The Responsibility Is All Yours

People come to Hive for various reasons. Some are here to post and have fun with their friends, others are here for the possibility of earning and there are those who are contributing to developing the blockchain, working hard to make this place the best. This is fine as it is, everyone has a place here. It's a decentralized place, where you can do what you want but not without consequences.

I used to say actions have consequences and even though this place is decentralized, you are responsible for your actions.

There have been two (very different) cases lately that clearly show you need to take responsibility for your actions or else you may get hurt, or even worse, others can get hurt because of you.

The first case I want to mention happened on Steem, when that who shall not be named sold us to the highest bidder, that later led to a chain fork and Hive was born. To cut the long story short, a great part of Steem users got an airdrop, the equivalent of their Steem wallet. Others were left without an airdrop. Those who supported 🌞's witnesses were excluded. Was it right? Was it wrong? It's not my duty to decide, it's done and don't really care anymore. It's done.

There was a category, who fell victim of their own ignorance (no offense). There were quite a few people, who instead of picking 30 witnesses to vote, decided to proxy their vote to someone else. This decision later turned out to cost them the airdrop. Quite a few of them got pretty hurt and some got to find out the hard way that voting for both parties and call that neutrality is not neutrality. As I said, this is done, it's history, life goes on and we move on.

The other case is a current one and there's still plenty you can do about it. Unless you live under the rock, you must have heard the group of bullies who are heavily downvoting innocent users, just because they don't like something, which by the way it's totally fine no matter how you look at it.

I'm not going to name them as they got far more attention than they deserve but they are the ones who are bullying users by downvoting their posts for getting hbi votes. While downvoing content is everyone's right, there's something that is not right.

These people are leasing HP through an dapp, basically using other people's HP to bully users. I bet the majority of those who are leasing HP to them have no idea, the other part just don't care as long as the lease is profitable. However, if you're among the leasers, you should reconsider your choice and do the right thing. Curating is great and much needed, but bullying has no place here or anywhere else. This must be stopped once and for all.

If you're among the leasers, I'm asking you to go have a look where your delegation has landed and check on the users to see what they are doing with your HP, see if you're ok with what they are doing. Money talks and profit is important, but there's a moral part as well and good should always win. Users should always double check where their lease has gone and be comfortable with whoever is using it as their name is attached in an around about way.