The voting bots were the first programs that interfaced with SteemIt. People liked them at first and then found them annoying.

It is a good example of how people's ideas change over time.

A free voting bot was a legitimate response to paid voting bots. Many people are using a tool called a curation trail which is a form of a free voting bot.

I understand that HF25 is changing the curation formula because the bots could vote exactly at 5 minutes ... which meant that bots would consistently get higher curation rewards than people.

Since styles change, people have to communicate with each other. The downvote should be part of a system to help people communicate what they doing.

Again, I harken back to the image credit problem. HiveWatchers downvotes people suspected of violating copyrights because of the legal issue. The people who get the downvote often feel that they are being targeted when it really is a way to ward off copyright-infringement lawsuits.

Downvoting should always include open discussions about the reason for the downvoting.