They may change the code but they will never take my flags away. 🚩

The beautiful thing is that anybody with the ability to design the front end can create a flag friendly UI. I'm not quite there yet but played around with jury rigging a client side script.

I held a minority view on the topic of this somewhat recent change to condenser and wasn't exactly thrilled for the symbol of the flag being "replaced" but understood the rationale. It's just that I had been building on flags for some time so I was taken aback.

Flags have been a part of the history of our blockchain. Many of my Steem projects I guess you can say are flag centric. Don't get me wrong. Their design is to serve the interests of the people and the people have spoken concerning flags v. downvotes. That doesn't however mean that we don't have the capability to choose. That's the beautiful thing.

As far as the blockchain is concerned, the discussion of flag v. downvote is not a thing as the nomenclature is really only pertinent to the UI. That being said, anybody can design a website with their own terminology and graphics. I mean imagine all the prospects for what could be substituted for a flag or downvote.

Here are a few of mine:

• Tomatoes (you know like they used to throw on-stage) 🍅

• Poo Emoji💩

• Thumbs-down (obviously) 👎

Whatever the label, flags or downvotes will always be an important thing for me. It is probably one of the more intriguing aspects of this blockchain. I love that it allows the people to make a decision and redistribute rewards back to the pool. They are a great thing when used properly.

To satiate my nostalgia, I have created the following script to be used with the Grease Monkey Firefox plugin which is a work in progress to replace the downvote vector graphic with the classic flag. I need to figure out how to add the hover, on-click animations.

During the process of getting this far, I have learned a few things namely how to work with the Firefox Web Developer Tools console which could be helpful.

// ==UserScript==
// @name     Flagit
// @version  1
// @grant    none
// @namespace https://github.com/anthonyadavisii
// @description Steemit Flag Classic 
// @include https://steemit.com/*
// ==/UserScript==

function replaceElementByClass(element_class, what) {
    var elem = document.getElementsByClassName(element_class);
    for (var i = 0; i < elem.length; i++) {
            elem[i].innerHTML = what;
    }
}

flag = "<svg xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\" id=\"Layer_1\" viewBox=\"0 0 512 512\" x=\"0px\" y=\"0px\" xmlns:xml=\"http://www.w3.org/XML/1998/namespace\" xml:space=\"preserve\" xmlns:xlink=\"http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink\" version=\"1.1\"><path d=\"M 368 112 c -11 1.4 -24.9 3.5 -39.7 3.5 c -23.1 0 -44 -5.7 -65.2 -10.2 c -21.5 -4.6 -43.7 -9.3 -67.2 -9.3 c -46.9 0 -62.8 10.1 -64.4 11.2 l -3.4 2.4 v 2.6 v 161.7 V 416 h 16 V 272.7 c 6 -2.5 21.8 -6.9 51.9 -6.9 c 21.8 0 42.2 8.3 63.9 13 c 22 4.7 44.8 9.6 69.5 9.6 c 14.7 0 27.7 -2 38.7 -3.3 c 6 -0.7 11.3 -1.4 16 -2.2 V 126 v -16.5 C 379.4 110.4 374 111.2 368 112 Z M 368 269 c -11 1.4 -23.9 3.5 -38.7 3.5 c -23.1 0 -45 -4.7 -66.2 -9.2 c -21.5 -4.6 -43.6 -13.3 -67.1 -13.3 c -25.7 0 -41.9 3 -51.9 6 V 118.7 c 6 -2.5 21.9 -6.8 51.9 -6.8 c 21.8 0 42.2 4.3 63.9 9 c 22 4.7 43.8 10.6 68.5 10.6 c 14.7 0 28.7 -2 39.7 -3.3 L 368 269 L 368 269 Z\" />"
replaceElementByClass("Icon chevron-down-circle flag", flag);.

Bonus Offer

I'll pay 3 SBD to anyone that can finish or create a new Grease Monkey script to bring back the flags to the Condenser UI

_{I don't really have time right now but it's a fun little aesthetic project for when I do.}