"We have the potential to completely change the game by changing the question we ask. " This is why Steemit is still the best place on the internet. This is definitely not an easy thing to manage. I think downvoting still needs to exist because of abuse, spam and plagairism. Would negative voting that nullified other votes result in full-scale war? Is war going on even now anyway?
Yes. I see the need to police abuse, spam, and plagiarism. I personally can find ZERO benefit to a down vote beyond that. If I post something all I really care about is that there are some people that enjoyed it. I could care less how many people don't like it. I never went out of my way to be popular, I just did my thing and if people liked me we hung out together, talked, and did our things.
I feel like the negative vote (for reasons other than you and I stated) simply turns it into a war. I honestly don't think someone should be able to cancel out my vote for something I like. They could vote on a different topic and if enough people agreed more it would already show in the system it was more popular, yet it'd have no effect on me and my group.
Negative voting can easily become a thing where the popular kids control the dialog that gets visibility, and everyone else is sent to the basement.
I am very much not a fan of this. Yes, it does make it feel warlike, and it is actually the only HOSTILE action I see on steemit. If a person believes you are attacking them then to someone's perception it is hostile. So if you think you are NOT DECLARING WAR, and it is just a POLICE ACTION. How does that work out when our government does it? We haven't officially declared war as far as I am aware since WW2 in the U.S., yet we sure have participated in many of them. After the fact they get called war, but during them... "It's a peace keeping mission", "It's a police action", "they were offering no value"
That's another thing. I've often hung out with the underdogs. They held value to me. The jocks and their click held no value for me. Yet I wasn't running around with a sign saying "Don't listen to the jocks, they suck, and their brains are in their jockstrap!!!" Which in a sense is how some people may view the down vote.
I am no longer focusing on the monetary aspect, because I've come to terms with that. Yet it is still a huge perception issue we need to address.
In Dan's various political essays
I see value and wisdom in them. I do not believe they ever made a strong case for the need of a down vote. I don't actually look at my vote as nullifying. In fact I don't think it works. The Lesser of Two Evils is a nullifying vote and it just results in more evil.
I'll likely be one of the lonely few that only uses the flag for abuse, plagiarism, and spam. I won't be using it because I disagree with people, I won't be using it because I think it is of no value, I won't be using it because other people are paying it too much.