The history of this blockchain has involved a fair bit of conflict. A lot of that has been related to the Dreaded Downvote! We have had so-called Flagging Wars between various people. Sometimes those are very one-sided. A smaller account can have all its rewards removed and its reputation sent negative if a much bigger one takes against it. Being a whale brings some responsibilities as you can make or break accounts with your votes, but some whales are at least partly anonymous and will act as they want. That can include being mean. The freedom of Hive means that they cannot be stopped from doing that and we cannot force them to give their reasons.
Having said that, I believe most whales and other big accounts have an interest in the platform growing. If they just drive people away then they are likely to make less in the long term as there will be less investment. Getting a larger share of a smaller pie is not a good strategy. A few big trolls may try to wreck things, but they are a minority.
One of the bigger accounts is under the control of a former voting abuser who used it to give themselves massive votes on multiple posts each day. They eventually gave up posting after the community took action, but we cannot stop them using that account to vote and earn curation rewards. I saw a post from someone claiming to own the 'rancho' account saying they lost the keys, so they cannot take back control. That seems very careless with such large sums at stake. Some accounts have tried to counter the 'rancho' votes to reduce what this person can make from curation, but that can cause upsets for people who thought they were in for big money. Rewards are always potential until payout. I have not seen them complain about the free money they could be earning even without the big votes.
I have been part of various anti-abuse efforts as I saw it as important to try to get rewards where they were earned rather than letting people just profit from junk posts, plagiarism, self-votes and other scams. Some will say that anything goes as the code does not limit what you can do, but the whole idea of this platform was to use Proof of Brain where people use their votes to determine how the rewards are allocated. Some people I downvoted really hold a grudge and keep sending tiny downvotes my way, years after the event. That does no harm as there are some bots set up to cancel them out.
Whether a post is worthy of rewards is very much a matter of opinion. There is plenty of content here I have zero interest in and some I would think is malicious. We have lots of people spreading conspiracy theories and promoting nasty ideologies. I would not want to share a room with some of the people doing this, but Hive is designed to resist censorship. Even if a post is downvoted it is still on the blockchain. Someone could easily create a site that ignores the downvotes and shows it all with no extra clicks to unhide it. I know @threespeak was intended as a censorship free platform (hence the name) and it has been used by people I consider unpleasant. At least one person I signed up here gave up as he did not like that there was no overall moderation.
I will vote on stuff I like, but there are plenty of big accounts who will vote on content that many would not like to see. I could downvote what I do not like, but then I am not looking to get into ideological voting wars. Others care less about what vitriol they stir up and may even relish the fight.
What I am getting to is that some people have got very worked up over how they have been treated on Hive. Some were considered to be abusing it, which they may disagree with, and some got caught in the crossfire of some of the incidents above. The mistake some make is to go on the attack against whales and anti-abuse groups. That is a war they are unlikely to win. They might have a chance if they try to make amends or cooperate with others to repair the damage. 'Rage quitting' tends not to help their situation and I have seen plenty of that. In some cases they do not actually leave for some time.
Some of these people go back to 'The Other Blockchain' and some go to Blurt. Some will post everywhere in hope of making something and often duplicate posts across platforms. I know Blurt appeals to them as it has no downvotes, but it seems you can lose the ability to earn if the witnesses decide you are a serious abuser (can someone confirm this?). I have looked in there now and then, but it is not really worth my time.
I have seen several people post about the Sourceforge reviews of decentralised social platforms. Hive is dicing it out with Blurt, but as the former has some negative reviews from disgruntled ex-users it is falling behind. I did a review a few weeks back. Apparently you can get paid for leaving reviews, but I am not too worried about that when I earn so well on Hive.
Of course we know which platform is really the best. Nothing matches Hive for opportunities and variety. It has dozens of active dapps, including the biggest blockchain game @splinterlands. St--m and Blurt really just have one main site each with very little development going on that I can see.
I think we have to be careful about who we drive away from Hive. Some may come in and be seen to be abusing it, but have not understood what is considered acceptable. For some earning even a few dollars a week can make a real difference and they will anything to get that. I do think that Hive should offer everyone a chance, but it needs to be done honestly. People in various cultures and locations can do something to nurture new users to guide them to a productive path. They need to be caught early before they damage their chances too much. I would rather try to persuade someone to change their ways than lose them if they have a chance of adding value. This which may involve downvotes, but also discussion and guidance.
Our overall community is pretty small and we need to be as inclusive as possible. That can mean tolerating the presence of people we dislike, but we can mostly avoid them. If you go looking for fights you will find them. If we make enemies then some of them will be very vocal about their bad experiences and use them as a stick to beat Hive. You can find plenty of that on Blurt. Some people with read those posts and join up there, missing out on what Hive offers.
If we want Hive to succeed we need to sell the idea of is whilst countering the negativity. We have to be realistic about the 'costs' of freedom. I think the benefits far outweigh the negatives and will keep on promoting this platform.
Do you think Hive has a chance of really growing? I think we suffer from a lack of publicity, so few know it even exists. People can earn in lots of ways even if they are not interested in the social side. The interest you can earn on HBD is better than most conventional savings.
Hive five!
