As in, what is required for a post/thread to disappear from being "downvoted"? What does upvote do? Does upvote or downvote from different players have different effects? ect.

Its level based, higher level, higher weight for vote. The mods can override any post and downvote it.

Sufficiently upvoted threads or posts get highlighted. Sufficiently downvoted threads or posts get hidden. Voting on the top post of a thread affects the thread as a whole, not that specific post. Votes are not equal -- they're worth more if you're higher level or a member, to discourage alt voting.

You should upvote or downvote based on whether you think the general Warzone community would find the content of this post interesting, enjoyable, or useful. Be careful not to let your own prejudices affect your voting.

Understood, that last part people tend to ignore it seems.

Every vote you provide gets queued for approval by the Forum Vote Approval Committee (F-VAC). They then decide whether or not to count it and what weight it should have. Once the thread gets +100 points, it gets sent to the Forum Highlight Approval Committee (F-HAC). If it gets 2/3 support in F-HAC, it goes to Fizzer for final approval. Fizzer can veto the highlight, but a 3/4 vote of F-HAC can override the veto.

If a thread gets to -15, then it goes directly to Fizzer who can either clear the votes (back to +7, which is where threads start) or send it to the Forum Hidden Thread Approval Committee (FHTAC) for a majority vote on whether to hide the thread.

To date, the membership of F-VAC, F-HAC, and FHTAC is shrouded in mystery, with DanWZ as the only known member.

lol