Announcing @steemcleaners!
Steemcleaners are a group of Steemians concerned with the plague of plagiarism, copy paste, spam, scams, and other forms of abuse that keeps cropping up on our site. Since fighting individually seemed fruitless -- resulting in retaliation flagging, harassment, or other issues, we have created a group account, to stand as a united front in the defence of steemit!
The @steemcleaners group will be a more formal approach to the fight that has already been occurring for months. Our group will produce weekly public logs of cases, and follow strict guidelines: our members will be subject to peer review and scrutiny by each other, and important decisions will be made by consensus voting. Members who do not follow the consensus-agreed guidelines risk being removed from the group.
Finally, we offer a subjective reward system for members and reputable abuse hunters in the community -- rewards given from donors, and upvotes on the weekly logs or announcement posts, will be grouped into a “pie”, and group members will vote on a distribution of the reward. Steem power in the account will remain, to improve our ability to flag clear abuse. Even as a non-member, you can receive part of the reward if you consistently help us fight abuse!
[Special thanks to @cass for the awesome logo!]
Intro FAQ:
Why is a group account necessary?
Many abuse fighters have a personal view on whether or not a particular post constitutes as abuse. By having a group account with clear rules and agreed guidelines, and with a reward incentive for members to obey the guidelines, we thus incentivize good behaviour.
Who are the @steemcleaners?
Members may elect to disclose they are steemcleaners to the public, but are allowed to try and maintain anonymity (e.g. out of fear of retaliation flagging). The group leader is @anyx, however decisions and changing of any members require a majority consensus of current members. You likely know some of the founding members already, as they have been fighting to keep steemit clean for months, without any reward.
How can I support @steemcleaners?
You can support us by helping fight abuse! If you appreciate our work in the week, you can also upvote the weekly report or our comments to increase the reward pool to distribute to abuse fighters. If you want to directly donate help, although we are not asking for this, any STEEM sent to @steemcleaners will be used to power up the account (this power will be used to FLAG abuse), and any SBD sent to the account will be added to the reward pool.
Can I become a member of the @steemcleaners?
Yes! Simply participate with us in the steemitabuse-classic chat channel, and if you are an active helper, the group can vote you in to be a full member with the ability to post with the account. Keep in mind that being a steemcleaner full member means extra responsibilities, including voting and precise logging, while under peer review from other members.
Do I need to be a member to receive rewards?
No! Anyone who participates in abuse fighting will be noted to our log. This means if you summon (by @ mentioning) @steemcleaners on a post and we confirm abuse, or help by participating in the steemitabuse-classic channel, there is a good chance you will be included in the weeks’ reward distribution. Users who comment must mention @steemcleaners in their comment and must follow our guidelines to be eligible. Witch-hunters, and those who summon @steemcleaners willy-nilly will not be eligible for any reward. Anyone caught attempting to game our rewards will be @cheetah banned and flagged, as appropriate.
I am scared of retaliation, I don’t want to call out abuse. What can I do?
If this is the case, mention the abuse in the steemitabuse-classic channel in steemit.chat, and we will investigate. There is no reward difference in the way you bring abuse to our attention. Abuse finders on the weekly report remain anonymous.
What is the weekly report?
The weekly report will include all cases of abuse investigated by @steemcleaners, including those brought to attention by non-members. Although finders and investigators will be privately logged, the public report will not contain this knowledge to prevent retaliation. We will allow reputable members of the community to audit the private version of the log if they would like.
Why should abuse fighters be rewarded?
These steemians use their time, that they could be spending making blog posts or comments, in the fight to keep steemit clean instead. They sacrifice their voting power to flag down abuse, instead of using it for curation rewards. They frequently get their posts and comments flagged in retaliation. Finally, they ensure that clear abuse gets hidden, allowing YOUR original and amazing posts to be better viewed. I think these people are unsung heroes, and deserve a reward, don’t you?
How are rewards distributed?
Currently, the decision for reward payouts will be variable -- at the end of the week, steemcleaner members can propose a reward distribution, and once a majority consensus is reached, the reward will be distributed. A variable decision is useful to decide if part of the reward pool should carry over to the next week, or if particular cases deserve extra reward. To prevent conflict of interest with the group leader, @anyx will not participate in the decision.
