There is normalization of Downvotes, then there is this! Downvoted for using Steem Monsters Bot.

Disclaimer: This is a chronology of events from when I saw the downvote, the research I did while typing this post, and eventually my conclusion below. Consequently, make sure to read the whole post to get a rounded view of what I am trying to put across. Read on!

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So, today I woke up to my first downvote post HF21 and the first thing I thought was, "Let me contact this person and see why they downvoted my post."

Now, even before the Hard Fork took place I was quite vocal about making it a requirement to leave a reason as to why the content was downvoted. Because unlike manual curation upvotes where the reason is quite obvious, downvoting could be as a result of several things. Maybe you don't like the person, maybe you don't like the content or you think the content is over-rewarded.

You should be required to leave some feedback, otherwise all it creates is enmity and aggression especially when there is a reoccurence. We are talking about money here, not a Reddit reputation score.

Anyway, after that unfortunate tangent, I sought out this individual and I was hoping to leave a comment on their most recent post, because I could not get their Discord username, so that I could find out why they downvoted the post.

• The post in question is one where I was promoting a Proposal by @steemchiller for SteemWorld, which is an application I love using, and bringing it to peoples' attention.
  Support @Steemchiller's [SteemWorld.org] Proposal with your vote.

I used some DEC I had to purchase promotion from the @steemmonsters bot and got a 4.458 SBD upvote.

That doesn't even get the post anywhere near trending in front of many eyeballs let alone count as bid bot abuse.

• I am very aware there is a bunch of people who suddenly feel they hate any and all types of vote buying from bots and as usual you will find that most of these people have tons of SP sitting in their accounts.

You cannot honestly expect over 3000 minnows to create post after post earning dust rewards waiting for as few as 100 dolphin and whale accounts to notice their efforts and manually curate the content.

However, in the same breath I am totally against bid boting average or any content into trending. That should always happen organically as was earlier intended despite some exceptions.

But is that the case at the moment? Probably not.

Tangent. Sorry!

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So, @Traf downvoted me at 100% taking away at least 1SBD of value from the post.

At first I thought it was probably because he disagreed with the post.

But if that was the case, why not leave a comment saying why you disagree rather than take away a portion of the rewards? Surely that is what being civil is all about.

I went further and looked for his most recent post and it was created one month ago and this here was the kicker. Have a look at this post.

Don't you just love to see it.

To make matters worse, there are hundreds of these shitposts, low effort posts just mining the reward pool every single day. Literally hundreds. I scrolled until I got bored.

Researching further into the rewards, you realize that this is just an alt account for @Trafalgar.

And as irony would have it he even puts up a post admitting to reward mining but it would seem that since the Hard Fork he has been forced to stop and at the risk of sounding cliche, turned a new leaf.

But Aren't You One of the Bad Actors Traf, Ya Cunt?
There are game theoretical reasons why individual good acts are deterred under a heavily flawed economic system. I can spend $6000 a month fighting abuse with the full knowledge that at least 75% of that money is just flowing into the pockets of others doing the exact same thing.

It's just too expensive and too futile to do anything 'good' in a broken economy. Knowing this, most of us capitulate and choose to just maximize our own stake to mitigate the negative price effects of a failing platform and in the process we make it worse. This is why we desperately need the EIP. I'll likely be switching sides once that's introduced.

Quotes captured from his post EIP FAQ

The Question Remains. Why Did Trafalgar Downvote the Post?

You need not look further than his profile bio to finally know what his reason was. Apparently, he is averse to any form of vote buying, probably had a change of heart in the last one month, and he will definitely downvote you if you do even when you are not profiting from it at all, it would seem.

Let us get into SteemWorld and see where he has been downvoting to understand his reasoning better.

So from the top, I have sampled those three accounts because the rest in that bunch have posted in a language other than English. What they all have in common is that the posts that have been downvoted have all used the Steemmonsters bid bot to promote their posts.

So as not to look like a total discriminatory prick let me go into @fenrir78 's account who has had the misfortune of facing Traf's wrath twice and see if it is the same there as well.

What do you know? It is the same thing. Trafalgar and his Traf alt account and a bonus @acidyo sticking out like a sore thumb..lol.

• I have nothing against Acidyo though but he has some strong objections towards bid bots that I strongly disagree with. I also wouldn't be creating this post if it wasn't for the fact that he urges people to downvote without worrying about retaliation. I am guilty of not taking that advice on downvoting content. I am being brave now @acidyo. Hope you are proud. lol.

This finally brings me to a worrying conclusion and discovery I made after I read a post from a Korean author who had indicated that there were some individuals who were going round downvoting content that had been promoted using Steem Engine Tokens.

It is a shame I did not bookmark it but I remember that Aggroed was mentioned in the post and so all I had to do was use the mentions tab in SteemWorld and I was finally able to zero in on the post.

Take sometime to read it: Do you think Palnet "holds no value" and disagree with minnowsupport bot?.

I am quite okay with downvoting content that is over-rewarded but the rest of the reasoning is wonky at best and discriminatory at worst. The claim that SCT has 'no real value' yet it serves the same proof of brain purpose as Steem is basically saying Steem has no real value either.

Scot Tokens have birthed communities around particular interests with most of these communities thriving more than Steemit itself.

I could give an example of my posts on the Premier League barely getting any curation on Steemit and a ton of curation on Sportstalksocial.com which is a community specifically for sports.

Steem Coin Pan is a Korean community being served by the SCT token, the same way Steemit is heavily inclined towards English speaking individuals. Why the discrimination?

Final Thoughts.

Now, I have tried to keep this post short but there was far too much to get into as I researched this. It is even funny that I just made a comment yesterday on a post by @anomadsoul on something similar to this.

Who knew I would be waking up to face the very thing I was campaigning against.

Feel free to downvote this post. I just cannot stand by even though my SP does not guarantee me a voice.

Also comment if you have experienced this after using the Steem Monsters bid bot.