Wow I remember hearing of such a group long ago, especially that they were a group voting down not just the newbies but people who were starting to do generally well. What a shame as I know many left over the years because of such abuse and it's rather sad they picked on people who were using both platforms, many are just trying to make a living.
Holy smokes yes they did get powerful accounts I remember wondering how some of them had suddenly insane amounts of power on their accounts but I think they talked others into giving them such power "in the premises that it was the right thing to do for the platform".

I get what you mean about CIA but I don't think it is however you just never really know, at the end of the day how well did we really know some of these whales, but what's even worse is to get down-voted by the same people we met and even shared conversations and dinners with.

I understand your fear that such a thing could happen again, for example my worry is that someone else buys Steemit or takes over Justin and decides things have to be different again and those changes could be an attack on the freedom we have here at the moment.
It doesn't look good but I keep thinking surely at some point more and more people are going to realise what is going on at the sister site and either move back or leave.

I have heard mostly positive things from Blurt users so it's good to know, from what I have seen the price on Blurt as always been low, and since there is only upvoting and probably most people continuing to take money out id say it's perhaps going to be difficult to turn that around, from what I hear you can log in if you have a Steem account correct?

Yes like you I have always found hive engine a bit much as for Ionomy I'm guessing it's centralized and KYC is needed?