Free Downvotes - What Will That Change Going Forward?

At some point in the past I've seen statements that HF21 will fight bidbots. That didn't seem like a true statement, since at least two out of three measures from the EIP (the new reward curve and the 50:50 split) favor bidbots.

I have nothing against bidbots as promotional tools, although I don't use them. I disagree with them as means to boost ANY post up and turn out in profit too, besides the visibility / followers / comments / upvotes boost!

The only part of EIP that may be used to balance the dominance of bidbots over the reward pool is represented by the free downvotes.

And I've seen these days some strong direct threats towards bidbot businesses which have no clear rules and upvote anything. And they come from people who can actually do more than talk and put their words into action if they don't see change in the right direction after HF21.

Taking them into consideration, maybe we will see some change going forward.

But using your free downvotes or not (or allowing a service to use it in your name) is a tough choice for some.

I know authors who have been subject to full downvote of every post and comment they make and this has been going for some for months. This can't be easy to bare. And if you are unlucky to get on the radar of the wrong person, that can happen to you (or me).

Actually it did happen on a limited level to me more than once, for downvoting spam on my posts. Twice I think such an individual used a botnet to downvote all my posts which didn't reach payout.

Then I decided to stop using the downvote button, to avoid retaliation and the bad feelings that come with it. That was their plan of course, and bullying worked, because I simply could not fight such a botnet. Luckily with HF21, botnets are not as effective as they were before, because convergent linear rewards works better if SP is in one account, instead of spread thin.

But retaliation will exist and I'm not sure how many will be able to move pass that, once they are subjected to an out-of-proportions backfire, and downvote what it is to downvote, and there is plenty.

Right now I am still undecided what I will do with my free downvotes. I will leave on vacation in a few days, and probably until I come back I won't use them. Then, I'll see.