RE: Is User Sentiment Up? Can Numbers Tell Us?
It was interesting to see that bid-bot votes were in a decline well prior to HF21 and the EIP. The free down votes to combat a declining system was apparently really not needed. I felt and still feel that the increased number of down votes, by both the altruistic down voters, and the troll down voters, has done nothing but to drive content producers away.
When ever the 15 SP troll down vote accounts are brought up, people shrug and say they have no effect they can do no damage. If I was a new user and only had that 15 SP to try and get my account going and growing, those statements alone would be enough to see that having only 15 SP is not going to get a person anywhere, so they leave and go back to the larger social media accounts where they can at least have a wider audience.
For me, I still actually remain somewhat bullish and still hold out hope one day @steem will pull the delegations from the down vote only accounts and that people will request that when a down vote is cast that an auto comment goes with the vote so that the community can decide if the down vote was justified, just as the purpose of the down vote is to decide if the up vote was justified.
I'll still be here come next year, maybe not posting as much, because whether people believe the 15 SP down votes have no meaning, they are still a troll activity and troll activity is one of the primary reason I never took to face book, twitter or youtube social media.
Steem used to be different, maybe not better, but there were no down vote army of bot type accounts like now prior to HF21. The down vote armies belonged to a couple of very large accounts and for pretty much all intents and purposes were contained with in those accounts that were some what at war with each other, over a disagreement.
Hey, @bashadow.
I'm glad someone picked up on those numbers and percentages regarding paid bot votes pre-hard forks, since both were intended to combat them, as well as the spammers, farmers, scammers, etc.
It seems like we keep changing one bot drone for another—auto upvotes, auto downvotes, auto comments, auto posts, auto this and auto that.
People who don't have the time to do what they would like to, well-intentioned or not, determining where the line is as far as what should be done and what can't be done. No judgments. I wonder if I'm wasting my voting power when it comes to the greater good because I haven't put it to auto voting when I'm not here, but at the same time, I haven't made the change because it goes against the grain.
I think the whole concept that we are not a pay to play but a stake to play blockchain, and the not so subtle distinction being drawn there between the two, should indicate where the value is on the 15 SP accounts. They're expected to grow, and grow quickly enough to operate without the delegation. Which means some things have to happen, the most likely of which is, people find ways to get STEEM and power up.