In this day an age people certainly love to complain. This is especially true if they see what they perceive as injustice. There is the saying "The squeaky wheel get's the grease". A couple of days ago I felt compelled to speak up about activity that I saw which I considered distasteful. This is generally how I will approach things. I will use words rather than the down vote. I reserve downvotes for spam, plagiarism, or something that would need to be blatantly inappropriate. I have rarely had to use it.
In the case the other day I'd already up voted the post, and replied. It was the fact that my replies were hidden from view unless someone expanded them that got under my skin. I didn't attack anyone and was basically responding to the OP as my name was in the list of evidence he presented. I did agree with what he was doing. I mainly wanted to assure him that there was no connection between myself and the person his post was focused on.
I knew 
Then after my post I truly looked at his profile and his posts. I then noticed the many accounts. I quickly realized he was bigger than I thought. I had most definitely POKED a whale.
On steemit this would be a disaster. The odds of you getting hammered suddenly by other accounts and linked accounts and perhaps ran off of the platform was a very real thing.
I realized that on one hand that doing this might be a mistake IF all I cared about was earning rewards on hive. On the other hand it was a good chance to see if this action on hive resulted in the same reaction as steemit. You see I don't need hive. I like hive. In some respects I think it benefits from my activity. I think the way I post, and write is a bit different from the more common fare. This is good for hive as it gives a little sprinkle of variety here and there. I can tell you I am not doing that intentionally. It is just how I write. Pure dumb luck and a voracious need to write.
When I wasn't writing on steemit for years I still wrote. It was just into notepad, google docs, and other places. That would partially appease my need to silence the nagging demons of ideas. It wouldn't give much in the opportunity of feedback, growth, sharing, and exchange. It turns out I missed that.
Is the financial incentive still important? Yes, it eases my guilty conscience when it comes to the amount of time I spend writing or replying. Without the earnings I'd feel guilty about the amount of time I spend here as time is finite and I do spend time here that realistically I should be spending elsewhere. That is a balance I'll need to work out.
It didn't happen...
I wanted to write this post and point out that
Yes, that is a relief in several ways.
It is not fun to be targeted by anyone (I have a few remoras) it is very not fun if the person targeting you is backed by a heavy voting stake or bot army.
This is a VERY good thing for all of us. It is also a good thing for HIVE. I think the powerful treating steemit like their own personal kingdoms is partially what destroyed the potential of that platform.
This post is not a retraction as I still don't think my reply warranted being hidden. It is however an acknowledgement of respect for
The only thing better would have been some words... :)
I thought this follow up was necessary. We should not only speak of negatives. We should also shout loudly about positives.