Hey everyone, every now and again people ask me about flagging. I have a rough history with flagging. I'm going to share that story briefly and then after that I'm going to give some guidelines about flagging.
Once upon a time
There was a newb Discord leader named @aggroed with a 100k SP account housed in @minnowsupport. One day a young @discordiant found a copy right infringing, intensely rude sexist, who was posting stolen porn. @discordiant flagged him. What poor disco didn't realize is that flagging has a lot to do with account size. The other account was much larger, and was an asshole and decided to flag back. He wiped out the meager earnings of poor discordiant. Disco came to Aggroed and said "hey, I could use a hand, this guy is an asshole and flagging people that flagged him for stolen porn and insulting women quite crudely."
The young Aggroed donned his coat of arms and brazenly said, "remove thy flag or prepare for death." The young dickwad (the bad guy in the story, not aggroed) didn't remove his flag or lay down his arms. Instead he started randomly flagging everyone. I mean everyone. He went off the rails and burned all his VP flagging. Young Aggroed used the VP on @minnowsupport to initially upvote everyone back to full post payout and then proceeded to knock the young dickwad's reputation into the negatives.
After spending hundreds of dollars flagging this one bastard a handful of whales thought it was improper that the little dickwad should be flagged to nothing. They upvoted the dickwad back up to $50 and helped recover his reputation. The two whales had more Steem Power than @minnowsupport and the battle seemed lost. In one of the threads the massive dickwad let slip that he was testing drama and was considering backing off. Young Aggroed took it as a victory, removed flags, and helped get the little shit to deescalate. The little shit also removed flags, and he hasn't been back to the platform since.
What's the moral?
It's actually pretty ambiguous to me. I guess the first is don't get into flag wars. Don't get into flag wars you can lose. This platform has unintended consequences. I went to silence this dick, and instead got him allies and more money than if I hadn't intervened. It's a strange place.
General Rules
Look, the game of Steem is a little like King of the Hill. If you're the biggest account you can probably stand on top of the hill longest. It's possible a team of people may come along to push you off, but generally you're fairly safe if you have an assload of SP and want to act however you want. We have a few examples of that on the platform.
If you're not one of the early miners, independantly wealthy Steem investors, and don't have a mega following then the following advice is meant for you.
Stay out of it!
If you have a small account you're probably going to get slammed, lose rep, lose rewards going back a week, and basically just get roflpwned. Maybe the cause is just and it's worth it... maybe, but you should know the risks going into it. The big risk of flagging a smaller account (especially for an unjust cause like opinion flagging) may end up sticking one's dick in a hornet's nest. Flagging a larger account may land you in rewards jail where every penny you were potentially about to earn for the last week vanishes and now you have a whale on your back sitting on any chance you get a reward.
Judo
Resorting to flagging is sorta like resorting to solving problems with your fists rather than your words. It might work, and you might get your ass beat. I would suggest finding ways to deescalate the situtation. Rather than flagging and revenge flagging try to find a common ground and common people to talk out your differences.
What do you do if you get flagged by a whale?!? You should fucking laugh your head off and be grateful for the opportunity. At the moment when you receive the flag it's likely that you're raging mad, fuming that some other asshole could dare to flag your post, but what you're missing is the attention that flags bring to your content.
You were probably sitting there with 600 followers and almost no one reading your shit. Then a mega whale on the platform flags some stuff. That can be a turning point for you! Use that to make an argument of why you aren't a worthless shit, why you get to say or write cool stuff, and why people should support you despite the flag by big mean (insert whale name here). This doesn't mean you're getting out of shit any time soon, but it may be that you get more exposure, followers, and votes from receving the flag than you did the entire time before it.
What about baby flags?
I tend to think it's best to talk it out or ignore it. I've been getting flagged by @bloom for a while for my Meme the News posts. It's obnoxious opinion flags and it costs me $1 every time I post one of them. Do I find it obnoxious? Yes! Is it going to change my behavior? No. I wrote these posts when steem was 7 cents and I had no followers. I'll write them now when they earn a few bucks and I have 20k followers. I've been doing this since I got here. Meme the News, Satirically Yours, Aggroed's Antidote are my longest running serialized posts.
You'll notice that even while bringing up this flag and the guy that is doing it I'm actually supporting the flagger with my audience. It's not my intention, but simply by telling this portion of the story there's going to be some guy that head's over to his account and followers him because of this. I'm helping the guy financially trying to hurt me or trying to get me to shut up with my opinions on the state of the world.
I'd rather talk it out privately. So, @bloom if you're listening I'd love to have you on a Minnow Mayor Town Hall Episode and we can talk through why you're flagging me, what you find so offensive about the posts, and why you think it's the right idea to flag me. I'll do my best to be respectful towards you. Hopefully you can do the same. If this doesn't work oh well. You can't let the bastards grind you down.
