Hive is full of interesting people and as the blockchain is open, there are all kinds of ways to see what they get up to. Because Hive has significant value available, one of the most common things is to try to find ways to milk more tokens from the platform, without getting caught. But, people tend to slip up and sometimes, there are just too many coincidences. I have written a couple of these posts before, but this one is a little different as it includes two chains instead of one and two of the highest earners on Hive - Or is that one?
This was part of my entry into what I was planning to go on and make a humorous exposé into an account that has been deceiving the Hive community for "quite some time" and milking all they can. Unfortunately for me, the story leaked into the LEO Discord before I could get much further. I had a load of screen shots of transactions and everything.
While I would have made it funny for the audience, it actually annoys me a lot, as he really is literally one of the highest paid authors on Hive and has been since 2016 - yet, it was just not enough. I do get it though, as I like to earn here too and I have worked very hard over the years to be one of the highest paid also, but I still have limits and an ethical code with lines I do not cross. Because of this code, I end up working a lot.
Now, not only did the story leak, but the owner of the two accounts came into the room and confessed, which perhaps sounds noble and brave, but it had not been too many hours earlier that they had denied some of the allegations, without knowing that the connection between the accounts had been made days earlier, if not weeks. What started off as a suspicion, turned into a discussion and then evidence emerged as confirmation.
While they "confessed" they didn't take ownership of their behavior and instead tried to say "well, so and so does similar", like a child who blames his friends for his actions. It is quite pathetic. But, we do live in a world where people do not take responsibility for their actions and I guess it is to be expected when people can hide their faces and identities. I guess in this way, those who are known have to deal with a greater level of accountability, as their account is bound to them as a person - They aren't a Jon Doe.
I don't know why, but it always saddens me when the old accounts like this get caught scamming in some way. It could be because of the, "they should know better" aspect, but it is also that I still have the sense that they should be role models. It is a silly thing to think, since so many of them are only in it to maximizer their own wealth, even if it comes at the expense of others, just like the fat cat bankers they say they are trying to break free from. Acting like them, isn't beating them.
Still, and as I have said many times before, I am pretty idealistic when it comes to the way the world could be, but I am not overly naïve in the way it works. My idealistic side says, that if we want a better different, we should hold ourselves to a higher standard - even though I know that the majority are so conditioned by the past and current environment, that they will keep repeating what they have learned over and over, often finding ways to perfect, rather than change the system that enslaves so many of us.
While it saddens me, I am the kind of person that would rather know, than not know, because then I can act upon the information. Avoidance of an issue doesn't fix the issue and more often than not, it enables it so that the problem grows, not retracts. When it comes to making money, without checks and balances, it seems that a lot of participants are insatiable, that there will never be "enough". Couple this with impatience and entitlement, and it is a recipe for the degradation of society into a quagmire of maximize at any cost behaviors. Some people see this as playing the game, not cheating, but where is the line in a decentralized community with no set rules?
Well, that comes down to the community itself, as there is no government to make up the rules of behavior, past the rules of the blockchain. For example, the blockchain says downvotes are possible, but each individual makes the decision on where and why they use theirs, if they use them at all. But, this reasoning is going to be influenced by the culture that an individual finds themselves within, or creates for themselves. I have gotten flagged a lot in my time here and I take no pleasure in flagging others, but I do see it as necessary at times. I would far rather add value to people than take it away, but I also don't want the kind of behavior seen from this account to become the norm, as I do not want to live in that kind of culture.
There are only so many places we can be in the world and only so much we can each do in a lifetime and for me, I hope that each day, I can live a good life, which I see as being an owner of my life. This requires not only being able to provide for myself the best I can, but also taking responsibility for my actions - the good and the bad. If I acknowledge the good and ignore my bad, I will be unlikely to change my behavior for the better. And I want to be better. Doesn't everyone?
Perhaps not. Maybe it is part of the "love yourself regardless" attitude, so that no one has to actually take any responsibility, as they love themselves unconditionally. This allows for the justification of any behavior, no matter how harmful, as a narrative can always be weaved to explain away the bad behavior. And with no accountability through the anonymity of activity, there is no resistance, no modifier to temper actions.
