Yes, you read that right.
Anybody that can't give a 20 hive vote, or votes on a post that doesn't reach ~6hbd in payout, is giving their vote's value to the trending page, and the curators that put content there.
That is going to be most of you reading this.
This rule was put in place, ostensibly, to combat spam abuse.
IF that was the reason, then there is no reason not to remove it, now.
Abuse has been mostly eradicted, as you can see from the drop in downvotes from the abuse fighting communities.
That doesn't mean that abuse has stopped, and that you don't need to join in the downvoting, in fact, it means you need to contribute to the conversations.
You can do that here:
hivewatchers discord: https://discord.gg/QqyrCCf
Hive discord: https://discord.gg/SUwJ2s2
Hive-DR: https://discord.gg/yfd95Sy
These are public rooms, feel free to make yourself at home.
I'd like to see the numbers crunched on this comparing how much abuse was mitigated at what cost to the little people here.
But, I don't expect anybody that wants to continue getting rewards here to jump up and supply me with those numbers, but if you would like to do that, dm me in beechat or on discord and I will be more than happy to put out the numbers publicly, especially if I am wrong about my math.
Every vote that you get or give is reduced exponentially more the farther the value from 6hbd, and the facts of the math are that that value goes to the trending page.
Not 100%, but the farther you are down the trending list, the less of it you will get.
I listened to the dev meeting the other day, and while they tried to stay away from purely political topics, it was mentioned that helping the rich people here make more hive was not a top priority.
Let's see if tptb on hive meant that, or if they will persist in robbing the little fish of one of their main reasons to be here.
Place your bets ladies and germs, will they keep taking this from us because they can, or will our pushback be large enough to see some change?
