RE: I got downvoted because I don't downvote people
Yes, I agree use of downvotes to force opinions on others is super wrong. I was not a fan of the last hardfork, and now downvotes are doing exactly what I thought they would do to quality posts. They are reducing their rewards and visibility. People are becoming blacklisted as well, with challenging/unfair hurdles set by the blacklister to be removed.
I am 100% guilty of not downvoting often too. When I downvote, I always comment why, and I always offer to compromise or change the downvote if the author is being considerate and honest. There is no rule that each account holder has to police and downvote daily. To enforce a made up rule for manditory slave labor and conformity is an abuse of power.
I can tell engagement with comments has great value to your posts, so I think that posts like this should be encouraged. Rewards from posts like this are benefitting small curators, which is hugely important to our steem ecosystem to grow strong and healthy.
I tend to write a comment why that post/behaviour might lead to down votes. Often these Steemians didn't know that what they were doing was wrong or not accepted. Always better trying that first before flagging without telling why.
Totally agree with you, Steemit can be daunting even for those who have been around for a while and many still make mistakes or aren't aware that what they say may be in appropriate.
I wanted to downvote a bad story, did not downvote, but told the author it's downvote worthy... I am also afraid of downvoting other's post, they might take revenge and downvote you back anyway... that's not cool...yawns...who knows some whale downvotes my quality post tommorow): , insecure...
Please don't say this @creativetruth, no one should be guilty of not downvoting enough or not downvoting at all - that was exactly what I was "accused" of. You should only downvote when you feel a post justifies it, and if there is none then that's fine. It's actually good because that means Steemit is healthy.
I certainly agree with your comment about engagement, and that I do admit being guilty of not doing enough. Throwing a post out on the blockchain and collecting the rewards 7 days later is of course financially nice, but it does little to grow the community if there is no engagement when everyone is sitting in silo.
!engage 30
@creativetruth you have received
30 ENGAGEfrom @livinguktaiwan!View and trade the tokens on Steem Engine.