I have a modifier in my life, my family. Everything I do is connected to them in some way, as they are an integral part of my life. And because I am selfish, I want them to both have opportunity and have the resources to take it. They see me far too often for me to fake being a good person, so I have to be one daily or, at least try to be the best version of myself. I fail often, but I admit to it and try to be better next time and I hope, that my daughter will love herself enough to not ignore her negative sides and instead accept them and be brave enough to improve herself. The opportunity to improve never goes away - but it can go unused.
This post is a bit of a ramble and I understand that it isn't to everyone's taste, but this is life. There are ups and downs, successes and failures, but I think that a good life is one where regardless of what others do, we hold ourselves to a higher standard than we expect from others. Even when it is hard. Even when it costs us. Even when other people get more benefits with less work.
I don't want to live a life where I lower my standards because others lower theirs, I want to live a life where I can continually raise my standards by improving what I do and how I do it. I don't want to say, I am better than you, I want to say, I am better than yesterday.
People might not know me, but to my family and myself, I am never a Jon Doe.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
There's been many times where I've been in deep debt and could've used some extra income and people have recommended me to create random alts to use the voting power in my disposal to self-vote with and I've kept telling them that, one mistake and your reputation is done. It's not worth it if you truly value Hive and its future. Even if you do it without getting caught it's something that'll stay in your mind all the time, what if you screwed up, what if someone will notice something you haven't thought of, what if Hive becomes so popular people start running AI tools to look through things, as you say everything is out in the open. Those who won't try to cheat and sneak around will be rewarded a lot more for their reputation later on, it's something that's going to become priceless. Those who do may profit short term but in the long run they'll eventually either make a mistake or get found out in one way or another or as I mentioned have to live with the fear of someone finding out eventually.
People need to understand to value their clean sheet. Just today I noticed a member in the community who not only was getting curated properly and welcomed by everyone both on chain and in the discord, but was growing really nicely from post rewards. Suddenly had a post in Leofinance that was straight up copy-paste. It just baffled me as to why. Why risk all that, break all trust forever and literally ruin your Hive journey. For what? Either they just don't know or really love living the risky life or are just self destructive. It's sad really, but I can't wait for more newcomers that won't go down that road and we can trust to invest our votes in them for the long haul.
It must be stressful - though perhaps for some the greed softens the discomfort. Just think about how much this person has earned on both chains and how many people (yourself included) had their tokens stolen and have supported him over the years, and he is still powering up there and crossposting the same content. It is pathological.
This requires a longer view of more than token value, as it has to do with being ethical and content with yourself. Many sell themselves short, hoping they can buy back their dignity later.
Yeah, I don't get why people flip into "greed mode" so fast these days - perhaps they just FOMO so hard they can't control themselves....
Ironic you say this when such a large amount was done like this for years
Scam on
Think about what you've accomplished for years on this chain.
/acidyo
I spent thousands over the years trying to fight what I thought was abuse through farming and other things but was just how the ones in control do business
Even spent such an amount of time giving out my trades to help people make profits and earn myself
So ya nothing
The golden crypto portfolio I never posted
Only way to accomplish is to show blind support for scammers
This is irrelavant, abusers like the ones mentioned in OP once found out are being dealth with.
Yes only the selected are allowed to farm anything else is abuse
Old habits die hard. Can't say I'm shocked.
Not shocked, but it is disappointing that it has been going on for so long. I don't read either of the accounts, but once brought to my attention, it was pretty obvious in the writing/formatting style it was the same person. Then it was just a matter of finding the connections.
Who was it this time?
The Doc - jrcornel and alt.
Legendary shit poster.
And welcome back. I saw your vote on the marketing prop and thought "finally!" :D
Decided to crawl out of the woods for a few days. Thought I'd have a look around. Noticing the good far outweighs the bad and ugly. Might publish a few things here again. Might go back to the woods until spring. Might sit and think about these options while accomplishing neither as well.
Good luck with that. The woods are a safe place to be - bears are friendlier than the internet :)
I for one would prefer you to leave a few words on occasion too, otherwise I will have no ideas to write from and will just post about bitcoin.
The internet doesn't scare me and the bears are hibernating.
The first article back was to be titled, In A Lost World is Where I Find Myself. Everything about it exists in my mind, clearly, yet all I can offer is a blank stare when it comes time to pen.
