There is a perception of Hive being a "Ponzi scheme" that benefits the whales and no one else. Much of that perception is by former users. Some of it comes from not understanding the economics of the platform, which are quite complex, to be honest. One almost needs an advanced degree in mathematics to understand it.
Powering up certainly is the desirable thing to do. When one understands the point to doing so, it makes perfect sense. I think a lot of people are bitten by the instant gratification bug. They want the immediate income rather than the long-term economic benefit. Human nature, I guess.
I don't know how many use the downvote button. I do know there are people who have taken it upon themselves to "correct" posts that they perceive to be overcompensated. This is childish behavior, which is going to happen on any platform, probably more so on a platform that offers economic incentives. We don't want that guy earning more than he's worth, sort of thinking. Okay, well, that's really silly, especially if that guy has been on the blockchain for two months and has a reputation of 39. If that kind of behavior drives people away from the blockchain such that they never come back and badmouth the blockchain when they go, then it is damaging. And, I would say it's damaging in a way that none of us should want.
I don't agree with everything in @kencode's proposal, but I think it's worth discussing. Nothing is perfect. Everything can be improved. That's my line of thinking.
Just look at trending and you can see this is bs. How many "whales" do you see on trending pulling in $50-100+/day from the global inflation?
I can tell you, as the person who uses it the most on the chain... Not enough.
Childish behavior? You ok with this?
Without downvotes, this is all you would see. Just look at Steem trending and see what it has become.
I won't argue there are shitty downvotes here, but it's hardly a epidemic, as someone who has giant whales downvoting anything I do (because I fight abuse), I still support downvotes.
No one's saying downvotes should disappear. I was very active on Steemit. I witnessed bidbot abuse, which is likely what that $900+ is all about. I'm glad we don't have that issue on Hive. Still, a good system can have inequities.
I'm curious, where are the metrics that show who has the most downvotes? Is there someone tracking that, or does that come from researching chain transactions? It could take a lot of time to determine that manually.
I'm not saying I agree with the Ponzi scheme mentality. I defend Hive when I hear it because I don't believe it either, but it is a negative perception that we face, and if that perception leads to people shying away from Hive, it's something that will eventually have to be dealt with. We already know Hive has been losing users. There could be any number of reasons for that, some are likely unrelated to this discussion. But it's worth discussing, nonetheless IMO.
I just did a query on last 30 days of downvotes. Most of these downvotes have almost no affect on payout as they are microscopic. Mine, adm, and gogreenbudy (who follows mine) are the only ones with any real weight. Adm is the main account used by Hive Watchers themselves. So please show me where whales are misusing downvotes, or are you just repeating garbage other people say?
Ken has an agenda, he is referring to the downvotes I give tdvtv, who is his customer. This account posts 40+ times a day, many times duplicate content, almost always other people's content, and many times his stuff is broken and posts the same thing multiple times. Ken was pissed I was downvoting it, but ultimate resulted in his change it so most of the posts are declined payout when it isn't his own content (which is a good thing). He then contacted me later asking me to do something because he accused this account to be a pedophile and putting his family at risk due what he has seen in his videos. I told him to contact the police, I have nothing to do with it. Yet he calls me a criminal for downvoting the account which I do as I feel it is in Hive's best interest, not my own.
This whole downvote thing is absolute bullshit. It's a microscopic issue, that they blow up to be an epedemic. Again, this is coming from someone who has had the most malicious downvotes than anyone on Hive. I've been downvoted for over $400 a day for months. I have one whale downvoting me for $60+ when I post. Yet I am still one of the biggest supporters of downvotes.
Everyone on Hive has an agenda. Wanting growth for Hive again is not a bad thing like you imply.
Vigilante.tv contributors have every right to post 100+ times a day if they like. They are adding more awesome Creators to their platform every month and many of them post daily. The Hive blockchain enables a platform to post every 6 minutes if you like and personally I would encourage them to grow even bigger and onboard more Creators.
That did happen in the past, but some dupe-detection code was added so that it would spot dupes automatically, so hopefully dupes are not slipping thru anymore. You sound as if you found some other dupes slipping through tho.. If the code misses a duplicate, then why not let the platform owner know about it? They have a Contact Us page here:
https://vigilante.tv
A $60 downvote won't affect you the same way it would affect someone with a reputation of 30. This is all relative. As a witness, I would expect you to make enemies. If you're not, you probably aren't doing something right.
I'm merely reporting what other people say. It's not all about Ken Code. There are MANY people, former users of both Hive and Steemit, who have negative feelings about these platforms about the very same thing. Can they all be wrong?
Do you know 30 rep users (who are model citizens) getting $60 downvotes?
People say a lot of useless shit. Again, show me where this is happening.
I'm talking about perceptions. If you have a lot of former Hivers with the same complaint, there's probably something to it. It takes all of a few days to make a reputation of 30. That's not enough time to prove oneself a "model citizen". As people join a new platform, they need some time to learn about its culture. If their first few experiences are slaps in the face for violating some unspoken or difficult-to-find rules, then they're likely to leave and not come back.
Again, please show me rep 30's getting hit with $60 downvotes. All I am hearing is he said she said.