Specifically regarding Steem Cleaner and other related matters and things, I can say I was put on downvote trails, blacklists. I've talked about it in the past. I believe I was taken off lists. But I've not counted which lists I may have been on. I have no idea which lists I may or may not have been on or may currently be on right now.
In 2021, I remember seeing some downvotes meaning I may have been put back on flagging trails assuming I was taken off all the lists or some of the lists I may have been on in the past. I have no idea all the details therein. I can only vaguely generalize despite having written extensively about some of these things in the past for years now, many times. I've not checked to see how often I may be getting dislikes or downvotes. In 2021, I started joining upvote trails via Hive Vote. After doing so, I started seeing people upvote my posts on a more regular basis. Perhaps, I was added to some trails or something. In return, the upvotes countered some of the downvotes I would get. It is possible I may still get downvotes. I don't know how much or how often I may get downvotes. Some of the downvotes might be or might have been from downvote trails or whatever the case might be. I joined Steemit in 2017 and I was put on lists. I believe I was taken off lists but then was put on the same lists again and/or other lists too.
I've not done a full investigation to study which lists I may have been put on and taken off of. I've not completely studied accounts, people, etc, behind the lists I was on and/or may still be on. So, I don't know everything regarding even my own interaction and experiences regarding downvoting trails between 2017 to 2021, that is almost five years going back to June of 2017 when I first joined Steem or Steemit. I am not going to say I understand everything happening and not happening between everyone and all the details involved. I will say I have written articles about some of these things over the years.
So, in conclusion to this current comment I am writing, I say all of this to say at least part of me is trying to remain neutral to this debate. I'm mostly just thinking out loud right now. I feel like some of the downvote trails could be at least one percent good and maybe not much more than that. Therefore, I could conclude I should not support them because they generally do more harm than good, as in counterproductive on average or so it seems.
I think a main concern or a major desire is to try to look at how often innocent people like me were perhaps put on these downvote blacklists and such. I may be too bias some might argue due to being on lists and such in the past. I cannot prove scientifically how often good people were put on lists. I want to investigate it to see often they catch the wrong guys.
Reminds me of when I was put in jail for stopping a prank 911 call. I wanted to save the police from wasting their time. They said it was a crime in 2012 to do what I did. I was in jail for 2 weeks and talked to people who said they were wrongfully put in jail. Some people are even executed for crimes they did not do. Perhaps, they sometimes put the wrong people on these blacklists.
There are 2 main concerns I may have. First, whether or not I should support downvote trails, etc. Second, whether or not I should go after accounts, etc, connected to downvote trail, etc. At the very least, I have not joined downvote trails myself. Oddly enough, it looks like Hive Blog as a blockchain has 2 pools now in 2021, we have the upvote rewards pool which is a forked-off version of the Steemit version. But we also now have a downvoting rewards pool. I can somewhat understand the point of view of having a second pool.
But I've been against this second pool.
I don't totally know what my thoughts on Cheetah are. I think I've been placed on Hive Watchers blacklists at times in the past. I don't know what my current status might be regarding to their lists or other lists.
We could compare this debate to police officers. Like say, how many cops are bad and how many are good? How many of the top police captains, leaders, etc, are too corrupt, blackmailed, compromised, disabled morally, etc, etc? And then there is the debate regarding military versus local state militia groups, etc. Generally, federal and international military forces are too dangerous. In other words, during the founding of America, the military was a collection of local militia groups and they were not permanent. They were temporary. They were more decentralized and less federalized.
I am in favor of decreasing the accelerated and excessive momentum of federal governmental power, control, influence, monopolies, cartels, deception, manipulation, etc.
Likewise, it is possible that similar things can happen on Hive Blog, etc.
I am also writing all of this down not just because I am thinking out loud but also for the record. These are my thoughts. I know all of this is long. I might be on the fence regarding the details of who to support and who to go after. Specifically regarding some accounts, I wanted to believe they have done some good in being the Hive Cops.
But back to my point regarding local militia, it can be a debate regarding how a blockchain might police themselves. Are some of the Hive Cops too federalized or are they decentralized enough like local militias? Should Hive Cops be running around downvoting too much or even at all? My thoughts would be that it is tricky for many reasons.
Because websites and everything can be or might be too expensive. So, some people might want to limit the resource credits (RC) or manna of some accounts. Well, Internet bandwidth can be expensive or so they say, long story short depending on the details of how the Internet works and how the Internet ought to work (Web 2.0 vs Web 3.0), that is relating to how much, how long, how often, etc, accounts may post, comment, share, vote, do things, activities, upload, download, bandwidth, etc. That is the tricky thing regarding the Internet and everything. For the sake of argument, a website forum might limit a user to one comment per 24 hours. Each comment might be limited to 5 MB. This is a crazy example, I know. But my point is if a website were to make such a limit, that website should make it clear. Don't hide invisible speed limits from the users like Facebook does. You are driving around in Facebook and they say you are going too fast or going too slow. Facebook changes the speed limit without notice. Well, to be fair and to be technical, the contract people sign when joining websites usually says they have the right to change speed limits without telling anyone. It is normal to do so but that does not mean it is right. But users need to be aware of that among other things.
One problem might be if a website says there is no speed limit, then some accounts could potentially or hypothetically destroy the website by going too fast. A website has a limit. Facebook may have a much higher limit or ceiling than Hive might have as of 2020 say for example.
And the general public is addicted to a super mega highway like Facebook. It is like going to Walmart, Costco, super mega malls, super markets, other large stores, markets, etc. Like, imagine going to a small store and then trying to buy it up. Well, that might be good or bad. But some won't like it to see an empty store. But my point is people expect websites to be as big as Facebook.
Hive Blog could argue Hive Cops must limit things because Hive is not as big as Facebook. I know some websites are bigger and some are smaller. It is crazy in some ways to say there are no limits. Imagine a store saying small customers can come. Big buyers can come. Imagine the store says there is no limit to how big a shopper can be. But imagine a fat lady as big as a house. She cannot fit in the door. She is too big bone. Yeah, speaking of Halloween 2021, too big bone. Like too wide.
My stance is if a website says there is no limit, then I don't want to see cops, administrators, mods, downvote trails, etc, try to limit anybody or anything. Because they said no limit. I know as a computer person that there are limits. So, if there are limits, make it clear. Let people know what the limits are or simply disable the ability to go past the limit. If a website wants a user to not post more than one thing per day, then don't yell at the user if that user goes past the limit. Instead, simply make it impossible to. Problem solved. Hive and Steem has limits like that. If you try to post within every 5 minutes, you can't. But on Facebook, however, they let you go too fast and then say, "You are going to Facebook prison for going too fast or whatever else, etc, etc."