Downvoting Should Cost $P !
Git Yo F'n Papaah Up!
Upvoting has no negative ramifications because it is an entirely beneficial part of the system's design and if abused it only harms the abuser, by negatively impacting one's voting power. Flagging on the other hand can do REAL harm ..it is an attack on a person's reputation and wealth, or at least reduces the yield from individual posts. The old adage, "from the sweat of thine own brow" must be considered before pulling the flagging trigger. Your target, whether you believe them worthy or not, has accumulated whatever they have in regard to reputation or post reward, and you have to ask yourself if they truly deserve to have this taken away from them.
One way to get people to stop and think about this is to attach a cost to it, and this cost should be relative to the power being used in the blow one wishes to deliver. For example .. a person with very little SP, using a nonadjustable minnow-sized downvote would pay very little compared to a Whale with 400 000 SP delivering a 100% death blow.
The payment for such actions should come directly from held SP and along with all SP generated from this elective behavior, be redistributed to the entire userbase on a monthly basis as a proportion of individually held SP. This way, at least we benefit in some way and not just have to be captive audience to the drama.
So, if you feel something is so vile, so destructive and offensive that it absolutely must be dealt with in this manner ..you should be willing to sacrifice a little something when dishing out real damage.
Speaking from the point of view of a future average user, I simply don't have the time, energy or intellect suitable to keep up with a cult like sense of how to vote or post in order to be approved by the current mob rule.
Instead, I will try to leave a standardized comment explaining why I'm downvoting a particular content and mention my particular voting pattern (which always follows the officially presented guidelines - if any - from whichever user interface through which I'm accessing the Steem Blockchain, such as Steemit.com or Busy.org) in my personal profile description.
I used to be a decisive opponent of the previous flag, but this revised "flag" I instead view as a often made too powerful downvote that needs to be changed as soon as possible.
I hear you man.. I floated this just to see what kind of feedback it would get, not a serious.proposal. I believe your approach is a very good one. Register your dismay, explain why and move on ..
Yes, thank you. I expect this part to probably be the hardest . . .
Because a lot of poeple very likely just won't let go and will demand more answers even after they downvoted the crap out of me with double my power... but hey, I didn't come to Steemit to go hunting for higher "rep" all of the time. Neither did I come for any promise that my posts would necessarily be paid or even read by others.
That stuff is entirely secondary to getting my content recorded on the blockchain and spreading my message.
So true man, something I have to remind myself as well - pursuit of reward, without higher ideals, is a dead end.
It would certainly make the trolls who downvote any disagreement think twice...
Agree with this. Therefore, I won't flag you. Just kidding.
The cost of flagging could be a parameter voted apon by the witnesses. I would like to open the idea that the cost could be SP, steem, or dollars. Instead of redistributing the money could just be destroyed.
It makes sense that a negative action should be carefully considered, and there is nothing like financial pain to make you think about your actions. It will also make sure that the receiver of a flag understands that there is real sincerity behind the flagging.
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