The simplest search on google gives lots of results of "flag war" like the ones I've put in in the example. steemcleaners is a "gray zone" and some are already thinking of doing downvote bots for after HF21 ... so meh, that's kind of scary to me.
Well, the situation is really worrying, it is necessary to know more about it, I really had not read anything about it. Thanks for the info.
While it is worrying, it also explains why there are so much communities & tribes, and why circles of "people who know each other" are being formed. The natural response to A-rank bullies is more often than not to group with people who have equivalent power.
So more often than not, these tribes start with a whale that decides to protect their own friends (normal) and extend his protection to people who are like-minded to him/her.
In many aspects, it is a really human attack, and very human response, and why I say that tribes heal the system that has been poisoned. By selling their tokens, the tribes acquire the steems and power necessary to "counter-vote" the downvoters.
Now I'm worried about where that leads, but it's also not that bad. Because both downvote bots, and counter-measures will need to buy steem to escalate one against the other. Means that the buying pressure will rise.