Downvoting is not really about disliking the topic.
I've suggested for a long time that we also have non-voting 'reactions' (like emoticons) where people can easily and concisely express an opinion (agree, disagree, etc.) separate from the reward-voting system. I understand this is part of the Steemit roadmap and is under development (I don't know at what stage).
Upvoting is really about thinking that rewarding the content brings value to Steem. It's a form of tipping where instead of tipping out of your own pocket, you get to tip out of a community pool. Downvoting is about thinking that it doesn't (or that the reward is excessive). Since the tips are being paid from a community pool, everyone gets a vote, and people need to keep each other honest by downvoting when necessary. If we don't like that, then we need to dispense with the community pool concept, people and people can tip with their own money (with no chance of being downvoted).
The two concepts are very distinct but both are necessary.
Yeah, you and I had this discussion a few times almost two years ago.
I've come to the conclusion that most of the disagreement comes from the clash between those who view voting as a shareholder would view it and those who view voting as a market.
The only minds we control are our own. So forcing our interpretation upon others as the correct way won't really ever work. There will always be contention. This is partially why I don't discuss it as much anymore as I don't really have a workable solution.
The reality it is both of those views slammed together and they may not be completely compatible. What you described DOES accurately define voting in a shareholder type of environment.
It does not describe a market.
I contend that the vast amount of people do not view using steem as a shareholder environment. Many of them may never have been on a board, been a shareholder or anything of that nature so that type of interaction is totally alien to their mind.
In a market there is no down vote. It is simply supply and demand. There is no anti-demand. I describe it like walking into a store. You go in and buy (vote) for what you want. You don't go in and say "I hate anchovies, they shouldn't be on the shelf". You ignore the anchovies and buy what you are interested in. That creates demand for your interest. Yet it does not cancel demand for other topics you are not interested in they are just much lower.
The problem with what is good for steem shareholder mentality is that it is that it enables people to pull stuff off of the shelves of the market because THEY subjectively don't think it adds value. It doesn't matter that others may think it is valuable. If power is sufficient since it is not a 1:1 voting situation it gives some the ability to be dictators and totally squash the interest of others. And that DOES happen on steem. That is not good for STEEM as far as I am concerned.
I no longer advocate for removing down voting and I haven't for a long time as it is the only way currently to combat spam, plagiarism, and abuse. Though abuse also becomes subjective.
I do believe adding the reward pool as a reason to down vote was a very bad idea. If people voted on demand then it will level itself out as it spread the actual interests across the pool. Will there be people gaming it if that were the case? Yes. Guess what? Many of the people claiming reward pool as justification for a down vote have been heavily gaming the system all along. That is going to happen.
"Code is law". No... code is what the programmer could determine how to implement. We know no solution to this at the moment that the code can fix. That doesn't mean we as a community cannot fix this. That is why it keeps coming up.
So the only thing I've been doing for awhile is trying to convince people not to down vote because they dislike someone, or disagree with what they are saying or talking about. That hurts steem. It may not hurt THEM but it hurts steem.
Thank you for the comments. I found them illuminating.
We do agree on this at least.
That is my biggest issue and always has been. I've seen people say they were doing it to protect the reward pool so they didn't appear to be doing it for dislike reasons then have watched them ignore or in cases up vote other content that if it were reward pool reasons they shouldn't have been up voting and potentially should have been down voting. This made me mostly view the reward pool excuse as a way to try to justify inconsistent application based upon even their own voting habits.
I've only been heavily down voted one time. That also came long after I'd mostly stopped talking about the subject. When I was talking about the subject it was always in defense of others. It was truly about trying to make steem a hospitable and inviting place.
I'd watch the conversations and see the toxic reactions people would have when their post was voted to almost nothing (sometimes was nothing) when it was not spam, it was not plagiarism, it was not abusive, and it happened to people when they were barely touching the reward pool.
Often they were pretty new. Then you can look at the people that get targeted clearly by bots designed to down vote everything they do by some powerful people and that doesn't send a positive perception about steem at all.
Do I have a solution? No.
Every solution I come up with in my head either introduces other problems, or I can easily see how to game.
That's part of the challenge of doing something no one has ever done before. It also introduces problems people haven't encountered before.
Thanks for the response. I haven't seen you write anything for awhile, but I suspect it is mainly because we are moving in different circles.