Are you ready for the new STEEMIT? Why downvoting might save us.... Why it might not!

IT'S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN

Taken from @steemitblog's most recent post that can be found HERE
"Hello Steemians, exciting times are upon us. On Tuesday, August 27th at 11:00 AM EDT, Steem will go through its 21st hardfork!"

So are we all ready for the changes that will be introduced after #HF21? The link above goes into more detail on what a #harfork is how they will implement it. It covers the changes to the post payout reward split and talks about the introduction of a new" downvote" mana pool.....

I personally am still on the fence with this one. I can see why the changes are being made, but I can't see the spirit of why the changes are being introduced being followed.

For me, steemit's idiology and ethos of rewarding good, quality content has always been a "pipedream". It may have started off with the best intentions but it quickly turned into a "who you know, not what you know scenario". Circle-jerks and vote buying bots were set up and members learnt very early on, how to maximise their returns. I'm not knocking that, everyone is free to do what they please. I just don't know if the new downvote pool will solve that issue as effectively as the people implementing might think.

I read a post by @aggroed, in fact he did a series on downvoting and what #HF21 means for people that will be using the flagging system. He goes in to the different types of flagging that can be expected to be seen. He encourages members to start flagging and what he goes over, makes perfect sense to me. I cant recommend checking out what he has to say highly enough, he does definitely put a POSITIVE spin on what he expects to see. I've shared a link to one of @aggroed's post HERE it's part 2/3, so remember to read the others.

I may be a little bias, but I do love the blogs my friend @buggedout puts out every now and again. He's not a man of many blogs (recently), so when he does drop a post I always make sure to read it a few times to digest it thoroughly. In his most recent post HERE, where as @aggroed covered the types of FLAGGING, @buggedout covers the types of FLAGGER we can expect to see.

Buggs goes on to cover the darker side and a possible "flag war" that might erupt out of the #hardfork. I share a lot of his concerns and hope I'm never on the end of one of these. We all should remember the devastation good, old @grumpycat left once he got involved.

So to sum my feelings up. It all comes down to personal responsibility! We must all take personal responsibility for the content uploaded to steemit and then be judged for it.

I WILL BE USING MY DOWNVOTES and I hope that the people receiving them understand why they get them and look to improve.

I believe in the long term sustainability of steemit and I want it to thrive. Far more intelligent people than me believe this new hardfork is a step in the right direction.

Time will tell and I wait with baited breath to see what new challenges are just around the corner.