I never thought I would ever use the downvote button since I never fully understood it or grasped its purpose. For me to use it on a post, there has to be a logical or valid reason, and I should be able to consider its long-term impact or the bigger picture. That’s why I never actually used it—until today.
The first post I downvoted was… my own 😁.
Weird, right? I guess it is. But if that’s not strange enough, I even asked a Hive whale for a favor—to downvote the same post I did. Of course, I have my reasons, which I’ll explain in today’s post 😊.
Downvotes are a real thing on Hive, and they’re never pleasant to receive. Personally, I find them hurtful for a simple reason—part of my post’s rewards get deducted from my potential payout. And who would like that? I believe no one wants to be downvoted, as it can feel like a personal attack. If you’ve worked hard on your post, you’d naturally want it to earn a fair amount and feel rewarded for the effort and time you put into it, right?
That’s my personal perspective. However, whales often see the bigger picture, which influences their decision to downvote a post or even a series of posts from a content creator. I won’t go too deep into the reasons why they adjust the rewards of certain posts, but I’d like to believe they carefully consider their actions before pressing that button.
Not too long ago—about a month ago—I started receiving a series of downvotes from a whale's account. Every single post I made for a week was downvoted by around $8 ±, and I was baffled as to why I was being targeted. The account responsible for the downvotes never posts or even comments. I didn’t reach out to them because I assumed they wouldn’t bother replying, given that they seemed like a silent account.
I didn’t make a fuss about it. Instead, I simply observed what the account would do next. I soon realized that the whale was consistently downvoting my posts whenever they neared the $30 mark. Seeing this pattern made me think it was going to be a permanent thing.
That realization made me feel pretty down because it gave me anxiety whenever my post rewards got close to the threshold that this account seemed to be enforcing.
Now, back to why I downvoted my own post yesterday—one of the major curation groups, Appreciator, upvoted my post, pushing its potential rewards close to $30.
So, I decided to take action. I gave my post a full downvote, reducing its payout by $1. But after realizing that wasn’t enough, I tagged another whale in the comments, asking them to downvote my post and bring the rewards down by another $3.
I did get a response, but it was mostly questions—which made me realize that my request was actually a pretty odd thing to ask someone to do 😂.
Honestly, I expected them to just say, "Okay," and downvote my post. But so far… nothing.
It looks like my request weirded them out, and I might not get a response after all 😁.
In the end, I never thought I’d be in a position where I’d downvote my own post, let alone ask someone else to do it. But given the circumstances, it felt like the best way to avoid unnecessary attention from the silent whale. Whether or not my request gets fulfilled, this whole experience has made me see downvotes in a completely different light.
Here's a totally unrelated photo that I wanted to use as my cover photo. I'm currently exploring Orchard road and so I wanted to share this photo for today's post. I will also make a proper post about this photo walk and share more photos and videos too 🥂.
I try to not complain on here anymore because it's just tiresome and nothing ever changes. But the weirdest thing to me is how appreciator almost daily will upvote people that barely have 500 HP and have almost never curated other people. Even now there are people on here that have less HP than I do and still make $30 per post despite having made 60k HP historically. They almost never get that downvote to adjust rewards. Funnily I received a few downvotes from an account the other month because of my HP held yet none of these actual extractors are ever targeted.
There are two or three accounts (that I know of) that downvote posts that get what they'd consider a bit too high rewards under the argument of distributing the pending reward pool a little more. Again, they never appear on the people that probably do deserve it more than others. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
There's a problem with Hive that some people consider others to be making too much as well, it's a bit of an odd concept and stops Hive from being to really grow and attract different types of creatives though. Can't say I have a solution to that, but the idea of there being too high rewards for some is a bit of a platform restriction. And at the same time, I would even argue that there are people that make too much on here already and it doesn't trickle down.
It's all a bit messy given there's never really a fair way of going about any of this. If I were you I'd just keep doing your thing, if someone believes your posts are over-rewarded, let them deal with it and don't bother downvoting your own stuff. Maybe even point them towards the people that are making $30 per post while having 500 HP in their accounts. It probably won't lead to anything, but whatever.
