I use my flags, but mostly for plagiarism. The thing is, if we flag big accounts, we risk retaliation which can quickly bring us down to 0 rep. For me, that means self-preservation kicks in. I've worked really hard on my account and reputation and I would be devastated to have it brought down to 0. At this moment, Steemit is the only place I earn any money, so inciting the wrath of a whale would have serious consequences for my life. My life isn't secure enough to be able to handle that.
I completely agree with so much that you are doing here, but for the most part, the most I dare to do is boycot these people. I think many Steemians share these sentiments. Flagging big accounts is just too risky for the smaller users. It's a very sad thing, but that's how it is right now...
Heya @playfulfoodie,
I can see that this is a legitimate reason to not flag but, rep and rewards won't matter at all if Steemit fails. It is also understandable to feel that retaliation flagging could harm our own hard work.
Their flags may remove my rewards, but it will not make my blogs any less meaningful. I would imagine that there is actually enough power to wipe out almost ANY post, if everyone works together to spread the awareness. If we can stop things like this now, there will be far more rewards for everyone in the future.
I am in a slightly different situation than you are, I am a student and have a day job on top of being on Steemit. My bills still get paid even if I make nothing blogging, and it is liberating to know that I am here because I want to be around to see Steemit flourish.
My suggestions to others would be,
If you have income outside of Steemit, you can afford to flag and help everyone.
If your only income is from Steemit, take some time out to write posts that will help reach those who can flag.
Unless we can move together to resolve problems and overcome hurdles, we are only a community in name. Depending on our own choices and our voices, we choose if everyone wins or loses. Please don't forget that.
With love,
@shello
I love your reply @shello and you make very good points! I'm sticking to flagging plagiarists for now, since they usually can't harm me too much. They retaliate from time to time, but they aren't big whales, so that's okay. Besides that, I will keep boycotting the big earners that I feel are undeserved, like the post spammers and simple vacation pictures of cute girls.
I've written some Steemit related posts before about problems and/or solutions I see for Steemit. The problem there is that they don't really reach the eyes they are meant to. They just reach other frustrated Steemians. I'll throw one in now and then, but I don't want to look like I'm milking the steemit tag either :-)
I'm glad you liked it @playfulfoodie!
I understand that you will use your efforts while still helping to improve Steemit, but not putting yourself up at risk. I don't vote anyone who is a large earner, unless it was a post that truly resonates with me. Like how you boycott those users, I am not afraid to flag the ones who are draining everyone, without concern, and cannot change.
I've noticed an interesting pattern with bad actors in a sense that they refuse to stop the abusive behavior when it is brought to their attention that what they are doing hurts others. I usually stay out of these topics altogether unless the user in question is someone who blantantly does not care for others and I have looked into it enough. I will voice my thoughts only, but not write a direct post about it. For now, I am joining everyone else in flagging and understand the risk of being retaliated upon.
The way I see it is like this, as long as you are doing your best to help Steemit grow and improve, then it is more than enough. I think that talking about the current issues can be good, and I like your approach because your focus is on helping, and not the money to be made from it.
I agree with you 100%
It’s not worth the retaliation
I agree with you completely and like everything whenever there is a problem it hits the good people first, this is a whale sized problem and while we can all do something if we disagree with the current state of affairs we can get a lot of hate, there is a argument about privacy that kicks in, but as it is probably privacy here won't fly well at all, it would be good to have some understanding between people, but it's normal whales are unreasonable, I bet most of them either don't care about the fact or don't want to get into this for the same reasons, well to protect their investment or whatever or not to mess up their good standing.
I don't see why everyone should be concerned with the problems I've done it for quite a while and I can't say it was helpful for me, well so far I haven't been flagged and I've been hanging out on the battlefields trying to talk some sense into people, buuuut that's neither here nor there, I don't seem to have done too well and people are almost impossible to change from the outside, if they don't want to understand what they are doing is wrong and they are being unreasonable, well you have haejin as a prime example, he doesn't care, he's a successful blogger/author and you better celebrate his accomplishments :D everyone else doesn't deserve that part of the pool it's for our new celebrity :D