Great post, Kevin. Thank you. Discussing these issues as a community is how we'll eventually see improvement. It's also nice to see this show up as a Github issue. I also see from these comments there's a discussion on a community Steemit repo as well (very cool!).
I'm willing to support some changes to see how it plays out. I'd also be willing to move things back again if the results end up being worse than what we have now. The tricky thing about these changes is we'll never get complete consensus or make everyone happy. When Facebook changes their UI, people lose their minds. Imagine what will happen when changes are made to "their" money making machine, the Steem blockchain?
As I read through the comments, it does seem like the lack of downvotes significantly contributes to the problems we see. I like the idea of a separate pool for downvotes, but I was also just thinking maybe we need an interface change like this when reacting to content:
Only the first two icons would be a positive vote. The other three would be negative. Instead of using emotional faces (a "good/valuable to the community" post may make someone angry, but it should still be rewarded) we might use a payout scale with money based on a combination of the current pending payout of the post and the additional value the voter can bring. So if a post has a huge potential payout but someone thinks it should be much less, then (depending on their stake weight), they'd select an entry on a spectrum which fits what they'd prefer to see ("That post isn't worth $50, more like $10"). Larger stakes could bring something all the way down to zero (but not negative, if that's not their intention... a "flag" action could be kept for that which is designed to hide the content and decrease the reputation of the account).
Clearly an interface change alone won't help, but I also don't think the current proposal of 50/50 rewards, n^1.2 or 1.3, and a separate pool will help without also implementing an interface change to (over time) remove the stigma of "flagging" and recategorize it as part of the curation process to send accurate value signals to the community.
A datapoint for my position is when the downvote became a "flag" in the interface. That changed people's behavior over time because it changed their belief about what a downvote is.
Hey thanks for dropping by @lukestokes and considering the proposal. Perhaps a UI upgrade to take care of downvotes/flags is necessary. Maybe just make it like reddit's? It'll certainly become more effective with a separate downvote pool and a non-linear economy.
Re: emoji-based voting - has this been tried in any other platforms out there? (that involves $$$)
Are there any other (surviving) $$$ platforms out there? Seems many are gone. :) I'm not a graphics designer, so that was just an example. Maybe something like:
$1...$2...$3...$4...$5...$6...$7...$8...$9etc.
I'm currently been flagged, for this last 2 days very aggressively, and all because I'm posting things that upsets them.
Free speech offends, or something..
I'm posting some political humor cartoon - some npc stuff - , and they are now flagging everything I post, nearly (@bloom).
I'll keep doing my thing, but this kind of behavior will drive even more users away from steemit.
I'm not sure if this helps, I'm just here asking for some support of the 'big boy's'...
Retention is already big enough problem here, I think.
Punitive action for free expression? ( not hate, in any way - but argument ) This is not conducive to growth, (imo).
Unless the agenda for growth, is a left leaning political stance platform, like twitter and facebook..
Any show of support at this point would be very welcome !
I have had great support yesterday off lots of users and haven't lost too much right now with their upvote support.
Being down voted $3 or 4 dollars a day, for writing things that are humorous ???(even if you don't like the humor), basically is a big disincentive to stay on the platform.
I'm not going anywhere, (over 12 months now! wooohooo) ....but if I was a new user? - I would be gone after this attack for no real reason.
Downvoting is a dangerous ,double edged, sword..
I could spin the narrative that way also. What if we upvote the "wrong" content and all that shows up the trending page is total crap. What if new users see that and think the Steem blockchain has terrible content discovery and is just a bunch of circle-jerking nonsense?
People leave for those reasons also.
If you choose to engage in political humor, "meme wars" or anything which might put you in the category of "the bad guys" from someone in an opposing category, well, I guess all I can say is...
Some people are so tribalistic that if they see an NPC meme, they see fascist and think flagging and attacking them is like storming the beach at Normandy. They may even think they are doing god's work.
In online social forums, spreading political memes is a risky behavior. Thankfully, you will never be fully censored on this blockchain. Someone may have to click "show" to see your posts if your reputation goes too low, but you will never be censored because your content is always on the blockchain forever. This is a censorship resistant platform. If people want to spread memes that anger other people, then okay, that's their choice. It's also the choice of those who are angered to use their voting power to express their disapproval.
If centralized services like reddit, 4chan, facebook, etc are better platforms for them to do their thing, then okay. But all of those can shut your account down completely. Can't happen here.