So what are the abuse guidelines, and chat channels?
Our second post, covers this. Check it out!
"We always keep it clean with @cheetah in the team, -wink "
hahahahhahaa...
hey minion... sorry to break it to you...that's a leopard, but a cool wink none the less
Ik, it's so hard to find or make a picture of a winking cheetah these days, they keep running away all the time....
Maybe we need an anti-abuse @leopard account. His catchphrase could be:
Except for the Cheetah being a Leopard; that is an awesome image !!
Yeah, except when the bots are abusing REAL people. Bots need BANNED from this site. THEY ARE THE ULTIMATE ABUSE.
The @robinhoodwhale project approves and will help anyway it can.
Same for the @steemdrive campaign, one of our team are also on @steemcleaners and possibly others are as well.
Fantastic work. Thank you for coming up with this brilliant solution.
Lol fancy seeing you here :-)
I'm new to steemit and joined because I thought it to be a brilliant idea. But I was starting to think of leaving because of all the abuse, such as plagiarism, that I see on here. I might hang around now knowing that there is an organised group with a lot of collective power that is trying to do something about it. If steemit can get cleaned up it can truly be an awesome site. I will help if I can. Being new, I have very little power to vote down posts, but I can certainly report any cheating that I see as I explore the posts.
Thank You!
Lookout!.. The steem teem is going to clean out the dirty laundry:)
Says the guy who flagged me for posting on-topic links in his post:
https://steemit.com/flagging/@shla-rafia/user-cryptoiskey-downvotes-on-topic-comments-what-do-you-think-about-it
He didn't reply to my query. Fun fact: He is part of the @steemcleaners !
Corruption rules!
3verybody cool down, @cryptoiskey and m3, shizofrennic attack :-D
Had A Private Chat And We Found Common Ground. We Both care much about the whole thing and everything is easy peasy lemon.squeezy.
Forgive me the writing, the herb is very good today.
Snippet from our chat:
Thanks 🙂 I will make a statement that you and me privately solved it and that it is smooth as a chocolat lake
Just want to point out that this is exactly what steemcleaners will be about -- we are reasonable people! We can find common ground.
And as steemcleaner members will be required to log their actions, we will be accountable for them. Since we will produce logs, we will be transparent too. If the community disagrees with something, we can find common ground! :)
I actually bothered to check out your claims.
In my opinion, @cryptoiskey did nothing wrong. The comment he downvoted was a comment written on his post, and you were obviously only trying to catch some traffic onto your own posts.
This is why @steemcleaners are a good idea, and very much needed, everyone has their own sense of right and wrong.
II want my share from cake yes. I get angry when I get little money, although I have now 3 years experience.
We the marketers should support each other, and we do. I mean the very rare and UNDERPAID :) facetofacers.
Cool! Looking forward to see the difference you'll all be making as the months go by, thank you and namaste :)
This guy is running a scam and when I and others called him out he started down-voting our posts. Please help.
https://steemit.com/whalepower/@ydauti/get-whale-power
Good Job! :)
As someone who creates original content, and has been on the receiving end of revenge flagging for exposing plagiarism, as well as having my own work plagiarised, I welcome this incentive with great enthusiasm. Anyone who is doing Steemit the right way should support @steemcleaners at every opportunity. Kudos!
uh-oh - "the right way"? it's the beginning of government... I guess humans who live under mind-control gravitate to creating government...
Remember the kids who wanted to be hall monitors?
Have a look in Steemit Abuse Classic for a while and you might change your mind. I don't think anyone there is on a childish power trip. It's more like a mad rush to throw water out of a sinking ship to be frank.
Steemit is being utterly blitzed with spam right now, and for the time being, the average user won't flag because of the threat of revenge flagging.
https://steemit.chat/channel/steemitabuse-classic
It's completely different. @in2itiveart you are just as capable of setting up your own spam fighting collective, or indeed, a collective with whatever goals you wish. That's your prerogative.
uh no thanks. I have no interest in fighting other people. Karma will take care of them for me. I get what I need from following the Golden Rule.
This is brilliant. Well done for forming this. Will support as best I can,
Thank you, this initiative is fantastic... our @steemdrive campaign often has "copycat" billboard posts trying to cash in on the concept, such operators may not even use the funds as advertised and we have to be careful of this. We hope to make use of your services. Keep up the good work!
