hey sarah.. i have been following, listening, and feeling into all of this.. i have read MANY of your and others comments on other posts..

id like to share a couple of things. that i think are quite important..

Id really love to share some NVC wisdom with you.. NVC, none violent communication is not often understood well, but can really help to resolve an issue.. and to understand an issue so much better.. without any need to blame, judge or think about who is right or wrong. it is about understanding needs and feelings..
in that vein id like to share some NVC wisdom here:

We say what actually happened rather than put an interpretation or judgement.. so the word 'bully', for example is quite unacceptable as an NVC statement... and very likely not really accurate in this particular example.. i.e it is a perception.. The word bully could have been replaced with a word like.. downvoting .. since that is what happened ..
The same can be said for using the word ROBBED. and indeed a few accusations about certain peoples integrity, and reasons for doing things.

i realise that you have seen behaviour that is really childish and purile in chats years ago.. I have of course seen it all too.. that is part and parcel of life really,,. how we choose to react to it is very important.. and if i might say that when i read many of your comments i also felt the same away about what you said. Im not sure that judging anyone is really the right way here.. this place means different things to different people.. For you it is a blogging platform for you and your friends.. For me it is a new paradigm technology that is in its infancy.

I have posted for years on topics that many people dont really value.. i have also watched some techie posts get amazing rewards.., whereas my most 'wonderful' posts often have been totally missed.. this place works by consensus.. that is so important.. that is what this anarchic blockchain is all about. we are all free to do as we wish.. and downvoting is there for a reason.. if there are people who dont think a post is that valuable then that's their prerogative to downvote it.. sometimes they do it for reasons way beyond what we can see or know about.. im not even going to get in to that because it gets very complicated regarding curation rewards and long standing conflicts.. and more..

at the end of the day Hive is still a Great experiment.. still in its infancy.. im still amazed it has kept going so long now.. and in my opinion is improving so much in many ways.. The entire platform that we are most familiar with is this blogging side of Hive. Its good to remember that this is just one small part of what the blockchain is about.. blogging and rewards are also the most controversial .. when we look at things like Splinterlands we discover other uses that are extremely successful and dont really have any controversy. When you win the game you win the money,.,. so people can deal with that.. it is of course MUCH harder to do this with valuing a post as an whole community..

One day it may be that this blogging side of Hive takes a back seat to other incredible use cases.. we are all waiting for these developments.. for many of us we see it all from a much wider perspective.. THis is an AMAZING new paradigm experiment that goes against just about every tenant of traditional predatory capitalism. I am still thrilled to be a part of it, and i do my best to set a good example and guide it, protect it, and make it better.. yes it is still a bit centralised with just a few holding a lot of power.. but that is something that reduces over time.. this place is still decentralised in that ANYONE can show up and put in as much Hive power as they want.. no one can stop that -- there may be a 1'000 things to improve so we best do it efficiently and peacefully else it just wont work! in my opinion we need this to work!.. its SO important.

We are all like parents or guardians for this place really.. at least many of us feel like that.. and so yes.. also.. those people who have been here since the very start,. and have SO much invested in it.. not just their own time and efforts.. but also as part of a great paradigm shift.. so sometimes we get very emotional and even overprotective of things.. for many people including me.. i am more concerned with the whole system evolving as an alternative to what we have now..

i hope you take this all the right way.. most important really is NVC.. so if you are interested id be happy to share some great resources.. I mean,, You Only know how much time you have spent commenting on this topic.. and how you feel after it all.. so horrible., so bad.., but when we learn this NVC magic love.. honestly its night and day.. i think if the whole discussion could have happened in a none blaming and judgemental way... i believe you would have better understood the people you were speaking with.. and felt far less upset and intense about it all..