Would you try starting a new account?
Why would I?
If my readers didn't see the value in protecting me, why would I be writing here for them? I can just keep my account, write what I want for me, same as now.
The rule I live by on steem is, don't be a dick. Generally, that means that one can participate in the community without too much trouble and on the odd occasion there is trouble, people can have your back. Same in the real world.
Perhaps I am too old and still remember what it is to have friends that don't mind getting into a rumble for another friend. I guess part of the digital generation is that they might not actually have real friends who will stand by them through thick and thin. Sad if that is the case.
Or just don't have the requisite cash-money-dollars to counter-vote your detractors...
Well, they will be able to read what I write for free :)
I might, but I'd probably just band-wagon-vote the top-earners and never post anything.
I enjoy the practice of writing, it is cathartic.
I guess you'd figure out who your die-hard fans are!
Sorry to barge in to a private conversation... :D but I'm here to talk about me. Oh, that didn't come out right. But it's true.
If for some reason @tarazkp would suddenly be rep -11 I would still read and upvote his posts because I have eyes and my own bran which have already determined that @tarazkp is okay dude, writes well and about stuff that I'm most of the time interested in. So if that didn't change, why would I stop supporting him?
It's not about die-hard fan...ning, (trying to hide the remains of the shrine built for tarazkp) it's about liking who I like because I like them, not liking someone because someone says so or stop liking someones work or posts or themselves because someone more powerful than me determines so.
And I think that in this scenario I would be downvoted too because I don't write Chinese, so we could all be -11 outcasts here, still sharing thoughts, posts and comments. It's good to be an outcast. Makes me feel all warm and cozy and fuzzy inside. So I would still upvote and read tarazkp's posts because I'm stubborn, not easily convinced to do the opposite I've previously decided to do, do not respond nicely to bullying and because I'm lazy and most probably would not even at first know what the heck was going on.
And what I do also think is that gradually, given time, Steem would change somehow so that accounts with high rep and large power, couldn't stomp other accounts that well without a valid reason.
But as tarazkp said, it would be very interesting to see what would happen if the almost impossible thing would happen first.
Like the island of misfit toys.
Sure, I agree, but wouldn't it be a little tedious to click "reveal" on every single post and comment?
Here's another scenario for you to consider.
Imagine steem was banned from all crypto exchanges and the value went to essentially zero. What percentage of the (@freedom) whales would stick around? How many witnesses would do their duties for free?
Imagine if yo.utube stopped all revenue sharing. Do you think people would jump-ship?
You get used to things. Like living in a cage. Eating bad food and eventually calling it good. Tedious things too. If your mind is set to continue and support the people you've chosen to read, you click.
I am really bad at thinking what other people would do because I find myself asking frequently what the hell were those people thinking who did what they did. So usually I don't guess, I just watch people do this and that and then again this, and eat imaginary popcorn while watching.
Almost impossible scenarios but I'll give you my boring answers. My answer is 1%. And 1% also to the second question. Not that interesting. But what would be interesting is that all of that would not happen in one night. So what would happen before your worst case scenario was about to come true? Who would step up? What would those people do or invent to save Steem?
And my boring answer to the third question: some would, but not all. But again what is more interesting is what has to happen for the tube to do that. And where would those people who would leave, go?
Broken links to replies (-4rep) that don't show on my replies feed,
IMAGE SOURCE
For example, https://steemit.com/steemit/@logiczombie/q5p0k8
Doesn't show stopthemarkymarks comment at all, not behind a click through "show comment" or anything.
And if you view the comment from stopthemarkymark's replies page, the link is broken,
For example,
https://steemit.com/steemit/@stopthemarkymark/re-q5p0k8-20200214t153241