Spectacular! I'll keep a close eye out as I search for articles for Lost Content Digest!
Great idea. Would be also really nice if someone created Steemit Pseudoscience Fighting Team!!!
The amount of dangerous pseudoscience litter infesting Steemit (and being generously upvoted) is staggering.
I have just joined, noticed the spam and got a little bit skeptical ...no more!
If anyone is planning to scam or spam on Steemit, it would be wise to consider other means of earning money online right about now!!
The Steemit government has arrived!
Hahah, just kidding. I think this is a great step forward to continue fighting fraud and abuse and promoting mutually beneficial actions for everyone on the platform. I hope it will not get bogged down in bureaucracy or infighting but continue with the original sprit I've seen displayed over and over again to protect the network and the individuals who love it.
Thank you.
wonderful idea. ur are now the steem police
exactly - steem police - organized vigilantes to protect the group of helpless individuals. We on planet earth are DOOMED to slavery and ultimate extinction. Oh well.
Thanks for helping to keep things clean here! Do you have any thoughts about how to deal with down voting abuse? It would be great if the Steem Clearners could develop a proposal that you all think is solid and put that forward to help make down voting more balanced so people can't abuse it and just down vote things they dislike, etc.
That's one of the things I'm afraid is going to take a while to find a solution to. If someone is being flagged and their posts are being hidden (grayed out) they can usually find someone in steemit.chat that would be willing to upvote their posts so they are "seen" provided the post doesn't contain any abuse.
I can't promise that anyone in chat can do anything, but any type of abuse can be brought to the channel.
Well, that helps a bit to be able to get other up votes from the steemit.chat channel. Thanks for letting me know.
But how is this group not an "authority" - I write my own content - but I am also interested in practicing what I preach as a voluntaryist - suddenly there is a group who decide what content is authentic - I mean - I guess in a police state that we live in - this kind of situation is inevitable - but I thought the "witnesses" were the ones already here to "keep it honest" - it does not sound like it's going to work to me... herein lies the problem we all shall face - lack of patience and lack of creativity - once you build a "new" structure within the structure there has to be patience and time for the statists to calm down and start to become honest - dishonesty is a product of external government - maybe steam-clean could be "temporary" so that it does not become a secret police force -
I think you were right the first time - the steemit government has arrived...
Calling us the secret police is a bit much. In fact, the goal of steemcleaners is to be MORE transparent than what we were doing previously (a bunch of un-organized vigilantes flagging abuse), by producing logs and having a single account where you can watch and scrutinize our actions if you so choose.
And, that is still what we are -- not a governing body, but a group of vigilantes that want to protect steemit, but also guide new members to doing things in a productive way.
Feel free to check our second post and give feedback if you disagree with any principles, we are reasonable people and will listen to the community.
yea - I think the least possible organization is best - because organization becomes rules. I am sure it's well-intentioned - governments always begin as well-intentioned. Individuals just want to abdicate their personal responsibility for taking care of themselves - hence organized government, religion, etc -
And of greed which (on the short term) can be rewarded in non-repeating prisoner's dilemma scenarios. Many have already extracted value from this system through abuse without getting caught because individuals weren't organized enough to catch it all. Witnesses validate the blockchain mining process (and price feeds), not the content on the site. If you think something is happening secretly, talk with people openly here and in the chat about it.
Let me see if I have this right. You just recreated the moderation that caused some users to leave other forums for Steemit? Down arrows and blocking aren't enough for you so you have to create a union of little pc flagits? Your announcement just let a couple pints of blood out of Steemit.
thank you @gphx - but the statism addicts can't see it yet. As our little planet hurtles toward extinction we can watch and see if there are enough who understand "authority" and abdication of personal responsibility to be the tipping point to carry us through for another Age...
Detectives League already with you )
I wish I could upvote this every day .... <3 Great initiative, will definitively participate.
This is awesome. I already love the @cheetah bot, this gives us another aspect of checking content.
However, I do have a question for the masses. If an author has alot of original content on other outlets already and wants to bring it to steemit. Should they not post the complete article here? Are they relegated to just posting a description with a link to the other site?
