the problem with stackoverflow isnt the voting sys, its the point sys. the nazis there are desperate to do anything that will give points, like closing threads or mark as ambiguous or any shit, bringing the ridiculous situation of closed topics being high voted etc.
It's a different mindset and purpose. I dislike Stack Overflow as a community, but find it's googleability for quick answers to be top-notch.
The goal of StackOverflow is to provide "The One True Answer" for any given question. The "user" is not the people asking, or the people answering, but the people coming in from Google.
The goal of GameDev.net is to provide discussions. The "user" is the people reading the thread, and asking questions and debating answers, not the person starting the thread. The community "owns" the thread, not the original poster. This is why, for example, GameDev doesn't let users delete threads, or mark threads as "solved". 'Solved' according to whom? All that means is the person who started the topic thinks it might've fixed his problem (but maybe just covered up or hid his problem). But discussions continue longer, with more value, even beyond satisfying the original poster's immediate problem.
While I've benefited greatly from asking questions and getting answers, GameDev.net provides far more value to me by letting me be a fly on the wall on experts' discussions of complex topics, and by letting me elbow my way into threads that I didn't start and ask questions or debate answers (but always in a friendly way).
Some offtopicness is permitted; but if it looks like things would stray too far offtopic, it's suggested that you start a new thread and link back to the original.
IMO, you shouldnt care about the votes or points, whats the reason you replying to a thread? show off? or trying to share/gain some knowledge?
Procrastinating. 
You shouldn't care about your overall score, but you should care when you get downvoted by more than one person on a single post. This implies something about the post was wrong - either technically (and hopefully someone responded explaining what was wrong), or behaviorally (and hopefully someone PM's or replies, explaining what the bad behavior was).
Also note that usually the people doing the replying aren't the people who downvoted. This can be confusing, as some users immediately get offended ("Why'd you downvote me?!") and downvotes in retaliation the person replying to them, not realizing that that person had nothing to do with the downvote. This happens frequently.
Some people participate by downvoting/upvoting without actually posting at all in a topic. And that's fine too. Posting is better, but sometimes everything that needs to be said has already been said, and sometimes someone is in a hurry and can't give a reply, but can still express approval or disapproval through a vote.
[Edit:] As an example, I upvoted you without realizing* it was you (I usually read the content of a post before seeing who wrote it) on this post. It was a "I'm showing the OP I also agree with this answer, so he should give it more weight because more people agree with it, but I'm too lazy to post atm, and am in a hurry, and this poster has already posted what I was going to say anyway.". The upvote in this situation was an "I agree" upvote, rather than a "This user is correct in a technical sense" or a "This user is friendly and helpful".
*I would've still upvoted even if I had realized it was you. What I mean is, I wasn't upvoting you just to prove a point or to serve as an example.
I dont answer to gamedev much cause theres an army of ppl way more present here that knows way more than me,
Doesn't matter how present someone is, participate when you are able to.
And it doesn't matter how many people have more knowledge in some areas than you, participate in the areas you think you have knowledge in. And if you say something that is factually incorrect or arguably off, the ensuing discussion benefits everyone.
when I feel I can add something I just do it without giving the slightest shit.
Good. If you can add value (either by asking, answering, or discussing), do so!
The only care you should consider is, how am I behaving, in terms of social interaction?
And you don't really have to sugarcoat everything either. Alot of people here are fairly blunt (usually because they are in a hurry), but provide technical details. As long as they aren't outride rude or insulting, most bluntness is tolerated.
If I get downvoted, I want to know why, which means I will learn something that Im doing wrong.
Absolutely. But people downvote for different reasons. Mostly it's behavioral. Sometimes it's to mark a technically incorrect answer that other people have already replied. Sometimes it's just an "I disagree with this statement". Rarely it's vengeful or spiteful downvoting, and those situations are rapidly balanced out by users like myself upvoting to counter-balance it, which just results in the downvoter wasting his own points without purpose. Sometimes they are also bulk-downvoting, which gets reported and the moderators roll those back.
GameDev.net tries to encourage downvoting mostly for bad behavior.
