Thanks for this very much needed post, I was thinking about some divisions in the steemit community(among the others the attack on people that vote their own comments).
The only experience I had with downvoting was with a bad person that threatened me with legal actions etc.(with 0 reasonable reasons) , an angry scammer that was exposed by my posts aswell. As far as today the only experience I have with downvote is that person who clearly deserved it.
From what I see, the downvotes, as much as autovoting own comments, are free to use. Steemit is not made only by whales and individuals, but by communities too, and this is what people have to understand, power must be used wisely, or it will ruin part of the community, we want it to grow, not to fall!
@charlesx
very good point and comment
very good point indeed, thanks