HF21's free downvotes are having some positive impacts on the Steem ecosystem!
I was heavily skeptical about the downvotes provided by HF21, but from what I'm seeing so far, my opinion is coming around.
Leaving aside the less-favourable tines on the fork, in my opinion the downvote pool and its 2.5 'free' downvotes per user per day are turning out to be the best part.
At first, I thought it would cause an increase in retaliatory downvoting, already a problem. I thought it would bring about more negativity (nobody enjoys being downvoted, after all). It seemed like it could cause some problems.
But how I see it now, which is a very positive thing, is that it's like the 2nd Amendment of the US Constitution. If you're not familiar, it's what gives Americans their right to bear arms. To me, downvotes are like shotguns in the hands of the people. Everybody's got a little bit of bite, now.
Whales are less likely to become abusive tyrants when everybody can take a free shot at them (and out of their profits).
Bitbots are already reforming their ways, having seen their customers drop off due to the free downvotes being used against them. Bitbots (and former bitbots) are going around upvoting posts for free, via manual curation, something we've been trying to get to happen around here for a long time!
Abusive shit-posting accounts gaming the system for profit are being targeted by the good citizens of Steem, and some have already quit!
There are other signs of positive changes, too. Leave a comment if you've seen something good coming about because of the free downvotes! I'm interested to hear more.
I have to give some credit to the people who decided on this plan. It hasn't all shaken out yet, and anything could still happen, but overall I think it was a step in the right direction. Thank you!
DRutter
There are handy tools like this, for downvoting several spammers and bitbot users at once.
I use that tool every few days. I just visit the site, enter my name, select 5 or 6 garbage posts that overuse bidbots, and give it my posting key. Takes about 20 seconds.
@heimindanger It's unfortunate that the Title column doesn't create links to those posts which the user can look at to see whether it is really complete trash.
Sounds good. Hopefully it isn't too corruptable, but everything is I guess. Let's see how this plays out. click-baity thumbnail by the way ;)
Hope to see some good come of HF21. Thanks for posting, @Drutter
Yeah man I really am loving the vibes in the community, coming together and saying no to the shit. IMO it should of happen a long time ago, but hey i guess better late then never. I have also seen some quit, but you i really doubt they do. lol
true true.
We noticed that downvotes were always there, always available. This could have happened before! But it didn't. So it's interesting to note the human psychology at work.... give people "free" downvotes and they'll actually use them, and change things for the better. Hey whatever works! Get rid of the shitposters!! Well, they can post shit if they want. Just don't expect to make anything for it! We think rewards will start going to actual content more, as an outcome of the new downvote rules. cool to watch.
Yeah i really am a bit bothered on it takes free downvotes for people to take action. But wgatever works i suppose
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Love the 2nd Amendment analogy!
Hopefully this place won't become like Reddit, where people with unpopular (or wrongthink) things to say get downvoted to oblivion.