For an entire month now, I have been getting straight up bullied by azircon with full downvotes on nearly all of my posts for no valid reason whatsoever...
To start, I hate drama and really don't want to waste my time on it, but I'm forced to address this. I let this bullying happen for an entire month after briefly addressing it in the header of one of my posts around a month ago getting a nonsense reply (Link). The problem with people like this, is that rational arguments have zero impact, and the one thing they crave the most is seeing that it really affects you emotionally which it obviously does.
If there are 2 things I really can't stand, it is people abusing their power and injustice, which is why these downvotes trigger me like crazy. I honestly don't care about the earnings themselves, which are being taken away as they are almost totally insignificant to begin with.
Downvotes
I have no problem with downvotes if they are justified, if there is some kind of consensus around them, and if they are done in a consistant equal way. I don't think i have ever cast a single downvote myself on Hive, and think they only really should be done on blatant abuse. If a single whale goes out on a quest to target and downvote an individual on almost every single post for an entire month with some made-up reasons, it's just straight-up bully behavior which should not have a place here on Hive!
My Hive Blog & Journey
I got into crypto mid-2017 and Hive (Steemit) was one of the platforms that I discovered and gave a try as it was the perfect fit for me. As someone who has been betting on sports & playing Poker professionally for more than a decade upto that point, and with a history of writing previews on private betting forums (which all died at that point since the market got sharper and nearly everyone lost their edge or started selling their picks to get something out of them that way), I figured I might continue this publically on my own Blog.
The benefits of this is that most of all it helps myself to stay sharp and disciplined, as it is crazy hard to actually beat the sports betting market consistently. As a side effect, there were the benefits of possibly finding like-minded people with this and potentially earn a little bit as a nice bonus.
What followed was 8+ years of really enjoying this platform, falling in love with it and seeing it as my home on the internet despite the fact that there are many obvious flaws in the entire Hive Model. While I aimed to do well here which was a challenge as this niche topic falls outside any of the general curation circles, I never had earnings on Hive as a goal by itself and I honestly never carerd about the price of Hive both in the bull or the bear, as I don't need the money. Aside from some funds that went into into Splinterlands, I never did any powerdowns and have no plans to do so.
Over the years, I managed to meet a lot of like-minded people who I consider friends even though I have never seen them in real life. I also get contacted on Discord regularly by people who come across my blog and run a Discord Channel that adds to my blog as I'm sharing bets there also along with covering all matches in-game.
As for my content itself which is exclusive to my hive blog, I can say that it actually is super impressive as I continue to beat the market year after year. (I challenge anyone to find someone with this kind of motivation, discipline and results on the internet!)
I literally share every bet that I'm taking on my blog and on Discord both during the good and the bad times keeping extreme transparant track of my results. The previews that I'm making in the last 6 years also include official bold bets which act as more selective suggestions for those who want to follow along. There have been 783 of these bets and they have done a very solid +5.74% ROI on Flat 1 Unit Stakes.
Aside from these Preview & Results posts, I also shared my Journey on the other side of the specturm in the Crypto GambleFi space keeping track of my portfolio and the news of different projects that I'm invested sharing numbers and insights that you otherwise can't find anywhere on the internet. I also enjoyed some Play2Earn games in the past years of which Splinterlands was one that got some nice curation along the way.
If anything, I would argue that Hive needs more unique blogs like this from people who start out wanting to make a blog instead of wanting to earn and start a blog for that purpose which is the main reason everyone eventually leaves sooner or later. Right now, Hive is pretty much a library where the most popular books are about the library. If I wanted to maximise my earnings here, I would just make perma-bull pretend post about Hive, Splinterlands, Leo, Surge, Stakehouse Den, Power Up Days, and everything else that has to do with the platform which nobody on the outside is really interested in.
Arguments For The Downvotes...
So I tried to interact are argue with this guy, but it's obvious that there is no logic reasoning involved. These are some of the things he accuses me of...
- "Easy Farming Content"
Believe it or not but this is actually the 2nd time he has been attacking me. The first time quite some time ago he also went on a rampage downvoting all my posts. One of the reasons then was that I make farming content which might make a bit of sense on the surface.
