When I said "hire two, three, or even ten people that are dedicated to finding, identifying, and punishing spam." I meant employed by Steemit Inc and funded. They have the funds and resources to make this happen. $500K/year should be enough to fund a good size team dedicated to the task.
When you require volunteers to do it, they will get burnt out and demotivated. When you add rewards and incentives, it gets gamed. Having employees with a fixed salary and job description would produce consistent results. Once a dent is made and it is clear spam will be punished, it will be far easier to maintain it than to initially change it.
Everyone is trying to build a better mousetrap instead of asking how they can help @steemcleaners & @spaminator clean up steemit.com.
Same as my other response, my point is we need a strong anti-spam group with the man power and funding to accomplish what needs to be done. If that means @steemcleaners 2.0 or outfitting @steemcleaners with the resources needed. My choice would be empowering @steemcleaners so you have the tools to change the status quo.
I agree with you. I just don't think Steemit, Inc will get involved outside the support they are already giving in the form of delegations to flag. We're left to look for support elsewhere.
I face this a lot personally. It's the support of the community and appreciation for what I do that keeps me going.
@patrice Check out your downvotes on each of your posts in this thread. In our local vernacular, I'd say that these guys are now just "taking the piss". ninjapiraterobot, banjokid, somenick, roccofalcone, heather2000 and thinkingtime appear to be linked to galactic123, who also supposedly runs the service echowizard