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I respectfully disagree. Why does it say "hidden" because of low reputation. It is worse than shadow banning because you take a financial hit on top of the insult.Shadow banning by any other name is the same. You are made invisible...same thing. Shadow banning is a bad thing and people are leaving facebook in droves on account of it. Is this where you would like to see Steemit head?

Stephen, I'm sure you mean well, but please explain to me how inconveniencing someone with an extra click equals shadow banning.

If I was to get flagged to "hidden" all you would have to do is click show and my comment would be revealed.

How is this equal or worse than shadow banning?

For context, when someone is shadow banned, that person is not aware that he/she is being censored. This means that he/she keeps on posting completely convinced interaction has dropped, or that no one really cares about the content.

If I get flagged to hidden, I'm also aware of it.

So the two main elements needed to make that connection don't seem present, so again... I know you mean well, but I don't see how you've made this particular connection.

Regarding some of your thoughts on bullying... I agree with some. I think if you are to bring some balance to the conversation it will be from that angle and not this forced analogy you are weaving.

I say this respectfully.

Thank you for your excellent social manners. Tell me what makes the flag good? Why do you favor it?

There are times when it has been very useful to fight back things like child pornography, pyramid schemes, and many other activities that have absolutely no place in a healthy community.

So, no doubt, it should not be the default response to disagreements for sure. I think that is kind of a cultural challenge, something all of us should attempt to do our part to shift.

I respectfully disagree. The two issues you mentioned are legal issues and should be handled by law enforcement not trolls. There are laws regarding both issues. Neither of these issues should be handled by the membership. The responsibility of any individual that has been witness to a crime is to inform law enforcement. It is not the responsibility of members to be police, judge and executioner. Plagerism is also a legal issue. Why put legal matters in the hands of trolls and malcontents. I stand on my original premise, the the flag has no legitimate justification for its existence.

Oh I see your angle now, and I'm starting to understand you a lot better.

Well, the challenge is that on a dapp (decentralized application) there is absolutely no way currently of tracking anyone who uses a dapp. Accounts who are planning on doing ilegal activities operate 100% in anonymity.

Since a blockchain ledger is distributed all around the world, there is not even an effective way to trace from where the bad actors are interacting from.

This makes it to where the only recourse we have for controlling the situation, for keeping some level of civility is to use financial deterrents.

It's as if we were dealing with a terrorist regime, diplomacy is a no go, accountability is a joke, so all we can do is sanction them to 0 income so that they have no choice but to desist.

Thank you.

And I too am beginning to understand your point of view as well. These are real problems and need sound solutions.

In this case, I think the cure is worse than the disease. The only two ways for a miscreant to do his bad deeds is to post (comment) or a DAPP. If a DAPP has malicious flaws then use the technology to prohibit malicious software hacking the platform. The DAPP issue is a technical issue which does threaten the platform. I needs to be addressed if the platform hopes to thrive.

So the issue of posts and comments can be dealt with using posts and comments. Police by use of the truth. I can't talk to a DAPP. I can, however, talk to the posts in comments and the comments using comments. Is the truth somehow weaker? Who decides what is and is not a violation...a crowd of snarks, trolls and team flaggers? The identity of a member that violates law should be accessible to law enforcement in order to be accountable for crimes committed on the platform. Legal issues should be handled by law enforcement. Moral issues can be dealt with by good members speaking up.

In this case I think the cure is much worse than the disease because you lose the platform in the balance. It kills the golden goose. Regarding moral issues and nuisance members, I think the membership has enough good people to address them. Trust that people of good spirit will rise to the trolls with the truth, and there will be a permanent record of the exchange that others can read and learn from. Suppression and oppression is not the answer. Threats, censorship, shadow banning, and mob rule will kill this golden goose...not bad actors.

Fear clouds reason. Let the law do its job, and good people do their job by responding properly to evil doers.

Thank you for your input.