Seems there are two very healthy and real possibilities to solve this issue in a productive way.
We need to either apply the downvote protocol to witnesses voting and proposals to solidify the better functionality of DPoS or eliminate the words or downwards and downvote in the whitepaper that will allow for everyone to live together peacefully.
I suppose a third option is viable and that would be to add an amendment to whitepaper better clarifying why there is downvotes applied to only one of the three DPoS protocols.
I'm not a fan of people using their witness votes in disagreement of opinions/politics/downvotes. What I say and think about certain topics shouldn't affect my witness votes which are there to protect the chain, it's almost kind of stupid when people unvote me cause I downvote a post and ignore what the fuck happened during the steemfork when we put our necks out to protect the chain.
It also causes some people to just not fucking do anything or ever say their opinions and they don't face any consequences but are in the top20 while their accounts look literally dead in engagement and socializing. Those are the ones people should go unvote, not those who obviously care and voice their opinions whether or not you agree or disagree their main job is to keep the blockchain safe, other things they do for Hive are a bonus that should also be taken into account compared to other witnesses, meaning that if there are other witnesses you trust to keep the chain safe then vote for them. Instead we have these idiots who remove their votes because they don't like something a witness did and sit there with 10-15 open witness vote slots which if you were around we could've used all the votes we could get when the hostile takeover was taking place.
Yes, you are right. Times were dire and my community turned on me at a certain point when the price fell dramatically, ned started selling off steem hard and the little upvote support @dynamicrypto and I were providing to others compiled with the computers and cell phones we were funding or even direct payments to people who were single mothers busting their ass off on steem became unappreciated or not enough to keep people around. Honestly, I was burnt out so bad and was about to be homeless from losing my 18 year career for diversity hires and then my children as a result. This destroyed my health. I am just now feeling physically 100%. I do apologize for not being around for that movement.
But I am here now and trying to find healthy solutions to seemingly temporary problems if we can all come together and further protect our Blockchain through democratic principles like updating our Whitepaper through consensus to better solidify consensus with DPoS with clearer language in regards to downvoting.
Shouldnt the Witnesses and proposals be subjected to the same kind of downvoting for consensus stake voting as the everyday low stake user is subjected to?
I understand your point about retaliation but it is exactly what is happening to small staked users.
I am just saying apply downvotes evenly and fairly in the DPoS staked voting consensus for Hive by having it apply to all three forms of staked consensus voting or eliminate the downvote function to better encourage The very important large stake holders and equally important low stake users to get along in a healthy manner. Surly any small stake user has the possibility to invest more and can be whale if encouraged by seeing a equal and fair application of Consensus downvoting or elimination of downvoting as it unfairly applies to only one of the three Staked voting mechanisms leaving DPoS not as strong of a protocol if it is applied unfairly.
So yeah, not a fan of witness downvoting, but one thing to look forward to that may switch the ranks up quite a lot is the last change that went into effect in the last hardfork that may occur in about 6 months where inactive accounts will lose their vote strength on witnesses.