Many new users have recently been targeted by flagging. The individual behind the flagging is someone who has problems with steemit, and wants to harm the platform by targeting new users.
I have seen many calls to action to stop this individual. From allowing Steemit bills of attainder (the flagging of users vs. content), to removing the downvote alltogether to making individuals pay money in order to use the downvote.
To my mind, all of these are bad solutions. At the end of the day, even though you might not agree with the way this individual is voting, it is his vote. He has the SP and has every right to use it to vote how he wants.
I have a better idea. How about, we all get to vote however we want. Even those that vote in a way that most of us disagree with. How about we all have a voice.
Now, you might be saying "but thats not fair! My post was hidden by this guy." Its easy to sympathize with that. But, now your post has been unhidden. I have went back through all of this users downvotes for the past 24 hours and manually upvoted all posts that his vote hid. The system works. Without a wacky scheme to stop people from voting.
Because at the end of the day, the if there aren't enough good actors acting good to overcome the bad actors, whats the point.
What we need isnt censorship or restrictions on voting. Its people who care about making sure everyone in the community has a voice. One of the most disturbing things about this situation is not that the downvotes actually happened, but that in all the absurd talk of how we can make sure no one ever votes in a way we don't like, nobody ever thought to go through and undo the damage that this user did.
I have created a private channel (im not cool enough to create a public one i guess) on steemit chat to combat censorship in all forms. Its #censorship. DM me there (@sigmajin) if you would like to be added.
You can also DM me there or reply here if i missed you and your post is still hidden. I am working on a solution to automate this proccess.