The choice between a party and sitting at my laptop was not difficult.
So I listened to it later at my leisure and I don't regret it.
Some went over my head and others were very interesting.
Particularly the topic about using Ai and downvotes.
And the challenges of dealing with malicious downvotes.
But before we plunge into that, I want to take a step back.
As a newcomer, I had naturally delved a bit into how upvoting worked.
However, downvoting was still fairly unknown to me.
Here and there I did see something passing by.
I have never yet received a downvote and I hope I can keep it that way.
But for my fellow newbies, I try to explain this principle a little.
Just say: Here's Downvoting for Dummies
This writing is how I see it, of course everyone's opinion can vary from this.
I won't dive deep into this matter either, I'll leave that to the pros.
I also recommend everyone to listen back to the CTT podcast where this topic is discussed in depth.
The CTT podcast - How to move BTC with zero fees
Downvoting is a feature on Hive that allows you to express your disapproval of a content.
You can do this for several reasons: For example, if the content is spam.
Or misleading or offensive.
To maintain the quality of the content on Hive, downvoting can be a useful tool.
But besides that, it is also very important to realise that you should use it responsibly.
****Benefits of downvoting****
*****Promotes high-quality content:*****
Downvoting can help promote high-quality posts.
You achieve this by discouraging users from posting spam, misleading or offensive posts.
This will hopefully encourage more effort to create high-quality content.
If users know that their content will be downvoted if it is not satisfactory.***** Protects the HIVE community: *****
To protect the HIVE community from harmful content, downvoting can also be used.
For example, by flagging posts that are hateful, discriminatory or illegal.
This helps prevent such content from spreading in the community.*****Giving users a voice:*****
All HIVE community members can have their say in managing the community.
They can voice their views by either giving a upvote or a downvote to a post.
It tells whether they back or oppose the post's message to the community.
Content creators are thereby held accountable for their actions/words.
Disadvantages of downvoting
*****It can be abused:*****
A malicious user can use a downvote to silence opposing voices.
Or he uses a downvote to promote their own agenda.
For instance, a group of users can downvote all of the content of a particular user.
Even if the post of that user are of high quality.
This can effectively silence that user's voice on the platform.*****It can also discourage new users: *****
Downvoting can discourage new users from joining the community. It's not motivating them to post new content if they notice their content getting downvoted.
Less posts lead eventualy to a decrease in the quality of content on Hive.*****Can be difficult to moderate:*****
Moderating downvotes fairly and impartially can be a challenging task.
Nevertheless, downvoting helps to maintain the balance of the community.
As there is no rating system in use on Hive for downvoting, it is possible for content to be downvoted unfairly.
Nevertheless, downvoting helps to keep the quality of content on Hive high.
It is however very important to use it responsibly to avoid abuse.
Here are some tips to use downvoting responsibly:
Downvote only content that is truly spam, misleading or offensive.
Don't downvote content just because you disagree with it.
Be aware of the potential for abuse and report suspicious activity to Hive.
By following these tips, you can ensure that downvoting is used to promote high-quality content and protect the Hive community.
I also want to echo the words @r0nd0n_hive said during the podcast.
He believes the best way to deal with malicious downvotes is not to reward them with attention.
But I don't want to elaborate on that topic in this post.
Finally I want to prove that I logged into the https://wrap.vsc.eco/ site with this screenshot.
VSC Network has created a smart contract that allows users to quickly and easily transfer Bitcoin using the Hive blockchain.
This is a significant development that could make Bitcoin more widely usable.
