In the past few weeks, I had my fair share of downvoters. But I am not upset because they down voted me.I believe that communication is very important and in our world where everyone either creates contents, curates or does both, this is essential to settle in some differences and create a compromise.
(copyright by pixabay)
Down voting or flagging is the act of simply clicking the down arrow or the "broken heart" depending on the platform you are using. Since our community is a blockchain based aka decentralized system, it is expected that everyone should do their part to "police" it. Unfortunately, some people feel the need to down vote because they personally want to wage war with the author, the contents are contrary to their values and beliefs and therefore wrong, or by simply owning SBI.
I do not really have any hesitation in down voting anything which contains nudity, sex, violence, profanity unless its NSFW (not safe for work) wherein a user can decide if they want to view the contents or not. The internet is readily available these days and everyone including minors especially young children can possibly access these.
Another thing that ticks me off are people who obviously love to copy someone else's work without giving proper credit to their sources. TRANSLATION: plagiarizing your work.
What not to downvote
This part is based on @cyrano.witness 3 years ago. This is the link: https://steemit.com/steemit-howto/@cyrano.witness/about-downvoting
Do not downvote content that expresses opinion contrary to yours.
I just want to add that steemit is an international network and the users are not concentrated on one part of the world. We are all products of our culture and our environment and what I perceive as normal in mine might be interpreted in a different light by others. That is why whenever anyone down votes my posts, I wanted a reply or comment telling me why. Its not about being proven right. Its because I wanted to see things through your eyes.
Do not down vote content simply because you dislike the author.
Flag wars or down vote wars do happen and, its a reality. But I also stand on my firm opinion that anyone who engages on a prolonged down vote for down vote agenda is childish and is undeserving to stay in steemit.
Do not down vote posts for grammar or spelling.
As mentioned in the posts, most of us are not native English speakers. Do not go around pointing grammatical or spelling errors to justify your down vote. Learning another language is a struggle. I tip my hat on all the non English STEEMIANS out there!
For more information on down votes, you guys might want to check my friend @juanmolina's post on project hope. Here is the link: https://www.publish0x.com/juan-molina/steem-downvotes-good-bad-ugly-xqymwg
Reality Check
You must have a higher reputation score to the account you down vote to affect a change. For example, if your reputation score is 25, there is nothing that you can do for anyone who has a score 26 and above. If there is anything, you might end up annoying people.
Self respecting Steemians do not down vote at whim. This is a block chain based social media site. TRANSLATION: anything that you do has a permanent record. You can change it but, its recorded as history.
Self respecting steemians do not down vote at whim because they are aware of the impact they can make. Imagine a dolphin flagging a post by a plankton or a whale flagging a plankton.
- Down voting was created so we can "police" and curate the contents of our community. Not as a weapon to yield against anyone.
Recommendation
Since I noticed that almost all the accounts who love to down vote usually have a 25 reputation and usually, they do not have any posts- apart from commenting and down voting, why not create a down vote option which will immediately open a comment or private message to the author- informing the reason behind the act? If it is not filled up, the down vote cannot push through?
New accounts which does not create any type of content apart from down voting within a week of its activation should be cancelled or automatically flagged.
Accounts which has the most down votes in a week should be further investigated in case its sole purpose of existing is to down vote.
In the end, my stand on down voting is this: its a great tool to ensure we have the best content in our community. Its not a weapon to attack anyone. Its not created to hinder a post's income. If a user's sole purpose in life for joining steemit is for down voting alone, or, attacking older accounts, you will lose in the end. We worked hard to be where we are now. We made friends. We maintain those relationship as best as we could. You might feel that you won because you down voted a post. We really don't care especially if your reputation is not even half of ours. We will continue to create quality posts for everyone's benefits. I know that other self respecting steemian feels this way and, there's really no need to say these. But for the sake of everyone, I am doing it now.
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Oh I've been seeing more and more down votes 😥 I dont get what thrill they get from doing it. But yeah haters will always hate no matter how good or hard u try
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Just do your thing. For me, a self respecting steemian will downvote and either pm or leave a reply why they feel like that. If they don't, let them be. They are entitled to their own opinions and, wasting your time on them (because, they are usually the same people!) won't get you anywhere.