I doubt whoever altleft is has been conspiring against zero'ing your rewards together with curangel and smooth, he surely hasn't contacted me about it and neither have the others.
I've never once said there is any conspiracy (though you keep making those baseless claims about the other side of this argument), and don't believe there needs to be for this activity to play out this way.
That's the "beauty" of capitalism - there never has to be any level of conspiracy or collusion, because their intentions & goals align at the basic levels any way (profit motive, maintaining stratification of power & wealth, and silencing those who speak out)
Just like the CEOs, bankers, and governments don't ever have to collude, they're working towards the same ends (and happy to compete to the degree that they each want more of the pie) - yet they do collude & conspire, as well.
Same for any other organized crime (mafia, cartels, gangs)
Same for the Hive Whales
i.e. one voter with a big delegation (jamesc-tribesteemup)
Who upvotes hundreds and hundreds of users, across multiple communities and topics, has for many years, and receives feedback from half a dozen communities.
Oh, and that big delegation is still less than any one of the whales who are censoring people.
xeldal's trail do the same thing but the opposite way.
If I could remove someone's autovote from me, I would. I don't want it. As I've said (and can be seen for 5 years), I post less the more I'm getting rewarded, because financial incentives are the opposite for me.
Somehow that's fine but when it's downvotes it instantly means the system is centralized?
No, the fact that the system is centralized (and designed that way) means it.
20 witnesses means governance will always be centralized.
The fact that blocktrades has enough stake to decide who is top 20, even moreso.
You're trying to act like these are separate issues, when they are the same issue.