My reply:
I use templates to make my post look nice and also actually keep track of my results. The content itself is just factually rock solid given the fact that it beats the market year after year. I also put a ton of effort to get to the info that is included in my work as I watch pretty much all matches, follow the news, watch/listen to podcasts, update my personal Excel sheet with Stats that help me stay profitable. I also pay for a newspaper subscription mainly to be able to include visual line-ups in my posts, and it also actually takes quite some time to make these posts. I also have decades of experience in betting on the Belgian League. It's like saying a boxer who knocks out his opponent in the 1st second didn't put in any effort which makes no sense.
- "Self-Upvoting"
This was another argument the first time he attacked me and I can see why people don't like this. I have not self-upvoted this month though but the full downvotes keep coming.
My reply:
While this might be somewhat controversial, I see self-upvotes as a feature on Hive and if it wasn't, they could easily turn this off and make it not possible to do. One of the issues of Hive is that there are almost no reasons for anyone to buy and power up Hive. I have no issues with people who have a stake in the platform and put effort in their work to upvote, especially if they are outside of the curation circles. This said, I do see ways how this can be abused if people start creating a ton of shit posts to self-upvote or if they start upvoting their own comments. I also have no issues with stopping self-upvoting.
- "Nobody Reads Your Posts"
This was another argument he threw at me.
My reply:
For as far as I know, there are no official statistics on this as Hive removed the view count a long time ago because nobody was getting any views. Threespeak still has a view counter and the top videos barely get any views (between 12 and 33).
The reality when it comes down to Hive is that there are many writers but few readers. I know for a fact that there are people who really appreciate and read my posts, and I regularly get contacted on Discord by people who discover my content. I also have some data on affiliate links that I have on my posts of some bookmakers that I actually use. These show that there are consistent clicks on my links (55 to be exact in September). Knowing this is only a fraction of the people who read that click on them it pretty much debunks the statement that I have no readers.
On top of this, if there was any consistency to this argument, he would equally need downvote everything on Hive. Instead, it's just a clear targeted attack.
- "No Engagement"
This is another total non-argument.
My reply:
Sure, I have some posts that have 0 replies just like many people on Hive, I also have plenty of posts that do get replies. The content itself also isn't 'engagement farming oriented'. Most of my conversations go on over at Discore which is just way more convenient and natural. What I bring is also just more 'lurker-friendly' and ot doesn't make sense to get comments on every post that I make. Some friends also stepped in recently to help me fight the bully and started to reply but that doesn't seem to make any difference whatsoever.
Again, the same argument goes that this is just tageted bully behavior as with an argument like this the downvotes would need to be spread all over Hive.
- "Redirecting Too High Rewards"
and I quote "just trying to redirect the reward pool towards where it is due"
My reply:
Sure, systematically max downvoting every post to zero for over a month of someone who maybe earns 2$-4$ on a post after running a blog for 8+ years is redirecting the reward pool. I bring good content that even though it's not for everyone, people respect. I'm invested in Hive and people know that I won't dump it like many of the ones you are redirecting the values to...
The Real Reason For The Downvotes...
The way I see it, this is just a high probability case of severe Narcissism Disorder. Someone with a large stake, which is used to bully and belittle smaller people, who can't fight back to compensate for low self esteem feeding into somewhat of a god complex. At the same time, staying very friendly with other people so this behavior can continue. I probably have some different opinions he doesn't agree with and I also don't hold back to so things as they are like what's going on with Splinterlands. This combined with the fact that my stake and average post values are perfect to causing maximum emotional damage makes me a suited target for this sheer abuse without any rational argumented reasons for it.
Other Indirect Victims
I have a lot of people here on Hive who do support me and who I have very friendly encounters with. They all also get robbed a part of their curation rewards by these systematic bully downvotes. 
The bottom Line
I don't want to stir up any drama or make this into a big fight as I don't have the time or energy for this. I just want to be left alone and for some common sense to prevail. If there is a consensus that these downvotes are fully justified, I also have no issue to leave hive and move elsewhere. So the question I have is the following. Am I the abuser here who deserves to be downvoted to the ground on every single post, or are these systematic downvotes by 1 individual a case of targeted bullying?