Think Twice Before Exercising Your Down Vote - It Does Create Consequences
Alright, let me set the stage for you. I joined Leo Finance approximately three months ago, and since that time I've attempted to be as active as time permitted and sought to bring value to Leo Finance by my contributions to the platform.
I post a lot of articles here as I have the time to devote to my writing passion because I've recently retired. No, I do not need the money derived from my writings to live - my social security benefits as well as some limited savings more than amply take care of my monthly expenses. But the earnings from these writings sure do go a long way in providing me income for investing to secure a future income stream for myself.
Approximately three days ago, I published an article entitled "Parent's Pushing Back Against Woke Classrooms Teaching Critical Race Theory". Primarily the article was about education, however it also discussed some economic theory as well as the effect of affluence in private school choice and the lack of affluence as a monetary barrier in choice within the public school system. This article was published on the Proof of Brain front-end, and cross published to Leo Finance as well as several other tribes.
To make a long story short, one Leo Finance member objected to the posting of this article on the platform questioning what my article had to do with finance. He continued to issue me a warning, which I took as a threat. He said: "...take this as a warning if I see another post by you that is unrelated to finance using the LeoFinance tag, I am going to report it as tag abuse." Basically one person was objecting to my posted article on Leo Finance, an article that had already received 79 up votes from the Community.
Fast forward to last evening. I struggled all day to prepare my submission for the Proof of Brain Word of the Week entry. Finally happy with my submission, I published it on the Proof of Brain front-end and cross-published to Leo Finance and other tribes as well. This article is entitled "Keeping the Monsters in Check - Your (Semi-Humorous) Guide to Mitigating Bizarre Dreams - POB Word of the Week : Bizarre #006" and admittedly has nothing to do with finance besides mentioning Leo Finance once and Cub Finance once.
I'm an early riser. After collecting my Trillium from Alien Worlds and sending my Busker off on a task in Rising Star, I checked in on Leo Finance, first going to my profile. Initially I was pleased, my WOTW entry was being well received by the Community garnering 46 up votes in 6hours (and earning about 16.00 LEO). Then it happened - two down votes - gone are all the LEO. One of these down votes was from the member who issued the warning (threat) the day before, and I believe (and this is just theory - but too coincidental) the other was from a recruit of the warning member who had enough LP to wipe out the Leo earned.
Yes, I'm pissed for a bunch of reasons. Both of the articles I referred to above were garnering good support from the Leo Community. However, one or two objectors, self appointed themselves 'Leo Finance Tag Police' and wielded the great power of down voting to wipe out earnings received from a much greater number of pleased Community members. From any reading of the Titles alone they could have determined the articles were not primarily finance oriented and simply skipped over them.
But no, they just had to down vote for what I believe is a misplaced reason, just to prove their personal point and advance their personal agenda. Maybe some time they should check out Leo Finance's front page like I do regularly. At any point in the day, I can guarantee you you will find many articles on Leo Finance that have nothing to do with finance. Nonetheless, they singled out my article for what purpose I do not know. But if they are advancing some sort of an agenda, they better get there finger ready to hit that down vote button, because they have a lot of work to do if their goal is to limit Leo Finance to finance period.
The rules for publishing articles on Leo Finance state (and I'll paraphrase except for the operative word) the published article should be finance, cryptocurrency, etc., etc., related. The use of the word 'should' is at worse non-restrictive and at best 'suggestive'. Using the word 'should' in place of the word 'must' suggests that content created for the Community be finance related, but does not mandate the same.
It was my understanding that at this time throughout the entire Hive ecosystem a push is on to increase membership and encourage engagement. Actions such as taken by the 'self appointed tag police' in the case above run contrary to my understanding of the present goals of Hive. The action of down voting, especially where the offensive article was easily avoidable by title, in effect stifles engagement. Beyond this article I do not know if I will publish again on Leo Finance. Actions such as this hurt the Communities goals as a whole and must stop.
Many of you who are taking time to read this might be thinking 'hey this guy is just expressing sour grapes'. Well to some extent I am. I have been singled out by a couple of members for adverse action against my published articles when a sea of such type of postings exist on the platform. Clearly, the two articles gained much more Community support than the negative down votes demonstrate. But the economic damage is done.
Personally, this has left a very bad taste in my mouth. To permit a couple of people to wield such power contrary to Community votes is unconscionable. I do not know as of yet how this experience will affect my continued involvement or participation in Leo Finance. Until now, I have greatly enjoyed my experiences with this Community and was looking forward to many years of active participation. But now, who knows - this will require further thought on my part.
So please, just remember, your down vote has real consequences. Check out the articles statistics before voting, because maybe, just maybe, the Community does not agree with your personal preferences.
Thank you for reading this, and please, think before down voting. This could happen to you too.