How do you read the thumbs up/ down?

Look for this between topics titles. click on view
Below viewing threshold (view)
Topic voted down (view)

I'm sorry, I didn't understand that. Look for what between topic titles? The thumb rating? And where can I click on view? Maybe I'm being stupid, but I don't see it.

Below viewing threshold (view)
Topic voted down (view)

Or simply click on a few thumbs and see what happens

I didn't understand either.

I don't let thumbs up and down affect my viewing. This is a choice in the PREFERENCES one has - both for Whole Threads, and for Single Posts.

In preferences, you can Collapse unpopular topics - or choose not to.
Me, I don't let others' decisions affect what I read.

I do figure though, for the website in general, that it is a useful tool as a clue what to look at, for a new person.

When you reply to an original post (not to others in the thread, just the one that starts it), you bestow an additional thumbs-up on the original post. As in, if it had five, and you reply, you then bump it up to six.

If you are replying but actually think it's a stupid topic or is otherwise unworthy of your thumbs-up, you can change your vote to thumbs-down, which would make it a four.

The negative ratings do have a "-" in front of them, so you should be able to tell if you see one. (As in, "-4".)

Hope that helps...