I get what you’re saying... creating something with real effort and getting little or no rewards can feel discouraging. But that’s also exactly why downvotes exist on Hive.
Imagine a post that just says “this brand of rice is good”, shows one product photo, and earns $10. Now compare that to someone who spent days researching, photographing, and writing a meaningful article — and earned only $0. If no one ever downvotes the first one, that second person will keep getting buried.
A lot of this comes down to visibility, curation trails, and unfortunately, some patterns of low-effort content farming — often slipping under the radar in foreign-language posts where oversight is more difficult. It's not personal; it's about protecting the value of the rewards pool so that good work stands a chance.
So I’d say downvotes aren’t about disliking someone, but maintaining a system where effort still matters. Otherwise, Hive would slowly turn into a payout mill for spammy, low-effort posts.
RE: This one question will ruin how you see Hive rewards.