Inquiring minds want to know! :-)
You can post the complete article here with the link to the orignal. We would like for you to verify it is your article in some way to prevent identity theft and plagiarism. For example, if you have your own blog and want to post an article here from that blog all you need to do is make an entry on your blog that readers can also read your articles on steemit.com.
If your articles are on different sites, that might be a bit more tricky. You may need to visit us in Steemit.chat to find a solution.
Thank you for the reply. I'll probably visit you guys on chat as I have content on many different sites (was a freelance writer for # of years) that I'm hold my content rights on.
I believe it is a measure a bit exaggerated, in my view. I believe that free competition would do the regular work of the steemit in the long run.
But people tend to do what they think best, especially when you have the power to do so.
@steemcleaners What should I do when I come across a post that is not spam but which content is not accurate or wrong?
For example I saw few posts about Hermetia Illucens (Black Soldier Fly) where the person took photos of the insect and talked about it. The text it self is about Hermetia Illucens and what they are good for etc... how ever the photos are of another insect, maybe of the same family but they are not photos of Hermetia Illucens. What should I do in cases like this?
"With a great power comes great responsibility" –Spiderman– @steemcleaners
Awesome
This steem thing is amazing, get money for content
Great idea and well thoughout post. I'll come help on the #steemcleaners channel whenever I get some free time.
Check our second post! The channel you want is #steemitabuse-classic :)
Thanks anyx :)
Wow. This is serious. But a good addition, I'm sure. Thank you !
This is awesome, I really love the name. Abuse is such a common thread on the internet, so im glad people are doing something about it on steemit.
i just upvoted this because this is a good thing but i noticed the jackpot dropped around 3 .00! I'm just a wounded minnow! what happened?
The value of a post fluctuates based on the price of steem, and the value of other posts. So don't worry! Your upvote essentially prevented it from dropping further!
@steemcleaners, you are my hero. Can I have your babies?
Do you want your kids to become janitors? :P
That's sanitation engineers, thank you very much!
Good and interesting post. I look forward to supporting this.
Definitely well needed. Good stuff people!
Steem cleaners wow, i love this place more and more.
This is a great idea. It adds biological intelligence to @cheetas AI capabilities.
Now, in addition to this, can someone create a similarly constructed group for locating and rewarding content that gets missed?
Keep an eye out for, and follow @robinhoodwhale, our sister project which is currently being tested. :)
Will do. Thanks!
Ok so there are minnows, dolphins, whales, and now octopuses? I'm curious to see when the electric eel will show up.
Thanks for your efforts to keep this site clean.
this is how you get the shills in good positions
einverstanden!
Thanks! Anything that makes it easier for original content to be seen is great!
Awesome. I've noticed a handful of people who do nothing but spam horrible/useless junk here (almost always plagiarized), hopefully this can help make a difference :)
Definitely a need and I have this coupon for 5.00 SBD off when you donate to the Hillary Clinton Dirty Laundry Steem Clean Fund.
Steemit is evolving so fast I'm afraid to blink.
Hey,
I hope you will clean all those trash we have on this website,
Great post @steemcleaners
With all the new users coming in you've got your job cut out for you. I do a lot of reading on the new posts and will do summons for you. Hope it helps.
To me @kirshtopa is a scammer
Excellent Idea and I hope you can continue where others have began the fight. I was an idiot in the beginning and learned my lesson. It is Users like you guys who can weed through the Garbage and explain to people what they are doing wrong. I wish you the best and hope that this will help the cause. My post I just wrote explained a little about this
https://steemit.com/steemit/@ltndd1/decentralized-steemit-and-why-it-works
Great idea. Unfortunately they do not have checks and balances to figure out the author of an external blog is the same author posting her content on the Steemit. Any ideas on how to prevent this?
The only thing I can suggest is for contributors to create a post on their blog or page on their website and at the end of every post include the link to it. If the person is well-known, doing an intro and posting a picture in #introduceyourself holding a steemit sign with the date is great. We won't usually forget they've "verified." For those who are a little lesser known, I suggest posting a public facebook post or twitter tweet and linking it at the bottom of their posts.
It's not a really good solution, but the only one we have at the moment.
Many times a person will "verify" the content belongs to them one time in the comments section of a post somewhere. I spend a lot of time reading back over posts to try to find if the content belongs to the person posting it.
Great question!