the accepted mentality without really challenging anybody's ideas