Anyway, yeah, Bitcoin.
Sounds like something an alt would say... 😙
You must be hearing voices.
They lied to you.
Okay, no Jon's left to Doe.
My life isn't boring enough yet to see a need to develop some sort of dissociative identity disorder.
You folks are still stuck with this one and only version of me, unfortunately.
I can't comment...This shit is reprehensible, makes me mad and is the sort of thing that will some day make me walk away...Not departing post, no rant...Just...Gone.
Yeah. But as I was saying to someone just before - this kind of drama can be good for the platform socially, as it creates dynamics and actually forms some bonds - for better or worse :)
Yeah, that's true...Ripples in the pond I guess. But for me...I don't know, I can't stand people taking advantage of hard working, or vulnerable people.
#pinkmist
The bond thing for sure though.
I don't know, I'm not too surprised. A lot of these people got their 'big break' by stealing steem. Excuse me, ninja mining steem.
Part of the reason I haven't posted in a few weeks is because one of the 'highly regarded' members of the overall community got caught republishing posts from Steem. They weren't in any way listed as 'old posts' (She also had a series of posts that her mother wrote and she republished, and participated in 'Throwback Thursday' to republish posts.)
When caught she said "I need to support my kid and blah blah blah". Never once dealing with her plagiarism. Then she completely pulled the plug on the community that she'd brought from steem AND the discord affiliated with it. Took her ball and went home. When I confronted her (because I WILL confront bad behavior) she gave me the "You of all people" reply. The (use your imagination) (not sorry) accused me of her behavior. I've been re thinking my commitment here ever since.
So. That has nothing to do with anything except that bad behavior seems the norm sometimes on the block chain. I actually think it doesn't have to be that way.
I think it comes down to a sense of entitlement and some kind of "above the law" feeling, where they think that because they have "been made", they are untouchables. I think you understand the references there :)
shitposting is part of the Hive experience and I don't mind the odd one, but when people are wholesale cutting corners because they think they are entitled to rewards regardless of what they provide, it just isn't good enough.
I didn't know itwent so far with that person and the community, though I knew they "my ball'ed" it and went home. Pity. People slip, people make mistakes, but it is how they respond and behave "post-error" (I like that reference and might use it) that matters.
I didn't need my imaginiation, as I read last night, but was already and bed and don't like writing on the phone as I tend to skip sentences in the reply :)
First: I apologize to you for putting that word on your post. I that particularly nasty word needs to be said by me it needs to be said on MY post so there is no confusion.
Second: It bothered me enough that I thought of it at my midnight pee call (literally) and came out here to change it. If I want this platform to be better, I have to be better. Simple as that.
There would have been a quite clear path to not only forgiveness but probably 'let me help with that' there for the taking but it would have required admitting fault.
It is a word I use daily, so it is fine by me - sometimes it is good to vent, reflect and then adjust. :)
People avoid seeing the worst in themselves, even if it costs them the best.
A humourous expose would have told the clueless ones among us (okay me XD) what's going on.
But a) I could probably find out if I could be bothered and b) if it was major enough it's going to cross my feed or at least one of the Discord servers I'm on eventually XD
I've had this particular combo for ~20 years, I like to think I've been a reasonably consistent personality for anyone who's known me that long XD
Consistency of personality/identity is more important to some of us than what the name they're using looks like ;D
and
Absolutely not serious in any way, shape or form as it's just a game (although some people treated it like really srs bsns); this reminded me of being on a Pokemon Go community in G+ when G+ was still a thing. Some accounts were caught cheating and when called out, the protest was along the lines of lol I don't care about the game I'm just interested in the technology and what can be done with it I'm not hurting anyone stop making such a fuss (weirdly for someone that didn't care about the game they were quite hellbent on spoofing to specific areas to catch regional pokemon and to where the high tier raids were happening without leaving the comfort of home, and they "just couldn't see how" they could possibly be making it less fun for other people when "all" they were doing was "having fun").
I'm remembering your posts about lacking imagination :D
Enough people dragging other people kicking and screaming into higher standards will eventually make higher standards overall :)
Yes it is. I think there are pros and cons to this, if people get attached to a changing form of themselves - but if there in continuity and flow, as well as reasoning, it is pretty solid.
