RE: Posting frequency and the blurry line
When it comes to freedom of speech concerns, downvotes have nothing to do with it as there are plenty of interfaces that will show it regardless and it doesn't remove it from the blockchain. Freedom of speech doesn't mean that a person should also be able to earn on what they say.
Let's just say, hypothetically, that the Chinese Censorship Brigade decided they wanted to create an account (or buy an existing account) with (a relatively small) 2 million steem-power and start obliterating any accounts they didn't like (anything not written in Chinese).
Now imagine they managed to get their account up to (82) rep, and then power-stomped your blog (@tarazkp) into (-11) rep so ALL of your posts were automatically hidden behind some sort of vague warning message (strongly suggesting you're an unscrupulous person).
Would you be, you know, "totally ok with that", since "there are plenty of interfaces that will show it regardless" and nobody "deserves" to make a few steem-pennies off their blog if a whale decides to ambush you?
Who would you complain to? Or would you just go somewhere else?
Yeah, I'd be fine with that. It would definitely be interesting to see them get their account up there (they would be better off buying one already there - right?).
It would also be interesting see them stomp my blog down to -11, especially since I am relatively certain it wouldn't go uncontested. Then, I would also be interested to see what happens to the value of Steem the token and if SMTs would supplant it. This would then mean that in order to stomp my blog down, they would have to also make sure they had a lot of other tokens also.
Really though, I don't mind that much all in all - it would be very interesting to see how the community handled such a thing as it would be a very good test of the decentralization mechanisms.
I am not so sure about about that. If people are no longer receiving their curation rewards support can dry up very quickly.
Good point. Nobody would band-wagon-vote for free.
I agree.
It sounds like you have faith that the community would rally to protect you.
But what if it didn't.
What if you went straight down to (-11) and lost all your readers and stopped earning steem?
Would you try starting a new account?
Would you try starting a new account?
Why would I?
If my readers didn't see the value in protecting me, why would I be writing here for them? I can just keep my account, write what I want for me, same as now.
The rule I live by on steem is, don't be a dick. Generally, that means that one can participate in the community without too much trouble and on the odd occasion there is trouble, people can have your back. Same in the real world.
Perhaps I am too old and still remember what it is to have friends that don't mind getting into a rumble for another friend. I guess part of the digital generation is that they might not actually have real friends who will stand by them through thick and thin. Sad if that is the case.
Or just don't have the requisite cash-money-dollars to counter-vote your detractors...
Well, they will be able to read what I write for free :)
I might, but I'd probably just band-wagon-vote the top-earners and never post anything.
I enjoy the practice of writing, it is cathartic.
I guess you'd figure out who your die-hard fans are!
Sorry to barge in to a private conversation... :D but I'm here to talk about me. Oh, that didn't come out right. But it's true.
If for some reason @tarazkp would suddenly be rep -11 I would still read and upvote his posts because I have eyes and my own bran which have already determined that @tarazkp is okay dude, writes well and about stuff that I'm most of the time interested in. So if that didn't change, why would I stop supporting him?
It's not about die-hard fan...ning, (trying to hide the remains of the shrine built for tarazkp) it's about liking who I like because I like them, not liking someone because someone says so or stop liking someones work or posts or themselves because someone more powerful than me determines so.
And I think that in this scenario I would be downvoted too because I don't write Chinese, so we could all be -11 outcasts here, still sharing thoughts, posts and comments. It's good to be an outcast. Makes me feel all warm and cozy and fuzzy inside. So I would still upvote and read tarazkp's posts because I'm stubborn, not easily convinced to do the opposite I've previously decided to do, do not respond nicely to bullying and because I'm lazy and most probably would not even at first know what the heck was going on.
And what I do also think is that gradually, given time, Steem would change somehow so that accounts with high rep and large power, couldn't stomp other accounts that well without a valid reason.
But as tarazkp said, it would be very interesting to see what would happen if the almost impossible thing would happen first.
Like the island of misfit toys.
Sure, I agree, but wouldn't it be a little tedious to click "reveal" on every single post and comment?
Here's another scenario for you to consider.
Imagine steem was banned from all crypto exchanges and the value went to essentially zero. What percentage of the (@freedom) whales would stick around? How many witnesses would do their duties for free?
Imagine if yo.utube stopped all revenue sharing. Do you think people would jump-ship?