@r0nd0n It hurts my brain that people ("not Justine") can compare downvotes to child molestation, and then say this behavior needs to be normalized. Some of these people also say that you've got issues if you don't agree with this. Well, shit, call me a fucking outlier. I don't think it's cool, and they're just going to drive people away from the platform by pretending it's cool. (a.) I've always seen downvotes as a bit reward rapey, but when people who promote the normalization of downvotes see them as rapey too, and compare them to the worst kind of rape, then you've got to ask yourself: "Just what in the fuck is going on!?"

Also, if your going to employ game theory, so the game itself can win, then you don't understand game theory. Game theory is so that you can win, not the game itself. But people get confused, especially large stakeholders. They confuse themselves with the game, because if the game wins, then their stake has value and they can dump it like a hot potato. What they fail to realize is when they shed their humanity in an effort to win, and then show with their actions they don't respect the upvote-autonomy of other stakeholders, then nobody is going to want to become a stakeholder and Steem loses.

I mean at this point, with the NewSteem Culture they're promoting, what is the selling point? Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of the old Steem. For the most part people just minded their business (save for the special folks) and rewarded content they appreciated with their upvotes. This is very similar to the market, people buy the shit they like and ignore the rest. But now because of some new behavioral modification push we're supposed to buy the stuff we like and go all Gallagher with watermelons on the posts we dislike because reward envy. That's just the stupidest shit I've ever heard of, Jesus Christ. Just imagine if I took that behavior into the real world with me, I'd be triggered by everyone who has a nicer car. Tempted to slash the tires of people with SUVs because "environment".

The author of this post talks about toxic behavior but fails to see the real toxic behavior, and only aims to normalize it. And I know you like to talk about the tragedy of the commons r0n but the truth of the matter is that Steem has always used extra rewards from the pool as a carrot to lure in investors. So, if we don't respect what they do with their upvotes, people will take note, and they won't invest.

Getting back to the tragedy of the commons, as long as their is one witness there will always be Steem and a reward pool that replenishes daily, but without willing stakeholders to steadily prop up the market value by purchasing Steem, then Steem's trade value becomes worthless. Beggers can't be choosy, and you can't have a valuable alt coin without accepting the fact that people who invest in it will either want to make a profit, or a killing.

Thanks for the question r0n, it really made me think. And I think we're really making progress in these sessions, but I see our time is up for today so... We'll see you again next week, same time same place.

o7

P.S. To answer my own question about: "Just what in the fuck is going on?" What's going on is the NewSteem Culture is trying to make an army of people who will fail the Milgram Experiment. The interesting part about this whole phenomenon is that the teachers get confused when the learners shocks back ("revenge downvotes"), and they see it as a travesty or a crime. It's almost laughable TBH. It's like when the U.S. runs a bombing campaign on a foreign country thousands of miles away and then complains about the "cowardly terrorist" who claps back in the form of an IED after having seen their whole family slaughtered.

If downvotes don't hurt (or cause physical harm), which technically they don't, then the same thing applies to revenge downvotes. You can't have it both ways without being a god damned hypocrite. The harms that downvotes cause are psychological, emotional, and potentially financial depending on how you perceive it. It's closest parallel in the real world are economic sanctions, and most of us know that economic sanctions are tantamount to an act of war.