Summary
What'd we learn?
Steem has unintended consequences. It's best not to get involved.
If you get involved try not to pick fights you're bound to lose because you have less SP.
If you do get involved make sure you have the moral high ground or you'll get your rewards beat up.
If you're getting flagged by a whale don't go balistic and write a rage quit letter, but instead be humble and thankful for the flag and try to judo the whales power and prestige to elevate your account.
If you're going to flag a smaller account be prepared for some explosive personality shit. Many egos can't take a flag. You might also get retaliation flags, and some other nastiness.
For all these reasons try not to flag and just try to run a good clean page of content you like.
Lastly, and a side note
If you get flagged, don't run to the FBI. That's a dumb thing that only a Badman would do. Don't act like that. It's childish and especially if your intention is to grow on this platform it's entirely counter productive. Like everyone else try to work things out by using words and hearing concerns. Then maybe you can get traction. Otherwise you're likely just sticking your dick in the hornet's nest and everyone knows that no fun. I'll leave it like this for now.
really well described. all I decided only one thing after reading it never to involve in a flag war. really every newbie must read it.
As much as I dislike that steemit has a structure where this advice does sound a little like telling peasants to not bother the nobility, I think it is pragmatically worthwhile. I've seen enough people pick fights they can't win to know that you need to think really carefully about this.
That said, there is a lot of content that unambiguously deserves to be flagged - spam, plagiarism, tricking people into voting for you etc. People don't have to flag this themselves, but should report it to @steemcleaners. That way you can do something for the good of the network, without risking your own earnings or reputation.
Yeah, I flag people occasionally. But some spammers, plagiarists and scammers literally won't take notice of anything else, and I like the idea that I can gently encourage people (with my tiny, tiny down-vote) to change their ways before they get hammered by a much bigger account.
This is one area of steemit that I am happy to have avoided and continue to avoid.
I did it once to a guy who was posting my and other stemians content as his own. It was at the same time as that big hardfork that gave everyone a power trip for a few days -- bad timing on his part. I flagged him into oblivion on all the posts that he copied from me and people that I knew. He was very repentant afterwards and removed all of the content he'd ripped off, so I removed the flags.
Here one steemit, your opinion has direct economic weight. Depending on your level of influence, that's a lot of power to wield. When everyone has skin in the game there's a lot more pressure not to be a giant asshole.
@shayne
That word giant asshole keeps giving me the cracks. Hahaha
Wow! Thanks for this post, mate. I learnt a lot about flagging, which I knew little.
Maybe the term flagging should be replaced by ’wanking’? Hehe.
It just all sounds like a big waste of time, but then I’ve never been flagged (and would really prefer not to be) so wtf would I know about how it feels and the best way to respond.
This article helps frame things in the best perspective.
Cheers bro @aggroed!
I’ve countered this flag abuse 😜
Haha. Thanks mate. I’m hoping this will trigger of an upvote war.
i'm flagging this post at 1%. You've officially received your first flag... this one comes with love!
Crikey! I knew I shouldn't have said that! Lol! Gee, thanks mate! haha... Living up to your name - Aggro in Australian slag means someone who is being aggressive (is that the same in the US?).
But, um, thanks for popping my flagging cherry (virginity), I guess, seeings as it was done with love. haha
This might be a dumb question but I know how to upvote but how do you flag?
look at the right side of a comment. See that little flag icon? click that. It's at the top right on a post.
Oh no way, how have I never seen that before, that's a trip, thanks. Now your post makes a lot more sense to me.
One of the funniest interviews I've ever heard in my life ...
The flagging by certain people in this community is absolutely sickening. I'm not mentioning names, but a certain group/person will flag and destroy your account over a small disagreement or a criticism they don't like. I've experienced this first hand and have had to create a new account because of it.
Literally every single post and comment I posted would be flagged to nothing and I didn't have the SP to do anything about it. :( Literally flagged hundreds of dollars from me. -_- Oh well I guess.
Btw, @aggroed I just casted a witness vote for you and followed you because of how much I agree with this post.
thanks Bud!
anytime!
If I see something I don't think should get rewards, I will flag it. Luckily, I don't need any earnings from steemit, so they can flag all my posts to oblivion after that.
My mum taught me to always stick with my morals and stand up for what is right.
So your advice is helpful for some, but for those who value their ethics more than a few steem dollars, flag away!
@kabir88
very nice post @aggroed i have resteem have you @aggroed please visit my blog @muhammadroni
Ironic. Let's see if anyone flags you for this comment.
Lol 😂
I thought so.
i got flagged for a post about censorship on social media platforms.
I'll take a look. It's a weird spammy account that flagged you, so I don't think they'll be around too much longer, once @steemcleaners are finished with them.
