Yeah I've been getting hit with downvotes on posts I promote using steembottracker.

When I arrived on steemit the common practice was to use this method instead of using the promote button, it was what lead me here. Now it looks like the community is negative on the promotion method and you get an ocdb hit of down votes with posts you boost now. I'm going to stop using that method and I did notice a lot of bots have disappeared from steembottracker.

Down votes will probably filter out most of the randoms like me, leaving just the community groups. I think sooner or later Steemit may see down votes as a form of censorship with groups targeting other groups on down votes in order to annoy them enough to leave.