I don't understand the need to "counter" downvotes that are cast by other users because they were cast based on an "opinion" (which is unknown, unless explicitly stated).
It sounds like you want to counter a downvote that's based on subjective opinion by casting an upvote that's based on subjective opinion...and often just an assumption about motives.
But here are my questions:
Why is there no desire to counter opinion upvotes?
Why are upvotes made with "questionable motives" not scrutinized or vilified like downvotes?
Do you think that a service is really necessary to hunt down and counter only one type of vote, and do you think there can be negative consequences from this that might end up being worse than people receiving downvotes?
What happens if another account is created to counter your upvotes that counter the downvotes? And what happens if another account is created to counter the downvotes that were cast to counter your upvotes that countered the original downvotes?
Upvotes aren't vilified like Flags because they cost no one anything.
A Flag can cost someone serious money (from the right whale) and many times the Flag is not justified or deserved. Convincing a whale (who flagged you) that he/she is wrong and should remove the flag is next to impossible most times.
I love the idea behind this service and welcome it to Steemit. The more diversity in opinions the better, if you ask me!
A flag can never cost anyone money. The estimated payout for the post isn't final (or indeed even allocated to the author) until all the votes are tallied.
I disagree, opinion flagging, with no comment as to why, is the single most dangerous problem steemit faces now. Some whales think it is noble to crush small accounts that express opinions that do not agree with their own views. The loss of income is sadly most telling when people leave in disgust, but flagging it to the point it can not be seen will reduce the income for any post.
The very core of this platform is the ability to have, and state your own beliefs. It also gives someone else the opportunity to to debate those beliefs, and to try to change those beliefs by that same debate!
Flagging for unstated reasons negates this possible advantage, and only serves to crystalize the initial person into a less receptive position for the next person who might actually want to debate the issue.
Flagging in this manner is why a lot of people left Facebook to begin with, and it has run off accounts that were producing good content, simply for offending a whale that most often makes no content at all!
This punitive flagging concerns me greatly! I placed at the top of the Engagement League this week, so I have a large commitment to steemit, BUT this single issue has led me to open a weku account, because I am not sure steem will survive this one issue.
:)>@smithlabs - thank you for explaining things more to me (at least.)
I was flagged once for discussing something because I posted someone's video after I wrote my comments about the video & the person freaked out on me & just downvoted me.
I had the video taken down, but clearly that didn't matter & me learning didn't matter.
I'm still so uneducated about Steemit that I didn't even know what that downvote meant.
Also, I just found out that I'm not getting money from upvotes.
Someone pointed out to me that he upvoted me, I should have gotten something, & instead I got zero.
I haven't been making money on here & while yes I need the coin, I do my activism work for reasons that go WAY beyond money.
This can be why after being on here & posting somewhat regularly, I've made a whopping $5-7.
But still, why am I being targeted?
Even a kind soul who has helped me almost since my first time on Steemit just told me that steemit purposely tries to get rid of small accounts.
I don't know if that's the site founders or whales or what.
Is this true?
WOW if it is.
I believe that flagging may finish steemit. Every use of flagging I have seen is cyber-bullies using money to beat up on the little guy!
Post good content, every day, and it should break soon. When I started, I was making a penny at a time....
I also post on weku, it is like the old steemit:
https://deals.weku.io/pick_account?referral=smithlabs
:)>@smithlabs - yeh I am not posting every day. Who even has time for that unless they do this f/t & they make a living off of it.
I did sign up for the weku, but almost all the posts are in Spanish.
What was the Old Steemit like? LOL
Thanks
I try to post once a day, just because I am hared headed, LOL
Good, look me up, same name. You may have to change your settings if you are seeing all Spanish posts, mine are all English....
Old Steemit was a fun place, a pure blog post server. Lots of new accounts that were interesting. With each hard fork, less people are here. Almost no new accounts these days....
Be Blessed!
:)>Hi @ats-david, I'll try to address this point-by-point and hopefully clear some things up.
That's just it; people sometimes use a DV as a substitute for challenging an idea or opinion. This usually takes away any chance for meaningful engagement, and instead escalates things with negative interaction. If the very tool that is used to punish spammers, scammers, and plagiarists is also used to disagree with something, then not only is it a big "fuck you" to the person who was DVed, it also reverberates through to the little guys that are still trying to figure out their future on steemit.
The intent is to leave opinion of the post out of it, and basically judge whether it's a job for steemcleaners, or if it's something like tag abuse etc. The subjective opinion to DV a post is equally as valid as the UV that I may follow it with. And maybe, just maybe, the user will choose to leave his thoughts instead of a DV next time so nobody will have to assume, and discussion can begin.
UV reward nullification is a whole other topic, and one that other users like @smackdown.kitty are addressing. One of the main points of this place is the ability to be rewarded for making original content. Making the judgement call on what rewards to remove will have the strongest impact, and I think many are underestimating the ramifications of that.
I do think that this service is necessary, and a glance around the comments here will show there are many others who agree. I do know exactly what I'm risking by doing this, and if someone were to obliterate my account for running this service, then I would take what I learn from that and move on accordingly.
I guess you could consider this my bellwether test to see if my future lies on steemit. My little vote isn't going to be anything significant without others chipping in, whether that's following resteems and UVing or delegating SP to the account. I want to know if the community thinks free speech is important enough, and also if this place is resilient enough against big moneyed interests using their swarm of bot accounts to control a narrative in the not too distant future.
As for you last question, I simply do not know. I can only do what I feel is necessary and see if the community support is enough to continue the effort.
@freezepeach - thank you for being a kind soul.
I really had NO idea that free speach was being thwarted here on Steemit.
I only started to get that feeling when no one was either voting on my articles, no one was following me anymore, & now someone just told me that when he upvoted my comment I got nothing.
Can you please explain to me how or why someone from Steemit would stop my account from thriving?
This explains a lot now that I'm beginning to learn that Steemit may be WORSE than FB.
At least with FB you know it's FB censoring you, but here it's actual people, not some EVIL CORP :(
I completely disagree with this, there is one thing having a difference of opinion there is another targeting people that you don’t like and removing their income. It’s kind of like somebody dislike in your post on Facebook so going into your bank account and taking money. Some people on here live of this income or are using it to save for medical procedures and all kinds of things, you have no idea what’s going on in peoples lives. It’s one thing for them to never get the money but for them to get it and get it ripped away at the last minute is shameful. If you disagree with something just leave a comment that you disagree there is no need to try and financially devastate people just because you disagree with their opinion on something. That’s what a debate is for. Most of the people that do the down voting don’t even leave a comment.