Yeah, it's a nice idea: people downvote something because they think it's rubbish, or upvote it because they think it's good. The problem with Hive is that those votes impact rewards, which ultimately means voting is weaponised.

There's also human nature:

"Right then, you downvoted me, I'm gonna nuke everything you post from now on!"

The problem Hive has is that if you severed that connection and just had a "Like" or "Dislike" and left it up to people to gift one another, I suspect the platform would fizzle out within a year. And how do you fight plagiarists if you can't wipe out their rewards?

You've learned two valuable lessons.

• Be careful who you downvote. (Especially if they have a bigger stick than you.)
• Be prepared to reap what you sow.

Best advice: leave downvoting to the big boys; they can take the knocks.