The idea of downvoting is not to bully people but to get rid of the bad content.
Bad content is not only plagiarism but is also those short posts like people post on Twitter... A title plus link, etc.
If your plan is to earn here, power-up you have to stick to the rules. As you joined Steemit you agreed with writing original and good content. The fact many do not care does not mean it is okay.
The situation you mentioned I know nothing about but after the latest fork, we all have FREE downvotes. You too. Those with money do not care to flag you and those without can flag you too.
I doubt that person you mentioned left because he/she got what he/she deserved. There are many reasons why people no longer join Steemit plus do not have the illusion this is a small world.
I would agree with you if steemit was the only social media running on steem. But it isn't. As the use of steem expands, are the steemit users going to keep their habit to think only inside the box of steemit?
If tomorrow a twitter-like tribe is created, then doesn't that means that steemit users will just censor that entire tribe? I feel like it's wrong there. Sometimes sharing a link is also information. And there are meme blogs, which are funny, and find nice meme to share. This means that steemit community is intolerant to any tribe?
In that case, each tribe will have to build a bot that counter-vote the steemit users so that their community can strive on steem regardless of steemit users' desires. I feel that thinking like that is getting on a rather dangerous path, don't you think?
As long at the posts have an intended audience, and that said audience is really satisfied with it, doesn't that mean that it's a legit blog, and that downvoting it is disregarding all the people who actually like that blog, if not downright telling those people that their taste is shit?
Flagging abuse isn't anything new, sometimes it's also because people see vote/downvote as the like/dislike of facebook, however at least Facebook doesn't hide/damage the content of a post who has dislikes.
I think if a twitter like tribe will be available many will leave. Already many did. The amount of unused accounts is high.
We have EOS too and there is a world outside, a world without Steem and I am sure more will develop.
To a meme or photo or link you can also easily write some text. They say 44 words is the minimum. You already have that if you tell the source or which camera you used.
The isdue here is not what you and I think about it but how steemit inc and the whales think and vote or.. downvote. As long as you are not a big fish you need to find a way to fit in and earn too. Unless you do not care about votes and downvotes.
That is fine too. You still can have a good time here or elsewhere.
So far all communities including @actifit etc claim they stand for good content. I agree in the end the people decide what it is but in many cases the people are some rich people/communities.
We will see how it ends if that clean up will happen. Using the wrong tag gives a downvote too. I think you speak for yourself if you see a downvote as a sign.of a shitty post.
A downvote is not meant to be given because you do not like the subject or do not understand the joke or are not religious but because it does not fits into the rules curators use (certain amount of words, photo, tags used, grammar, style, and who knows what more).
Thank you very much for your answer, I understand better your point of view, and I agree to most of it. A way to separate in-chain tribes or type of different apps running on steem might be something that could give steem the potential to grow even more so that everyone can have a good cohabitation here. It's something to think about, I guess, as well as how to deal with criminal use of the blockchain (actually would a pedophile use steem, the child would have no way out of the abusive photos for example) those are all subjects that should be thought of in some ways.
Have a good day!