Why?
Did you read my example. Do you feel the need to walk into a super market and tell them about all the goods you do not plan to buy?
I suspect your answer is no.
So why do you feel the need to down vote posts you don't like that other people do?
It is very similar to consuming anything. Vote on the things you are interested in. A down vote is really just you shoving your opinion on what someone else should not like in their face. Not voting on it at all will result in the number liking it not raising.
And really it is just a scale... take a ruler... put it in your hand... I'm going to use inches. Let's say it is 12 inches long.
Positive votes are essentially like taking that ruler and positioning it at ZERO and each vote is an inch along that ruler.
Adding negative votes is more like zero being at the 6 inch mark on the ruler. Yet the ruler is still 12 inches long, so it can be graphed, used to determine popularity, and used to calculate a trending the same whether you have down votes or don't have down votes.
The difference is the down votes promote hostility. So if you can accomplish the same things without the downvote and not add hostility why would you not want to do that?
If you truly need to express your discontent and you believe that every negative vote should have a comment then why not simply NOT VOTE on the item and post a comment explaining why you didn't like it, and didn't vote on it?
Same thing, yet the down vote on steemit is harsh. It reduces the monetary amount someone else accumulated the steem power to be able to award. It also can significantly ding reputation if your reputation was higher than the person you down voted.
It basically can be used to enable censorship on a platform that is promoting being anti-censorship.
I guarantee there are things you like, and that you want to consume that are things I do not like. HOW MANY PEOPLE like it is truly the only thing that matters. How many people dislike it is irrelevant and other than an ego thing of trying to rub someones nose into the fact you don't like it I truly can see no point to it.
NOTE: This is if I approach it as a market for ideas and content.
IF: I were to view it as making decisions in a boardroom then a downvote makes sense. Yet steemit does not resemble a boardroom, it does resemble a market.
I am new to the blog/opinion sphere and definitely new to Steemit.
99% of the time when I shop at a store I either buy or don't buy. But there are times when I find something that needs to be brought to the stores attention. This new world paradigm of only giving positive feedback in schools, on posts, at work does not help when negative feedback is warranted.
Here is sort of an example of where I think. I get a lot of online petitions from Change.org. The vast majority I ignore because I am not appropriately involved to comment or I do not know all the facts. For some I sign as I agree with the petition. Some, I either disagree with or the consequences of that petition winning can lead to bad repercussions in society. I realty wish all petitions had a way to sign them in the negative.
I up-voted your response to me because I think it has value. I also up-voted the original post. The vast majority of time I read stuff and don't vote at all (like most in society). If someone posted a response that said everyone deserves only positive feedback I would have down-voted that.
I am worried the the current trend of SJW mentality comes into play with some who dislike negative feedback.
The hard thing for me to get my mind wrapped around in Steemit is it is based closer to one vote for one Steem than to one vote for one user. Our traditional democracy mob rule system allows the greatest number of votes for whatever to win (not the majority). In Steemit it is more like the largest Steem voting wins. But is that with or without down-voting. With down-voting you have feedback. You can agree, be neutral, or disagree. Without it it is agree or don't speak (shut up and go back to watching the MSM).
I think there are issues with with Steemit voting, reputation, rewards, etc. But that mimics main stream society's issues as well.
While I would not like to get down-voted (it would hurt my feelings) I do understand that not everyone agrees. I have opinions, but have no great vision of a solution.
I don't dislike negative feedback, and as I stated that can still come in the form of a comment which in fact is more valuable.
Being new to steemit you may not have seen what happens when someone gets their post dinged for something and they suddenly lose 90% of the money it was telling them they were going to be awarded. This results in very real anger. He a downvote is more than just showing your disapproval it removes money. If your reputation is higher than the person you downvote you also can significantly decrease their reputation. Over OPINION.
I don't down vote anyone because I disagree with them. I may comment at length, and yes I do up vote people I disagree with quite often as well.
