The end goal I have in mind would have public lists similar how Adblock works. Otherwise, indeed, it becomes a slippery slope -- one I hope to avoid. (To be honest, I am scared of someone using this maliciously as well.)
See my edit above for what looks like a better long term solution. For now, I am focusing on very clear abuse, and you are always welcome to chat with me in the #steemitabuse slack channel!
Yes I see you have joined the crew that is intent on creating (and controlling) a policeforce and ai bot censorship tools. This group of "protectors" are literally creating the tools that decentralized networks, and cryptocurrencies are designed to evade. Building a censorship weapon is complete overkill for simply mistagging something, or even spam.
If steemit would just implement personal blocklists, 90% of the spam wouldn't even show up after 1 view\flag of a user or tag placed by curators marking the spammers.
The rules and chat about this AI bot, its rules, blacklists, and keywords should stay here in the open where it affects people, not behind a password protected chat program.
I agree with some of your points. I do not believe ANY bots should be able to run rampant here, but the fact of the matter is that they currently can. And it being possible to build a censorship tool, is in itself an issue.
Personally, I hope that once the owners of steemit understand the implications of both "good" and "bad" bots, they will be more incentivized to figure out how to prevent or hinder them.
I agree.
I wrote up an alternative proposition that allows curation and individual users to take responsibility for fixing the problem.
Take a look and share it if you think it's better than building censorship bots.
https://steemit.com/steemit/@tinfoilfedora/instead-of-creating-automated-censorship-tools-allow-the-users-to-fix-the-problem-through-curation