Ah, yes. Seems like you joined Steemit just a couple of months after me, and got to experience that nice run-up in the token price. Those were the days!
Last year I completed my #500CommentChallenge, where I left 500 thoughtful comments in 10 days. It was supposed to consist of 50 comments per day, but life intervened and I quickly fell behind, and had to really push in order to make it.
Now, while I did complete it (and had the sore hands to prove it), I did see some engagement, but nothing like as if I'd done it in the Steemit days or the early days of Hive. We've lost so many people since then due to shunning and downvoting gangs, that comments are down even for the big accounts, such that even I had to cut back (See my last post for example, on domestic violence which as of this writing got exactly zero comments aside from my Ecency notification. If a subject like THAT doesn't get any traction, nothing will).
I was surprised (but not really surprised to learn of the existence of "a list" where if your name was on it (for God only knows what reason. Maybe they don't like your race, or religion, or your politics, who knows?). you were denied support on your posts. It's childish and short-sighted.
We're not gonna grow with stuff like that, it's akin to chopping off your nose to spite your face, or throwing out the baby with the bathwater. We're better (and smarter) than that.
Hopefully things will get better in the future, because I really want a bright future for the community of Hive.
A list like that, really? Frack. I've seen an individual who claimed on their profile that they would downvote anything non-Christian, anything Pagan, Hindu, Muslim, etc. Thankfully they were a small account, but like, really?
I've seen plenty of people's politics I don't like here and I just mute them if they keep landing in my feed. It isn't hard to just "not for me" and focus on what IS for you.
In the land of "censorship free" you gotta learn to curate for yourself.
This was from a well-liked Hivian who found herself on a 'do-not-upvote' list. And when she inquired about it, they told her that she'd been placed on "the list" by accident, and that her name would be removed.
I've been here since July 2017, and lurked since spring 2016. So I'm not surprised at the existence of such a list. So I've seen a lot. We've lost a ton of good people over the years to such short-sighted mistakes, and will continue to do so until we awaken.
I don't even expect upvotes anymore, and sure as hell don't expect to trend no matter how good my writing is. What did George Carlin say? "It's a club and you ain't in it!" Even anomadsoul once referred to people like me as "outcasts"
So be it.
I don't want to be like those people spending their days cooking up ways to limit the growth of Hive so they can keep their piece of the pie.
I want to see Hive grow.
Luckily, I'm a good writer and can write anywhere, and in fact, am a "whale" of sorts on other platforms.
Now I write on Hive because it makes me a better writer and for my own edification. Steemit/Hive saved me from Blogger where my work was copied and I had no ownership stake in anything. So, upvotes or not, I love this intersection of crypto and blogging on the blockchain. :)
I've been here since Sept 2017 (this is my alt account, main is @phoenixwren) so yeah, have seen a lot of drama too, I just hadn't heard about such a list. I knew various people or groups had blacklists, though, like Hive Watchers, and I think, was it Marky Mark had a blacklist? I don't remember.
She didn't mention, but I'm sure it wasn't him. He was one of the only whales that spoke to me when I attended one of his livestreams on Discord. The others ignored me, so I was pumped when he responded. Marky's a good guy.
I think it was like, for known scammers or something, not anything petty.