My main issues are first - bid bot use has dropped because it costs more to bid bot a post then you get back in rewards - so people don’t use them now because they loose money. Of course if you want to pay to advertise your blog, post, project they are there - and that makes sense to me. But if you pay to advertise your content - and then have the reward removed because “someone” thinks your content is not worth the reward - and they don’t have to say why - then quickly the few people we have active here will leave.

HF21 has cleaned up the trash posts, but it feels to me now they have driven away the quick buck people, all that free downvote power is burning holes in the holder pockets and now they are just going after anyone - don’t like your writing style - downvote. Take some pictures of stuff I don’t find interesting downvote. Upload a 20 minute video I can’t be bothered watching - downvote. Sure it’s protecting the reward pool - but all that is going to happen is more and more people will leave or just stop posting and try to earn from curation only. And how can we hope to increase the user base if they see people are taking post rewards away with no explanation.

I know you have been putting 110% effort into bringing new people into Steem, and this is partly why downvotes abuse is annoying me so much - the negativity it is doing will drive away current users and discourage new accounts.

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