It's good to get these posts out there, people downvoting for the sake of excessive rewards should not be frightened and as long as it's not personal/ulterior motives the community should step up to protect them if retaliation occurs.

I think you were someone who downvoted or pointed out some abuse in the past and that account started downvoting you which I got in the way of and tried to counter them, more of that would be good to see but of course the less downvotes that happen the better. I don't want people to be nitpicky about them and use them too often - and I don't think that's going to be the case since it usually generates a lot of drama and unpleasant feelings for everyone involved, but when necessary people should point things out and use their downvotes without fear while the community protects them even if it means getting the the radar of the retaliator or losing out some curation rewards because they're stepping up.