I came to Steem in late 2017. The price is way down since then, but I haven't lost interest.

I'll be honest. Between then and now I've never once thought STEEM sucks look at all this spam, plagiarism, and abuse I'm out.

Now, I've heard of an era — moons before my time — where spam was much worse. I'm willing to take others' word on that.

I'm also willing to passively appreciate those who take it upon themselves to police content to that point; so long as what they do doesn't interfere with my enjoyment of the chain any more than tons of spam would.

To me, the status quo between 2017 and HF21/22 seemed fine. The content I wanted to connect with has never been buried or locked away anywhere.

I most often noticed the abuse police when they did things with which I disagree. I'd stumble upon posts criticized as infringement and plagiarism that aren't. But I've supposed (and hoped) that these are outliers.

What constitutes abuse of this relatively new space is a more subjective question. As you mention @steevc there are extensive ongoing discussions about that.

It probably is important to determine how many angels dance on that pin. But it doesn't interest me. I want to put my energy into other areas of curation and content creation.

From what I've read I probably disagree with a lot of people in that group about various edge cases. I've dropped by @dmacs and see a concerted effort to have mediocre content downvoted.

It's not destructive content, nor illegal, nor even mean spirited. It's just sorta meh, and therefore deemed unworthy of self promotion. Okay? Any group is within its rights to pool stake and gang up on a user.

But I don't see a point in being a part of it. I'm "downvoting" that activity the only way I ever do—by not upvoting it.