Choosing to write and struggling to make a living of by writing is a long-term plan. Any type of short-cut is just not going to work. Steemit seems like an interesting place, in that it mirror the world in many ways. Including the greed, the political games, the short memories. Including the whims, the people who focus on instant wins instead of trying to find their voice, their talent, and build on that.
Instead of whining about how it makes me angry to live in a world that seems to reward those that do NOT invest in a future, that do NOT look at a long-term goal, I will focus on the only available remedy:
Community.
Individuals can make mistakes. Communities can make policy, long-term choices.
Individuals can gamble on the short-term. Communities can make investment in the long-term possible and doable.
Individuals can expect praise for nothing. Communities can develop mechanisms of sustainable growth and learning.
How to invest in the future?
Choosing long-term quality and learning instead of aiming for short-term payouts, means more than simply learning and developing one's own skills. It also involves investment in projects that provide health for the whole. At Steemit this for instance means to vote for active and committed witnesses. Or to support good curation users and use your voting power to upvote high quality posts.
Creating a healthy environment also means making sure that Steemit acts against plagiarism. People steal content, from the internet, from books, even from other Steemians, and copy-past it. NOT GOOD. And @cheetah doesn't catch much of it. Many people rewrite entire sources. And even if you list the sources, and you rewrite every word, you're still not using original content, you're still acting in violation of international law. Research is good, telling people where you learned about things is good, but you need to give it your original spin. Otherwise it's just you trying to make money of something that is not yours.
First goal in my investment in the future is to investigate possibilities. Some time ago, I saw a post about steemauto by @scrooger, which includes ways to automatically upvote specific people (fanbase) and to schedule posts -- both these options are very nice for me as an individual. (No more waiting for the right time to post, when all timezones are up.)
Power of community
But steemauto also offers something that is a way to support the community--by allowing to following curators. Which means, that every time some curator or curationteam upvotes a post they have screened and consider good by their standards, you will also upvote that post. Being a small fish myself, following a trail like that seemed like a good thing to do. So I started following @muxxybot. I was very interested in seeing what would happen, and who I would be upvoting.
Going through my logs, I found out I was actually upvoting plagiarists! I spend some hours investigating, and figured out that some people delegate only a little bit of SP in order to get upvoted. Which is fine, unless these people turn out to be plagiarists.
see his latest update on taking care of this issue in this postto take care of this problem as well.I contacted the user behind @muxxybot and others joined in to find out what was actually happening. I reported many scammers to @steemcleaners, and @gmuxx realised he needed to revise his system to make sure this kind of abuse wasn't possible anymore (. And while we were investigating and listing these abusive users, @swelker101 also realised he was being used as part of the same scam. So he started
To me, this was the work of a community. It shows how every one individual, no matter his or her high or low reputation, his or her voting power, or his or her understanding of everything that goes on, is important to the whole. That every individual can make a difference.
I'm grateful to be part of such a community, and am looking forward to our continued and ever increasing battle against the signs of a failing world. A world in which spam and short-term gain is believed to be more important than the slow and difficult process of community building. I don't know much. But I know the world is wrong in this.
Good job in helping identify the spammers those services were unwittingly paying for their garbage. Whenever a spammer quits steemit, an angel gets her wings. Maybe you'll get a pair as well for your service :)
I don't think it works like that. But you may continue to think so ;-)
Thank you for bringing it to my attention, as you say I have acted upon it, as has Shane, and I hope made both of our projects stronger and more transparent as a result.
Absolutely. It's great that we're able to work together, and your and Shane's response has also once more shown me your ability & the goal for your projects: to serve a community of those who invest into honesty and keep searching for high quality.
I think you are right about communities.
And I know you're right about spam and plagiarism. I've found many posts that are the product of either article spinners or google translate - both of which stand out to me after many years as a university tutor. I've sent plenty of business to @steemcleaners, as well as dropping a few flags of my own if my VP and level of annoyance are high enough.
Dealing with this does require feedback from the community to make certain kinds of content and certain business models unprofitable. Unlike some, I don't think this can be achieved by solely upvoting good content.
Furthermore, everyone needs to think more carefully about which bidbots they use (if any), and which witnesses they support.
I absolutely agree. Upvoting good content is only a small part.
I've been going through a lot of posts labelled 'philosophy'--first with the hope of finding interesting people to follow who write about things I might find interesting--but I know now For every 50 spammers I might find one post that is worth my while. This is sad, and you're right, there should be more ways to not only discourage, but to make spamming and plagiarizing not only unprofitable, but even costing them something.
I have not yet used any bidbots, and am a bit hesitant about bots as well. Also because I know I have no knowledge about them and am not willing to really go beyond my level of ignorance on them.
Yeah, I made the mistake of looking at what was trending in #philosophy yesterday. Unsure what was more depressing, the bullshit or the spam. Couldn't bring myself to post anything after that.
Yes. Been there. Am still there. I've actually stopped what I consider philosophy for now. Was too much upset by those so-called philosophy posts. Including from the users with 60+ rep who seem to think any rambling can be labelled a such. I guess I shouldn't care so much.
Virtual hugs
Thanks!
I guess I'll keep creating the kind of content I'd like to see. But I'm also thinking of running some philosophy contests to encourage newbies. Just need to find a financially sustainable model.
LOL, yes, I'm amazed by how people here think that having a higher rep is confirmation that their every word is gold! That might be true in the monetary sense, but it's clear that having the luck or money to be well-established here does not necessarily confer either wisdom or writing ability.
I would say fighting spam/plagiarism is a lost battle or if you win, you will lose something else in the process. My advise is to just be the change you want to see and don't bother with what others do.
Yes, let's all be the change we wish to see and close our eyes for whatever our neighbours do.
That is not my definition of a healthy life.
Haha, yes be right back must go check on my neighbours. They might be doing something inappropriate. Sorry that was a joke. I know you didn't mean it that way haha.
But still if you find a viable solution I would be interested in knowing.
I am an incurable optimist and I believe the best way to fight spam is already in our ability and frequently used. Thousands of people are looking into the content and have the possibility to report abuse by the steemcleaners. Lately when I find something and use the abuse form I get the automatic respons the link is already uploaded by someone else. I think that's a good sign. Better ideas are always welcome.
Personally I think that the use of voting bots is an issue in an of itself and shouldnt be used. BEcause of esactly what you found out with @muxxybot. That is likely the case to some degree with every bot. And it creates a form of artificiality to the community.
Wisdome of the crowed is better then the reactionarry actions of a bit in my opinion.
But I do understand why people are uing them, as it does get them value. But it is a form of an exploit, you could say.
muxxybot is not simply a bot--it is a team of curators who upvote good content. But to get support, they offer a very small upvote for those who delegate to it. Which makes a lot of sense. But also easy to abuse, so I'm happy we were able to put up a better system to check who delegates & what gets upvoted because of it, to make sure it is clean of plagiarism.
Really nice coverage of the issues, @nobyeni. I'm glad you're turning your frustration into action that makes a difference. You are an inspiration to us all at TWB.