Cheating in games annoys me, especially with the "tech excuse" - if you are using a hack made by another person, you aren't interested in the tech. The people who go into FPS servers with aimbots and wallhacks etc, bought on subscription from a service aren't interested in the tech -they are just cheats.
Not sure if dragging them helps that much. What I think does help though is to reward those who exhibit higher standards and make acting well, valuable. Greedy people can maximize still they just have to do the right thing to do so.
Never have I thought of you as a Jon Doe. I remember early on in my Steem journey reading the things you wrote and putting forth my miniscule vote because your writings seemed genuine and honest. I also remember a post in which you said you were thinking of quitting Steem as it seemed you weren't making any headway on the platform. What a waste of good talent, I thought. Like several other readers, I suggested a little perseverance and before long, the wind filled your sails and you were off and running.
It has been a pleasure to see your family grow and prosper, all because you were never a Jon Doe.
I have never really come close to quitting, but I do voice my mind a lot and that has at times crossed it. Sometimes, I fantasize about never having got into writing and crypto at all - taking the blue pill ;D
My family know me well and I think they know me (as they should) in a different way to the blockchain, but both are me, both are genuine, just different perspectives.
Your support has always been appreciated and I love it when you drop some words too :)
What a fool I have been voting on the jrcornel account. I didn't realize those two accounts were the same person. Naivete be damned, I will not vote that way again.
ohhh well...you are not alone. I'm in the exactly same chair...
With the volume you vote, it is hard to stay ahead of everything. Luckily, there is an active community and some of them keep an eye on what some others might overlook :)
Well then, I consider myself in good company! It is never a good feeling to realize one has been duped, but it lessens the disappointment to have someone to share the chair with lol
"Stay informed" ;D
But this is also what I mean by being role models - they shouldn't really need to be watched in order to do the right thing, as they have built up the trust in the community. Unfortunately, that trust often leads to a sense of "above the law" and hubris.
LOL The term "stay informed" should now be the new code phrase for 'there's a fox in the henhouse'.
You're right about the role models....they can easily sway new or inexperienced (and in my case inattentive) voters to follow them down a path filled with potholes. It certainly won't be the last time something like this happens, but now it might be a little easier to spot.
Not a clue who it is, but there are a few people, (okay a lot), that will not change that will only ever see HIVE/Steem and block chain as a means to further their own means. I myself do not understand how people can look themselves in the face when causing harm or taking advantage over others.
I hope it is not someone I have supported for any length of time.
Not a clue who it is: In the title.
jrcornel/jondoe accounts.
Oh.
yeps.
He did mostly crypto post, so I had very little interactions. When it comes to money, people do strange things and become different people.
It's a bit greedy isn't it? And a bit of an up yours to those that lost funds last year - many of which are running Hive nodes, developing code, etc, to support the ecosystem. Bah.
Just a tad. I am pretty sure that with a little more digging, other stuff would come up too. Though, he went to lengths to try to keep them separate - including talking to himself. Just think about that Byteball transfer :D
I hope none of them vote on him again.
milkers going to milk, shocker there. After we put an end to this he just switched to trading votes, but it seems he got a bit more sophisticated in his milking after promising to change his ways.
Yeah, he has been doing the rounds for a while - but this is another level.
i totally agree with that and it's sad that a person that earns so much is still greedy as hell! What did he do exactly? Used his alts for circle-jerking? (i will check the leo discord channel for more)
if we want a better different, we should hold ourselves to a higher standard
This works everywhere, on Hive, on other social media sites and in life. Always comparing today's self with yesterday's.
Life isn't about comparison and this is why most people don't succeed in life. They spend most of their time comparing themselves with others instead of seeing how to better themselves on a daily.
dont see how its much different than what those in control did
markymark via blocktades selling votes on anything for profit
accounts running farming $10ks of thousands on nothing posts and comments
everybody should do this and cash out while they still can get some value from anything they bought
That's the spirit!
I am not sure where he mentions you here.
ah, well you replied to me, so I assumed you read something here.
No idea, you will have to take it up with them.
For one, my alts are public and have never downvoted you. Second, I'm not sure how you could make this unrelated matter about yourself. Consider moving on.