Hello, sir. I discovered your profile today as a result of trying to find some answers to an unexpected, and demoralizing downvote I got today by user @trafalgar. He ReSteemed one of your posts from his profile, and I saw that you have been posting about downvoting, and so figured you are knowledgable on the subject. The issue relates to my weekly series post (most recent on with the massive downvote here) ->
https://steemit.com/steemmonsters/@transcript-junky/steem-monsters-drug-wars-power-strategy-tips-26
Just for the record, I only started using this "upvote feature" provided by @steemmonsters because they actively told all players about it in their official profile posts. In other words, I had NO IDEA that using their upvote feature would create problems for me. Also, the token I use for their upvote feature is their native game-token (DEC - Dark Energy Tokens), and I usually limit myself to 2,000 DEC for each ONLY this one weekly series post. As you can see, my posts in this serious require some serious writing work, and are well-received by readers. Since this all hit me by surprise I am just in the initial stage of trying to figure out if I actually did something "wrong", or if I have been subjected to "whale downvote abuse", or whatever else may be going on. In other words, have no idea how to deal with this. The first step I have taken is to contact @steemmonsters admin, since they are the ones who made me aware of their upvote feature to begin with. Since this is the first of these "large downvotes" I have ever received I would consider simply not using this upvote feature if it means I am going to risk losing a substantial amount of DEC I have earned by playing the SteemMonsters game (like 1-2 days worth of play). So I am making this comment in the hope that you may offer me some advice on some options to better understand this issue, AND to prevent this from happening again so that I don't lose additional Steem/DEC into the future. Any insight is appreciated. Thanks in advance. I've also followed you.
Heya, I'm following the downvotes from @trafalgar, he'll probably write a better explanation than me, but long story short, bidbots are bad, bidbots that undermine steem to pump another token (DEC) are even worse. We are targeting it to force it to close (if people who buy votes get downvotes that are as big as the vote, they most likely won't buy again). Don't use bidbots and you won't get downvoted by us :).
Hi. Thanks so much for the response. Your feedback certainly sounds reasonable. I have been part of SteemIt since August 2017, and remember the days of mass bit-bot abuse, but never took part in it. The only thing close to that which I have been a part of is SteemFollower, which is more of a manual upvote dApp, and one which I have found to have great value. What I will do is wait to hear from @steemmonsters admin to see what they have to say. As I have said, I had NO IDEA that this was an issue, and if I did I would have AT LEAST asked around before sending 2,000 DEC into the post in question (which I posted within the past 24 hours). So I would like to ask for your further advice/feeddback related ONLY this one post in question (since I just became aware of this issue). Would you be willing to take off the downvote if, after gather some more intelligence on this issue, I agree not to use the @steemmonsters "bit bot"? The point is that I could have used that 2,000 DEC to buy a few gold card upgrades in the game. Right now it is just lost into the ether. Let me know your thoughts. I am also waiting for a response from SteemMOnsters admin, who have always been very fair, and are aware that the are not always able to properly address all of the many issues that arise with the game. Can we deal with this issue assuming negligence on my part in this one case? Regardless, this debacle has made me aware of this new issue of downvoting, so there is a silver lining in all of this, and I may use this app which you are promoting once I have the time to evaluate it. I hope you can at least understand where I am coming from, and see from the nature of the current post in question, and my previous posts, that I am not actively/knowingly trying to game the system. Any further feedback/advice is appreciated. Thanks.
Hi @howo - I hope that you will be encouraged to see that I explained the situation related to my recent downvote to the top admin of @steemmonsters, and they have seen (what I believe to be) the general logic of your effort, and have decided to discontinue their "paid upvote" service, and replace it with a more manual curation effort, using their significant reserve of SP which they were previously using for the bot.
https://steempeak.com/steemmonsters/@steemmonsters/content-upvoting-policy-update
My PRIMARY reason for reaching out to you on this issue was to get a better understand of the actual issues, and TRY to help work on a solution. From this new post from SM I believe that solution has been reached. They also compensated me for the upvote amount I lost on my downvoted post due to sheer ignorance of the issue. Hopefully, this is an adequate solution for all parties.