I wish more people on here had more compassion and understanding like you, @ultravioletmag, this is what the supporters of downvoting don't seem to understand - the bigger picture and the effect on other people that such negative behavior can have. People don't understand it's not about the amount of rewards, it's about the principle and the effect this has on people who are not just names on a screen but real people with lives and families and struggles and problems of their own.

What if that one trending post for those who rarely get high rewards is one of those Venezualans or Africans struggling to survive, and that downvote deprived them of the opportunity to make big strides towards levels of freedom from poverty. What if they are depressed and that post was just the thing they needed to snap them out of that state of mind and then the downvote pushes them to deeper depression or even suicide. I could go on and on with all the things these potential consequences of downvotes could have, better to upvote content you like than downvote content for any reason other than obvious spam / plagiarism.

It's not just about downvotes either, this is just a reflection of a deeper societal problem where we've been programmed to believe that punishment of perceived 'enemy' and ruthless competition over compassion / freedom / love is the way to 'get ahead', and then ppl wonder why so few are happy despite being 'successful'.

I suspect smooth is not truly happy, most people who inflict pain and suffering on others are themselves in a state of pain and suffering, most bullies are the unhappiest people around.

Although many others don't seem to get it, I can see that you do not appear to be approaching this from victim mentality over the one downvote on your own content, but due to the greater implications this negative behavior has on people and the growth of the platform.

Thank you for standing up to this bully and not being afraid to make your voice and opinion heard, I appreciate your attempts to raise awareness on this important issue plaguing the hive ecosystem.