I had wondered about the SP leasing thing myself, glad I have not tried, I just can not put out that much content. I know it works for some people, if it didn't it would already be gone, and I have had people say that I should look into it since voting, and commenting, are a couple of the things I enjoy on steemit.
The recent downvote crowd, some post say about 70+ accounts something called the steemit defense league, some say a disgruntled person out on a revenge run. I don't know. I think it could be someone trying to bring attention to the fact that there are a few individuals that have been pushing for rewarding downvotes like upvotes. I don't really know, but they are all 25REP accounts with nothing but the delegated steem, and STINC is working on removing the delegated steem, so no steem power=no bandwidth so no more voting.
Enjoy the two weeks, and hopefully things will be back to normal and a new outlook and fresh start.
Leasing is fine if you are mercenary and upvote even your own comments, it would then even pay well.
Though that seems a bit off to me, hence why I ditched it.
This Patrice that is downvoting with multiple fake accounts like this one that flagged me last night https://steemit.com/@hilonrima clearly states she flags people because "she does not like them" so it is nothing to do with content quality, which flies against the steemit mantra so to speak, and to think she is part of the steemflagrewards means this platform is going to get a damn site worse, with rewards for indiscriminate flagging of people that people simply "do not like" regardless of quality.
That will bring investors in? not likely, more like drive people away, congrats https://steemit.com/@patrice/transfers.
Of on hols now, catch you in a few weeks my friend.
That is a fake account, there are over 70 accounts that are randomly down voting people. All of them are Rep 25 with no more steem than what was initially delegated. Here is a link semi explaining it and the actions that Steemit is taking. https://steemit.com/downvote/@quarantine/down-votes-accounts-use-for-harrassment
@quarantine account was only created a week ago, and seems it was created to try and deal with the barrage of downvote mania from ghost type accounts.
@patrice is the creator of @cheetah, and a witness, so it is unlikely they are behind it, but one never does knows. Best to not stress over it, even if all the accounts downvoted one account only it would have no effect.