RE: Muzzled in SteemChat on Discord.
Ah sounds like you were server muted. If you were behaving out of norm that is sort of like a timeout. I'm sure it was frustrating for you.
The downvotes were always downvotes and have existed ever since the Steem started. People started calling them flags likely due to Steem using a flag to signal a post had been downvoted. Sort of like them using curate when it really is an upvoting action.
Downvotes and upvotes create the ying and the yang of the system. They are needed for balance. The only thing new is that instead of someone having to use the voting power for either action they are able to do 2.5 downvotes a day without using their VP.
I have some concerns that some will misuse that option but so far, there doesn't seem to be much of that. I have no doubt it will come though. The question is, when it comes, will the larger stakeholders address it.
As much as I'm no fan of Reddit, they do use up and downvoting. There just isn't rewards attached to it. Reddit is a popular platform so, people do get it.
!SHADE 2
I like the idea of a downvote that isn't associated with value. In that case, it's a good way to express disagreement without doing something which can be perceived as causing harm. But the action by itself without leaving a comment is tantamount to hand waving, or a mindless act of dismissal. I've been around for almost the entire life of the platform, actually looks like you've got me beat by about a month.
The original reason for the downvotes were reasonable, but then the folks at STINC soon learned that they couldn't control how or why people use the flag tool. This is when reward disputes were thrown in as kind of a catchall reason to get people to stop complaining, or to get them to stop hounding STINC to fix a problem that is unsolvable.
It will be interesting when facebook comes out with their Libra if they will also have downvotes associated with value. If they do, I think it will cause a level of discord that will make it noticeable enough to show why it's divisive and a bad idea in general. And the people on FB know each other IRL, can you imagine if that was implemented. Just wow. I'm starting to think that these two technologies should not have been married together the way they are. Time will tell I guess.
there is no sense in having a downvote that has no value unless the matching upvote likewise has no value. We may not like it but one needs to match the other or there is zero way to deal with those who do abuse the system.
In a better world no one would abuse the system but we don't have that world. So, up and down must balance and carry the same value. I am more inclined to move on than downvote most of them time but there are lots of situations where they are needed and need to be there.
I'm inclined to live and let live myself with respect to being one who does not downvote. What I can not reconcile about people who do otherwise is that we naturally accept the fact that the more steem a person has, the bigger their upvote is. By HODLing a large amount of steem any given stakeholder adds value to the crypto, and this is because they are not selling.
The only reason to continue to HODL the steem from an investors perspective is if they can capitalize off of it. Part of this has to do with them using their stake in such a way that it will be self-serving or that they can benefit from it. Now I think with this HF some steemians who are large stakeholders will take counter measures and easily thwart what they have attempted to do. But the moment that a HF succeeds in making it too difficult for investors to capitalize then I would forsee a mass selloff.
This is because people can invest in the blockchain and profit, or they can store their money in a bank in exchange for an annual percentage yield. If I was an investor to any substantial degree, I'd want to be able to draw back at least what I would have earned in APY. I just don't know if social media and the blockchain were ever meant to be joined like this. It seems to be forcing people into unnatural behavior patterns. I feel much better not upvoting something than I do downvoting it. Not everyone wants to be like Simon from American Idol, or Caesar with his infamous thumb signals that made or broke people.
There is a big push for social credit score systems in the world which use operant conditioning to control the population. To me downvotes at their best come off similar to the punishment end of operant conditioning, or at their worst petty theft. I wrote a bit about this here if you're interested. I see what you wrote and comprehend what you mean but if it's going to change my behavior in an unnatural, or in a negative way, I'd rather just not engage in that kind of activity.