Since I joined Steem (Steem based applications), my contribution was liked by the community. Only two bots, who were in the watch list of steemcleaners, downvoted my posts. Those bots were designed to downvote every such account that supported good things here. They downvoted many users, with no reason. As their SP was not enough to harm others, their downvotes had no importance.
But a few days ago one person downvoted my comment that was in someone’s post. I have never interacted with him earlier. What was the absurdest thing that this guy’s user name was the combination of two words -‘liberty and warrior’! I checked his account. ‘Music, liberty and freedom’ was his tagline.
Wow! That great warrior was fighting for liberty and freedom and downvoting others with no reason. He was not letting others to express their views and thoughts. Hypocrisy at its best! I asked that guy why he downvoted me but he didn’t reply.
He was a minnow with reputation score just around 41. I think he did it just to attract my attention. Perhaps he was suffering from the identity crisis and downvoted me to seek my attention.
Although, those downvotes made no impact on my reputation but they were annoying. There was no means of communication with the bots as they had posted nothing till date and the ‘smarty’ didn’t reply. I could downvote his posts but I don’t like this kind of disgusting things. I am not here to take revenge from anyone. It is a social media platform where everyone has freedom to express his/her views, thoughts and ideas. Flagging was incorporated by the developers to discourage spammers, scammers, plagiarists etc. but it has become a tool in the hand of miscreants who are abusing this facility.
Also, some whales tolerate no criticism. They shut every voice, which opposes their selfish and arrogant behavior, by their powerful downvote. They are virtual world bullies who can destroy any account by their vicious power. Hence, downvoting is nothing but a tool to enforce gag order. This should not be allowed that someone may become a tyrant.
It is up to the developers that what kind of social media platform they want to make. Had they created this platform just to serve a minority or did they created it to develop is as a model social media platform where everyone has an equal chance to express himself? If this platform was developed just to run it for a few years till the developers amass a huge wealth by reaping the fruit of Steem and left it, then this is not a problem at all. In this case Steem will be similar to a ponzi scheme. But if the intention of developers were bona fide, then they should take an action to make this platform a true social media platform.
To make this platform great flagging should be removed or if it is not possible to remove it, then the system should be amended. I am suggesting a few ways to regulate downvoting.
Flagging should be allowed in exceptional cases only, like in these categories-spamming, scamming, fishing links, plagiarism, NSFW (where NSFW tag is not used), spreading hatred etc.
Flag should not affect potential payout. However, it may affect reputation score.
For downvoting every user’s vote should have equal weight. However, users whose reputation score is below 40 should not be allowed to downvote.
A user (including bots) who hasn’t made any post or comment should not be allowed to downvote.
There should be categories for downvoting and downvoting should fall under these categories only. Downvoted category should be clearly visible in a form of ‘caption’ near upvote button, So that others will know the category of the post or comment in which it falls. Also the number of downvote received by the post or comment should be visible there.
If a post has received more downvotes than upvotes then that post should become invisible as it happens now.
I may not be right but it doesn't mean I should not be allowed to express my thought. I think in this way we can manage downvoting and get free of unnecessary disturbances caused by these unnecessary downvotes. This is one of the greatest social media platform. It has a potential to be a revolutionary platform where everyone will have an equal chance to survive and interact with each other.
