As you can see retaliation is a big issue and a problem. One of the many diverse reasons I try/tend not to down vote. I may have a bit more than a minnow's worth of SP, but not to Dolphin status, and I do not post that consistently.
Most of the down voting is done as what I see as "Bad Behavior". If the down votes were thought out and done for the benefit of Steem, then most people see no issue or problem with that down vote, a simple "down voted for spam" or other valid reason in the remarks, would let others know "the why of" the down vote.
When I mention that most of the time I get a response similar to "We do not require a reason for the up vote, why one for the down vote?" We as a society do not require justification from individuals for positive actions, we do as a society require justification for negative actions from individuals in society.
If when going to down vote a check box was used to indicate why, and then an automated response in the down voters name in the remarks, would allow society to determine if that down vote was justified, and then they could put their neck on the line for a retaliatory down vote, if when they did down vote the individual's initial down vote and left a reason "Down voted because I felt your down vote was retaliatory in nature." then either the person will get the idea and stop, or just continue in their retaliatory down vote manner. (While this would not take out all the @steem generated down vote only accounts, it would put their reputation scores well below the 0 level).
A lot of people ask where is the content, why do people leave and stop posting. meaningless down votes are one cause of it. Frustration levels rise, and people just say screw it, if I am going to get down voted and I have very little rewards anyway, I may as well go back to twittter or facebook or youtube, where I at least had more followers and interactions. the camillesteemer down vote bot army is and has had an effect on retention of the new users. Ask @krazzytrukker
why his posting rate has dropped so much, I am sure there are others.
This is a good point and for general and new downvotes I'd agree that leaving a comment would be good, i.e. if you've never downvoted someone before leaving a reason would be justified and making that a requirement before you can place your downvote is just one implementation away from being added to steemit or steempeak, I can share this with some people who might be able to do something about it if they agree to it if you want. (or make a post and I'll share that)
I do believe that over time and with more users who are not as interested in earning rewards with their stake (there are some of them) there will be projects and stake that combats obvious retaliation and more eyes on content looking for these kind of actions to combat them. As long as something doesn't get zero'd out the user countering an abusive downvote won't lose out too much on curation with their upvote.
I would've loved to hear the reason @appreciator downvoted my post but can't help to feel it was due to old grudges of ocdb trying to put a stop to bid bot vote selling and it affecting their ROI. Or the rest of arguments that followed where he was attempting to put me in a bad light with baseless accusations.
I have shared my thoughts on the down vote and how to fix it several times during discussions on HF20 psot and when the free down votes were being talked about. To me a non-technical person the fix I proposed I thought was a simple one, but when i mentioned it I got the we don't require reasons for up votes arguments, so when the occasion rises I still sometimes mention my fix, but to be honest I really do not see it ever changing on steemit, some of the other front ends may adopt it, but I doubt steemit will ever adopt it, after all they allow people they have given 15 SP to to do nothing other than down vote which adds no value and no incentive for new users to continue to post on steem block chain. I do still hold hope out for the other front ends though, since to me it is a simple fix. You get the drop box telling you what the reasons are to down vote, put a check box next to reason, then allow the click.
When we judge or are judged of a negative action we expect as a society to be told the why of it, we rarely expect to be told the why when our positive actions are judged by someone.
IF someone worked the code for that drop down list to include on Naturalmedicine.io I'd love to adopt it.
This was the image idea I posted about three months ago, (9-18-2019):
in response to a comment stream on anomadsoul's post The Normalization of downvotes | Read this post, then downvote it post.
On steemit when you click the down vote arrow you get a pop-up box that has a few reasons to down vote and a small short explanation of the down vote. It pops up automatically when you click the down vote arrow, you Have to click the submit button. I added the small check box's, so one more small tiny step for a down voter to have to move through. The individual and I just see things differently.
Yep.... You nailed it.!! I am still here, but You are spot on with this one. 22+ down votes from that creepy stalker Camillpoopy and his Bot Bully parade of stupidity on a light hearted christmas post...? Pathetic.