Without downvote it is not "agree or don't speak". I comment on a lot of articles I don't up vote. That actually gives someone something to think about and I did not steal any money from them by doing it. It can be argued it is not stealing. Yet that is the perception of most people that it happens to if they haven't thoroughly researched the platform. Whether they stick around and learn, or whether they get really angry and blast steemit.com across the other social media zones to to this theft, ponzi, scam (words they like) is really a coin toss.
A downvote is far less valuable in terms of expressing dislike of something than a comment that everyone can read. Yet the comment is words, and had no reputation or monetary hit associated with it.
EDIT: Steem power versus votes. Your votes are tied to VESTS which steem power is some version of that. To see how many vest you have go to https://steemd.com/@brs there is an area named vests.
I know how many steem power a vest is is subject to change during the beta.
The loss on income with a down-vote may be more to do with the artificial way up-votes create income. I am not so sure if some deserve $10,000 Steem. Some do, most don't. So we cry over a loss of income we may never have really deserved.
Some I follow here I followed on YouTube and now I can directly encourage them vs the advertising based system over there. So I don't really find it strange they have a good income here. I was encouraged by a guy allegedly from Africa that was living on $1 a day and thru Steemit he built up $40K Steem. If true this certainly will level the playing field around the world. But I think all positive with no negative is a bad thing. Some should loose their perceived income on a post. Steem is artificial just like fiat currency. You can't have winners without losers.
The issue is that all the ripples need to get flushed out. The no looser SJW mentality hurts far more than it helps.
If I (learn how to) write posts that fits the magical Steemit formula then I should earn big, and because no one down-vote, once earned it is never lost. Really? I would just be following a script like the music industry does. Imagine how this platform will change once the JB and KKs of the world discover it with there billion followers. Argh. I want down-votes just in the event of that.
I think we need to get away from the belief we are entitled to our entitlements. Earn it (up-votes and comments), be criticized (down-votes and comments), and learn how better to express your (especially my) thoughts. I think Steemit posts are more like an auction item whose price can go up and down. If only one person in the end could own it then the bids would only go up. But if we all own the result, who knows where it will finally sell at. Maybe up, maybe zero, maybe worth millions.
Also I think of Steem more like collective money that we are some how voting to give or take. Some feel while we may not have done much to earn it or grow it but feel they are entitled to it. I think that is the case for those who cry openly about loosing something they never really had in the first place.
Dang, the last paragraph sounded like Collectivism. I need to stop now before I hurt myself.
This was an issue, WAS being the operative word. Once you get sufficient steem power (not sure what it is since my votes are worth $0.01 - $0.02) they now have a slider that let's the voter decide how much they want to give the person. So this really is no longer a factor. They accumulated the steem power, and should be able to have their opinion on worth.
I don't believe in entitlements. I do believe in free market. So If I choose to award someone something from my own value then that is my opinion. No one else should be able to cancel out my awards. If you wanted to sell my a sculpture you made and I wanted to give you $500 for it, should someone else be able to come along and knock that down to $50?
As to the african guy. I remember him. That was before the slider existed and yeah we were frequently seeing posts in the $10K, $20K value at the top of the trending every day. The highest I saw was one over $40K. That has already dramatically changed since they implemented that slider. You can tell that by looking at the trending page.
It also freed high steem power people up to be able to vote on whatever they want without fearing awarding someone $1000 every time they voted. This has been a positive effect.
None of that is what I am complaining about. I am complaining about the fund decrease and the PR issues that is likely to cause. This has NEVER happened to me here so I am not complaining for myself. I want to see this platform succeed and if we do not really need a feature that is causing negative feedback on the steem /steemit platform as a whole then in beta stage is the perfect time to try something else.
The positive only thing could be tested and if it didn't work, change it to something else. That is what a beta is for. Yet, negative voting is a problem on reddit and does result in censorship and a lot of people get angry. Here that vote actually takes your potential money away visibly. That I believe will be a force multiplier on that anger. Likewise if the person who downvoted you has a better reputation it could REALLY hurt your reputation, so simply down voting because an article is not to your taste can have some extreme ramifications on steemit.
Thanks for the thoughtful incite.