The same reason why I feel that complaining or starting a debate about it will be a waste of my time and energy 😔.
I agree. Seems selective and inconsistent. Maybe they have a good reason for this? Like they don't want to drive too many people away? 😁.
There's a counter argument to this... I've seen in a recent DV debate started by another Hive user who has way more stake than me.
Hmm, I wonder why I agree to almost everything that you said, including this. Maybe it's obvious or their's truth to it. I'm not yet sure, need to back that claim with data or proof.
Personally, it seems about right.
Yeah, agree 💯. Thanks 🙏
Yeah, there's parts of the downvoting concept that I can understand and even agree with, it's just orchestrated in such a poor manner. Take into consideration this person of who I won't publicly name:
In the last 30 days, they've made $313 (1,125.49 HP). Their entire curation earnings (as in all time) are a simple 126 HP. Somehow this person never gets any unwanted attention for their endless Hive selling and next to nonexistent curation of other people's posts. Yet every post they make gets that appreciator vote. An average of $20 (daily) per post, and sometimes higher.
Whales shouldn't be downvoting your posts to redistribute the reward pool, they should be downvoting people like that.
There are many cases like this too, and some are worse off. Some people with 70k HP in historical earnings yet they only hold 2k and never stop powering down.
I agree though, it's a big waste of time. Over the years I've grown to just shut up and do my own thing, I can't be bothered with wasting my time arguing with people. But sometimes, situations like these really get me worked up haha, hard to not want to voice those frustrations.
Anyway, I don't think the downvotes you're seeing are whales disagreeing with your posts. I think they're just doing the usual reward pool redistribution work. It happens to a lot of people that get a post that sees high rewards. Sometimes more common for certain people that see higher rewards than others. I understand the purpose, but yeah if the focus shifted towards the right people more it'd be more effective.
Once again, I find myself agreeing because it's obvious.
Sometimes, it feels like they're just picking someone at random, hoping it will solve an issue they've been struggling with for years. Or maybe they're simply trying to mitigate the "situation" by choosing someone who isn’t connected to them… Hmm, that does sound like a conspiracy theory, though. I don’t have any evidence to back it up—just a hunch.
To be honest, I don’t have a solution either. So I can’t really blame them for why things aren’t improving, despite their attempts to "fix" it.
That said, I still come across meaningful interactions like this from time to time, and for me, that matters more than the rewards I receive. That’s why I’m still here. 😁
Your comment is upvoted by @topcomment
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With big rewards comes big problems it seems... I guess i'm lucky that my rewards are smaller. I don't think that I ever got upvote from Appreciator.
I guess the content/post is the least of the stakeholder's concern but the amount of rewards is a big deal.
And yeah, when rewards go up, some stakeholders will start comparing post rewards with other users who also post the same thing and even out or balance the rewards distribution with upvotes and downvotes as too.
I did the same thing back in 2016 :D
Interesting concept! Never thought about downvote myself actually. Just a thought, could one argue you downvoted that post inorder to be able to make this post and earn more from this one?
I am not suggesting you did, just a thought experiment because I dont really know where I stand on the issue with downvotes. For me its a grey area a lot of time.
Anyways left you a upvote with my small stake 👏👏
Potentially, yes!
That's why I'm a bit hesitant to do this post. Took me a month of thinking. But to be honest, the reward that I may get from this post is very small compared to the downvotes I got in the past month (around $300).
And yeah, I agree, DV is still a grey area, hence there is always a heated debate around it.
Self downvoting is new to me. People talk about self up vote and some people find it abuse but self downvote is never going to be countered.
You have given the reason which makes sense. Have a good day mate
I guess I prefer adjusting my own rewards instead of others doing it for me 😁
Very true!
Hope you are alright bro. Thank you for sharing the insights
No worries bro. Not a big deal 😁
It's a rather strange request, my friend, to ask a whale to give a negative vote to your post, but as you say, it's very unpleasant that after so much effort, sometimes it's hard for us to do it, to suffer negative votes that would lower our potential rewards.
That's just a disappointing part of it but that's fine since I'm here because I do have good interactions with other users 😊
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