And this GOOBER @anakrimba that Downvoted Me with out a comment, randomly I am sure, just to milk the block chain, damn right I will down vote back, I don't care if it is pictures of his/her/its daughter.
I know it carries no real weight on the $ side. But it really is ugly and turns Me off to Steem. When I pick up my phone/tablet/laptop at the end of the day I just surf right past the eSteem app to BitTubers. No Fecesbook/Twatter/GhoulGoolTube for this KrazzyTrukker and Kits.
We read the great postings from You, @galenkp and his bro @tarazkp, and always take a look at what kind of trouble Jonboy @janton is stirring up. But content creation for a plankton/minnow just to get shit on.... Nahhh.
Time is my biggest enemy, not enough of it..... Lol
Once in a blue moon We will look at Gab/MeWe. But just not enough time in the day for this old krazzy. You can always tell when I get a day or 2 off, I will read and up vote, try to catch up.
That's a pretty random downvote judging by that accounts activity, lol, almost seems like he may have sold it or something and the new user has no idea what he's doing. Was a retaliation downvote necessary there though, you think? There's a lot of bot accounts with barely any weight that do auto downvoting and I've seen a lot of people panic just when they see the downvote before even checking the effect it had on rewards, but I hope that most of the time they'd just ignore them.
In a way this is the attention economy and downvoting seems to be one of the cheapest ways to gains someones attention nowadays. :P
Probably right on all You say here, but the retaliation DV made me feel better. For a minute....lol
I got a ways to go and a lot to learn about the DV/UV. But little by little I hope to see it like You do, and Your post about it over on Your Blog was a good read and helps Me along on My journey in Steemlandia. The goal is to not take a DV too personal for Me. And I got a ways to go. I never even considered it might be a sold or Camillshitsteemer stolen AutoBotted account.
Like i said, i got a bunch to learn, and nobody better to learn from than the Real Steem Peeps like You @bashadow @galenkp @tarazkp and the many people they converse and curate.
Thanks for the comment/reply.
Try and be more consistent with your posting and use the right tags and I'm sure you'll get more curators on your tail, especially nowadays where most stake is being used to curate as interest for promoting posts is at an all time low and most bid bots have enabled votes to not return a profitable ROI meaning most spammers and farmers aren't using them anymore.
PS. if you posting original content use the #oc tag.
Right & even though the hard fork fixed promoting to help the platform and reward pool yet even more downvote too often pushing more away from steemit, now all i do is downvote bullies who pushed me off the platform. Pushing and bullying investors away is not an effective way to grow... good thing i stopped buying STEEM long ago & chose BTC. maybe if another hard fork comes out eliminating the bullying & censorship I would invest again.
Was 15k SP so I changed my mind now I am a liar and donot understand how ledgers work lol, geniuses both of you... donot worry the power down will commence when i want. The flag trolling is just giving a taste of your own medicine, no more complaints just flags
Stop downvoting my comments you pathetic liar.
I cannot believe you are still angry that I downvoted you for vote buying a month ago.
You have serious mental health issues. The platform will be better without you. Please let the door smack you in the face om your way out.
No one pushed you off the platform. You behaved dishonestly, people downvoted it, and you threw a tantrum. You continue to throw your petty tantrum even now, while clinging to an absurd facade of self-righteousness. You calling people bullies while flag-trolling them is the height of hypocrisy.
He says he's powering down and leaving. He's lying.
I don't think s/he understands how public ledgers work.
Hi @dynamicrypto
I've just visited your profile to check out if you posted anything interesting lately, just to realize that you didn't publish anything in a long while.
Hope you are well and didn't give up on steemit yet.
Cheers, Piotr
As said, you shouldn't worry about these things. Also, you might find that the person has no idea what they are doing😁
I feel that way on here at times too..... Like WTF am i doing.... Lmao. True Story..!!
never had to flag yourself though? :D
If I do.... Flag Meeself, I will try to explain to Meeself why I flagged Meeself.:-/
Oops accidentally voted up my comment when I was going for this one.
thank you for the reply and the vote, very much appreciated. Perhaps 2020 will bring a clearer vision to the folks at steemit.
I actually like the drop down list idea!