Hi everyone, this is a pretty sad moment for TheRingMaster. Based on the title you could tell this is not one of my "Potential of Web 3.0" types of blogs.
Yesterday I experienced first hand, the downside of a decentralized platform where everyone has power. I woke up on a beautiful Sunday morning, had a couple meetings with my family and picked up my phone to start my usual engagement on Hive. I got greeted with a series of Downvotes from @bpcvoter1 , @bilpcoinbot1 , @bpcvoter3 and @thebilpcointrain accounts which after a little research, I found out that they were bot accounts and may be owned by @bilpcoin . I really wish they could just tell me their reasons before raining down that number of Downvotes.
It was 40 plus Downvotes on my blogs, comments and threads. I've been on Hive for well over three months and I've followed all the rules about Plagiarism, AI, respect for other users and everything in between. I've made so many good friends and I stay consistent on engaging with their epic blogs. Through engagement I've learned so much about Web 3.0 in a really short time.
- Just check out what one of my good friends @borniet says about my engagements, and a few of my friends that know me say the same thing
If after all this hard work, a newcomer for 3 plus months can get attacked without a reason, isn't it a bit bad for the future stability and scalability of the platform?
TheRingMaster has a fighting spirit so I'll keep going on but this could discourage so many newcomers that follow the rules and yet could get that much damage.
A downvote is never a pretty picture no matter the HP. I honestly thought that by following set rules, I would have a smooth ride but then this happened.
Can Anyone Explain How Exactly The Downvote Works on Reputation?
I'm a bit confused with the downvote effect on the reputation of a user as well. I always thought that the impact of a downvote on your account is based on the HP of the one that hit the downvote button but in this case the HP of the bots were so low that even on PeakD it didn't show a downvote unless you scroll down the list of votes. However it still impacted my reputation so badly that I dropped from Rep "63" all the way to "38"
I am not sure whether it was due to the number of Downvotes that caused such a drop but it was very disappointing for me. I can't believe it would take 3 plus months of hard and intense work on the platform to build up a decent Rep and it gets dropped by bots with very little HP and infact some with a negative reputation as well.
I was literally on the same reputation with @bilpcoin (the owner of the bots, I think). All that hard work dropped.
Friends On The Chain
Because of how much I engage, I have made so many friends and I'm known by some long standing members on the platform and have over 200 followers. I thought it would be a good idea to ask in Inleo threads why this happened to me and I got a couple of responses.
@alonicus who is one of my favorite authors for prompts and classic storytelling gave me some pretty good advice. He said it would be worth checking a comment they left stating the reason but unfortunately there was no comment they left. He also adviced me to not focus on the Reputation and just do well on the platform and I believe that has cooled me down.
@atma.love told me to ask @bilpcoin for reasons why and I have done it but still without any response yet, just more bit downvotes to anything I do here.
For me the sad part is how the downvote kind of causes the comments I give to my friends to hide unless they click to reveal. That is bad for anyone that seeks to engage and make more friends. Without this issue I wouldn't be too worried about their downvotes.
Another very good friend of mine @danday asked me why my reply doesn't even alert his notification, I'm guessing maybe a low Rep won't but I'm not certain. The best explanation now is that when my comment gets downvoted, it hides itself until the author presses reveal. This is the negative impact of what @bpcvoter3 is doing to me and even while I was writing this blog, I saw the bot still downvoting my comments.
If this ain't handled, it's really going to discourage new users from joining the platform.
My Reputation On Hive
I take my Rep seriously on Hive because it's a prove of my credibility and my work and for it to happen this way really saddens me. This is something @hivebuzz or @arcange would know so well, TheRingMaster takes his growth very seriously, (assuming arcange is the one I speak to whenever I give a reply to Hive buzz).
I'm all about engagement, making friends and putting effort into my work. I literally win the @ecency leaderboard contest every week and that takes sacrifice of time and effort. I sacrifice this much because of my vision of growing on this platform.
Why Do I work This Hard - Because I believe in the potential of Web 3.0 and Hive to be successful and a big deal in the future.
However my new good friend and brother @anderssinho adviced me not to worry too much and just do me. It's an honor to have such great friends to hold you when things get this rough.
The Downside Of Decentralization
This sadly is the downside of Decentralization. Giving power to everyone may seem like freedom but it can also lead to unfortunate incidents like this.
I had to turn off my Internet to keep writing this blog because the notifications of bot downvotes kept coming to me. Till now they haven't said anything about why they choose to do this to a newcomer that wants to grow on the platform but I hope this gets handled.
I really hope those accounts see this blog and either reverse the decision or at least comment down below what the reason for the attack is. I understand everyone has the power to do whatever they want with their HP but should there not be rules around when to downvote someone. If they keep doing this, they make me look like I'm doing something so bad on the platform meanwhile I'm giving my very best to the Blockchain.
Treating newcomers like this will only lead to the platform still getting stuck in the early stages of development.
Imagine everyone owns a gun and can shoot at anytime. Who's to say who's going to get shot without rules and law enforcers ensuring that people use their power responsibly.
- If you've got a problem with something I'm doing, you just let me know and I fix it rather than raining downvote bots on a new user.
If you follow me closely you'll know that I really love the Hive Blockchain and work so hard to grow and contribute. In my blogs I talk a lot about Web 3.0 and I believe in it's potential for future success. So it's kind of a huge blow to me and gets me worried about the Decentralization side where anyone can just attack you with their downvote button without even giving a reason.
If things go this way, how will it look like when Hive manages to onboard 10million or 100 million more users. I believe a system of responsibility needs to be in place.
If users can get downvoted even after following the rules and also being always respectful and working so hard on the platform, then I believe a new system needs to be in place.
I end my blog by respectfully appealing to anyone that controls or owns these accounts;
@bpcvoter3
@bpcvoter1
@bilpcoinbot1
@bilpcoinbot2
@thebilpcointrain
@bilpcoin
At least let me know my mistake if you don't want to reverse the downvotes. And I wish for any friend that would help me understand better what the cause of this attack was.
As always your feedback is much appreciated. Thank you all and have a nice week.