I really don't know why I'm responding to this. I really don't want anything to do with any of this. My saying anything only benefits others if it benefits anyone at all.

This is technically correct, but @yayogerardo is bringing up a different issue. If someone puts in significant effort or investment, they can feel robbed if it's taken from them. They feel that even more so if they feel it's unjustified which is completely subjective. For example, if you buy a bunch of $TSLA, then Musk says, "Tesla stock too high!", you might feel robbed when it dips. It may not "feel" very fair, but to Marky's point, that's the way the market/system works. Take it or leave it. I'm empathizing with both of you here. I get why this feels bad, and I disagree with Marky on just about everything (most of all tech). He's not wrong here though.

People get upset at downvoting and complain. You think you are waking people up, but unfortunately, you're not. The situation is cyclic

1. The system itself lends itself to abuse and gamification
2. Point No 1 creates people like Marky
   • If it wasn't Marky, it would be someone else
   • Marky wasn't the first, he won't be the last
   • We all remember the bernie/haejin wars or grumpycat
3. You won't win (this is for everyone because no one wins...ever).

Do You Know What Your Sin is?

Quoting Firefly

What many of us failed to understand at first is that this platform doesn't promise anything.

• It doesn't promise rewards.
• It doesn't promise a future.
• It doesn't promise income.
• It doesn't promise community.
• It doesn't promise equality.
• It doesn't promise that you will get back what you put in.
• It doesn't promise justice.

I came here as a blogger. I was (IMHO) a pretty popular blogger in my domain. I like blogging. I liked the idea that I could get rewarded for it. Google Analytics was such a pain for me. I came here thinking I could blog and my problems would get cleared up. If I had kept that point of view, I wonder how things would have changed for me. It only took 3 days to learn how things really worked and the entire system was rife with abuse or what wasn't viewed as abuse, but should have been.

HIVE doesn't owe you anything. HIVE never promised you anything. You are entitled to nothing.

You're not entitled to being accepted into this ecosystem. You're not entitled to be accepted into any of these communities. I've also heard that downvoting has nothing to do with freedom of speech because you can still post blogs. You just don't get paid (assuming you were not accepted). This is 100% correct. People don't get to cry freedoms being taken because none are. What you lose are privileges. No one tells you this when you sign up, but here's how it really is:

Rules

1. The ones with the largest stake make the rules.
2. There are no other rules.

My Marky Theory

Marky likes to provoke people. He downvotes them so they whine. Then he responds with condescending retorts because he can. Sometimes I wonder if some/all of the people being downvoted are actually just Marky. If you told me Marky had DID, my response would be none at all. Maybe he just downvotes himself. @yayogerardo could be Marky, and I'm just responding. Sometimes, I wonder if I am actually Marky. Maybe I'm not me at all and I'm just here talking to myself...agreeing with myself. Now you understand why I do not like to get into drama.

☝️ Is joke for those sitting in the back row.