Firstly - Love the title! And yes, the results of the HF are night and day, but in my personal experience and behaviour, I have not changed anything AT ALL! There was no need to and much like you have said... at the end of the day you have the right to post whatever you want - but you just need to be open to the reception of all outside opinion. (Just like any other social media platform - but super sized haha)
I don't see why people should walk on egg shells, nor do I see why conscientious auto voters should be punished either. I manually curate and I auto vote because my 3D life does not always afford me the opportunity to sit, read and curate - but my SP sitting at 100% for 48 hrs serves no purpose to anyone - and for that reason, I have selected specific individuals to be on autovote because I am 100% confident in the fact that they are A) consistently producing good content or B) are involved in curation and I am ALL for supporting those projects. And for 90% of those "autovotes", I refer back to those posts and give the engagement via comments that they initially deserved.
With regards to the whole downvoting thing - I am humored by how "surprised" people are acting that it has gone somewhat "haywire". It is literally the talk of the town at the moment and I don't get why... Give people a buffet dinner at no cost and HELL YEAH - they are going t pack those plates full and shove everything they can down their throats! It is sadly, a common human trait. Self control and rationality of mind is becoming a "few and far between" aspect of human nature. But this should NOT stop people from feeling like they can "own" their own blog space.
People are going to RIDICULOUS lengths with the shift - but I suppose it is natural to have this occur and it will take a little time for the excitement and dust to settle.
People mostly focus on the wrong things... and the "politics" of this place (in my opinion) is one of those things... It is so easy to get wrapped up in the CRAP - arguing with multiple people for DAYS at a time over 2 Steem. Personally, I choose to focus elsewhere! I want to look at the good things - let's use that energy constructively, not destructively.
hahahaha @ savage style! LOVE IT!
Hats off to you Dan.