This is my new favorite post ever, that story was actually something else. I worry about flagging sooo much that I censor myself alot. When I’m considered an early adopter and guys like you are considered gods I hope to have stories of grand steem adventures. This place really is a world of its own and I’m glad flagging is kind of frowned upon unless for a really good reason, because your right and too they could bite back later.
Now who is the dickhead guy..hmm? Personally i dont remember flagging anyone and i hope @bloom will too not flag ppl for no reason...Cheers Minnow King! Hope it gets settled
You really explained it in the simplest form. I have seen some few flag wars and it scares me though cos a minnow has everything to lose. I don't have any plans or will never have a plan to flag anyone or start a flag war. I prefer to stay put
You don't want to get into a fight with a whale especially flagging them when you are still a minnow. Only a minnow who is sick will that.
@aggroed I always try to Live the Golden Rule.......................
(S)He who has the Steem power makes the rules?
I've figured some of this out just by watching. Some of the flagging was hard to miss. I doubt I will ever flag anyone - my account is too insignificant anyway. I recently joined PAL and still trying to figure things out there. Just having fun in Virginia
Very nice information I will not participate in the war of science Thank you for your advice
Everyone should know this
No. of times u repeated this word of not getting into it emphasizes vitality of not getting into it. But sometimes ...
happy fllaging
I was tempted to flag this post.
:)
It's the one thing about steemit that I wish there was a solution for. Being able to signify disagreement without a monetary penalty. Sometimes I just want to say...I agree/disagree...it makes me angry. Sometimes I want to say..wow, that post deserves my massive 4 cents. I guess comments are still the best way to do that...but I'd still like the way to do it not entering into a conversation.
there are people who use flags in a bad way, for no reason or no apparent reason.... a few days ago a comment I made was tagged, like a small fish, I had no idea what to do, that's when I discovered that I fell into a lot of meaningless flags, maybe something against the blogger, as they marked all the comments.... well, I would not like to be in wars for anything, I think we are great to solve with words and that we have a good heart willing to help, if the content is inappropriate let us let you know... maybe we win a friend, happy night and I apologize for my English, use translator
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator
Está información es muy interesante y útil. Buen Post.
I am trying to stay far, far away from flagging and so far so good and I hope that I will never be involved with it.
Thanks so much for explaining more about how flagging works.
So, if I’m taking notes.
Step one ☝🏼 if your rich in SP your queen. If not, don’t flag.
Step two if flagged, sit down be humble
Step three if flagged, tell a friend, vent a little, then move on.
Step four, congratulations, it’s a right of passage to be flagged. Onward to whale land.
Don't run to the FBI? o_O Is that like when stupid little kids in other places start crying about how their dad is a lawyer when you politely ask them about their art/characters/fiction that looks suspiciously/a lot like someone else's (sometimes pretty much exactly the same aside from a name change XD)?
good information. thank you
Ha ha. The flags are white too!...;)
It's what I've come to learn from those who were my role models earlier on in this platform. There are better ways to settling differences in opinions and such. The truth is there's a reason behind every flag. Some newbies even do it without knowing what it is. So you see, dialogue helps anyway.
@penauthor, proud member of @euronation
Well done @aggroed ! loved your explanation , it was on point ! I just wish a lot of the flagging would stop , its getting out of hand and everyones to affraid to say anything for fear of being flagged if they do . My son was flagged on all his posts just for a comment he made standing by someone else that was being flagged , which of course escalted . I would just like to see an end to the war as steemit is becoming less fun for many of us as theres no such thing as free speach or saying how you feel without being flagged for it . End of Rant Lol!
Glad to be following you , I have always voted for you as witness , keep up the great work ! Upped as your on my Auto Voter and resteemed !👍✌💕
Flag wars are happening everywhere 😉
But staying away from them here on Steemit is probably a good advice for most people.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/money/finance-news/2018/04/04/spotify-welcomed-wall-street-swiss-flag/
Hehe it's nice to see the subject treated with a humorous tone. It's a little frightening, yeah, but that's just how things go. Thanks.
Hi there @aggroed. You don't know me, but I must say your post was encouraging and inspiring to me. I got a flag lately and got exactly the feeling you described. Your post got me the clarity I needed. Therefor I quoted some parts. I hope you don't mind. Thanks for sharing. You're great! If you want to read it, see here
good timing, im glad i found your post. i definitely was almost fuming after getting a flag on a post for no reason that i coud tell. I just got flagged on a post about censorship on social media platforms. amazing right? the lest the flagger could do is tell you why you are being flagged. it leaves no room for closure. pfffft.
at least i could go to their comment section and see all the other flagged victims wondering why they got flagged...
https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@miss-j/roger-ver-bitcoin-twitter-account-suspended-charlie-lee-laughs
I personally chose not to flag anyone for whatever because I do not approve of how it works now and it does more harm than good.