However, these accounts are clearly weaponizing when downvoting. The only reason for this is that downvoting, along with Hive Downvoting power has an impact on one's reputation and it becomes a weapon used to silence the individual they do not like.
When madam's reputation was affected by the downvotes, what was affected? the digits or her actual reputation as a person? was she less of herself when you saw her account got -1 to -5 or will she be even lesser at -15? the numbers changed, but the person's good standing in the community (if she has that reputation) are not affected. I don't know how serious this matter is at your end but these things shouldn't be taken seriously. Like, does an account with 5 reputation here be less than a rep of 65? what's the difference? digits that don't matter and validation by numbers I guess. It just shows they get support from people staked.
What about freedom of speech and silencing them? this isn't twitter, facebook, or other centralized platforms, if you reblog and make her posts visible, I'll see them still if I follow you on my feed. Shadow bans here don't count for anything, you can get -20 rep and still be annoying and the silence you're talking about is just one click to view post away, then there's other frontends that can still access her content even if one isn't available.
I don't know where you live, but me, being a United States Citizen, i have a first amendment right to bear arms. That however does not mean my rights are extended to just shooting up everyone i dislike to silence them. No man, no problem as Stalin said is not how things work in an economy where the individual is empowered rather than the collective. This person or group collective are being abusive as they know they can silence her by consistently downvoting her.
Sounds like a privileged 1st world problem to me. Where I'm from, I constantly wish dislikes and downvotes are the only things I have to worry about for speaking up, but instead there's media slander, death threats, and online to digital harassment will entail if I got well opinionated about a public issue.
Despite how much freedom of speech threat the Western culture has been reeeing online, from my point of view, you still have it easy than being vocal here where getting a lead to the head without any resolution for decades is the norm. I'm sorry, I just don't see it as grave as you but I'm not discounting that this problem is serious and real from where you're at.
If it bothers her mental health, maybe stepping out from Hive, which embraces the toxic parts of decentralization along with its good is not the best place to promote her stuff. Everyone will eventually encounter this problem if they want to embrace web3 as part of the freedom of speech.
If a group were downvoting me without any records of public disagreements, just sporadic downvoting from out of nowhere, no explanations provided whatsoever, does that do the downvoters a favor? 3rd party eyes would just see accounts downvoting it without a reason. It's not giving the downvoters any good and it just looks like madam is minding their own business.
For your case, it doesn't as there's no monetary incentive to take out from your posts but for others that belong under the category of spam/plagiarized content and sometimes content I just don't like being rewarded, there's an incentive for me to chip off a few cents off it.
I wouldn't see your content unless I go actively look for it or someone handed it to me by reblogging on their feed. Whether you have a high rep or negative rep, it's visible.
I don't represent anyone, just my take. If Hive is just causing me headaches, I see no point in engaging with it. You can have a group of people downvoting but there are individual reasons, don't lump mine with anyone else.
That's your opinion on how I use my stake AND my time. Assuming I blindly trust the downvoter is another flaw here, Galenk messages me or I check what's with the drama whenever my name gets mentioned/tagged or dm'ed. It goes the same for people I set to follow their downvotes. If I don't agree with the call, I just remove the downvote and move on or remove them from my trail. I Indulge in a conversation like this when there's a discussion or avoid it when someone already says what's on my mind.
I don't know, did my time and also other people stepped out of the platform some time whenever Hive's toxicity or crypto space toxicity disrupted their fun. If this is the kind of thing people want to be in, so be it.