Trolls & Self Upvoting Comments

in #steemit7 years ago

If steemit is to be successful this abuse has to be stopped! People come to blogs in disguise with photos looking like they came off a "Match dot com" type site. I have flagged 4 people the past fews days who comment on a post with nonsensical mixed up language.

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Troll image courtesy of https://pixabay.com/en/

Some come with the intent of upvoting themselves and then their friends start doing it. One person generated or should I say stole $2.67 on one of my posts. It's happened numerous times. It's prevalent on newly submitted posts and is becoming so irritating!

I've flagged and reported people to @steemcleaners and the steemit police and still they come.

Another thing getting on my last nerve is the people who send steem every other day pleading with you to use their resteem service with their thousands of followers. These people should be banned immediately or some additional checks made prior to being able to have a account on steemit.

The "Wow" and I follow you you follow me shit is aggravating. No no and no! Stop the begging it's shameful.

Surely I'm not the only one sick of this type of abuse of the system.

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Wow, upvoted!
...but we are already following each other...
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never :D

Darned Trolls! Thanks for sending Mr. Ed! Haha🐓🐓

You be welcome!

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OMG I love the troll picture, have you ever seen the movie Legend? I'm pretty sure that little guy was inspired by that movie. Sorry about your troll experience.

Thanks, no I have not seen that one have to put it on my list. Thanks so much for coming by🐓

"Wow I am now number one fan and love your recipe!"... I really got something like that under a poem, lol , smh

Thanks battleaxe, it's a good one if you like spicy! You have a good one my friend🐓🐓

I've also had those "Japanese t-shirt sayings" on my posts. When I take a look at the Scout's comments, it turns out they post the same comment everywhere. A couple of days ago, I noticed two of those Match.com (hee hee - good one) said exactly the same gibberish. Then I checked who they were following. They were following accounts with names starting from a to k. BOTs! Bring out the Raid! All I did was comment on each that they were bots and mentioned the other account names. Neither of them got any upvotes. We need to be vigilant, though. Maybe your approach of flagging is better than mine - I don't know.

On the issue of begging for follows and upvotes, I generally don't respond at all. When I upvote the real comments from people who've obviously read and engaged, I continue to ignore them. Maybe a Pollyanna approach, but I'd rather crowd my little Steemit space with positivity and not give the eejuts any time, energy, attention or reward.

Thanks for raising this issue with humour and valiance!😊😊

The thing about the trolls is that they upvote their replies and steal from what is a percentage of your post. About the only way to get rid of them is flagging. What else can we do? Wish I knew. Ellie Mae🐓🐓

Hmmm...so far I haven't seen these critters (the bots, anyway) self-upvote on my posts, but thanks to your comments I'll be more vigilant. I have seen a number of newbies self-upvote, though, and usually it's a matter of one or two cents. I used to do that too, before HF19, because old Jerry Banfield recommended it, and for a minnow it was a good strategy at the time. Not any more! Don't want to waste my vote on me. Now that I can only really use 20% of my voting power in a day, I'd rather save it for upvoting posts (and Steemians) I like, as well as to upvote good comments to my posts. So, in short and after all that, I don't know, Ellie Mae, but I sure understand how you feel...😊😊

Ironically, I have noticed the same things going on with my posts. I will see a comment at the top of the list with a couple of votes and think wtf? I will then look at who voted for the generic comment and see that the person that made the comment voted for himself and then a couple of people that I've never seen before voted for it as well. I guess it's a new way to try and rank up quicker. It's sad that people resort to such techniques here. It really takes away from what this community is about. Im surprised that they didn't flag you back just for the fk of it.

Playing by the rules isn't easy for some. When they upvote their own comments it just takes that much money away from your post. It's stealing and it is wrong. Someone on here explained to me that steemit is not exactly motivated to do anything because it just looks good on their bottom line. Could be some truth in that. 🐓🐓

I think f4f, "resteem", and other BS like that should be policed but where would it stop? I wish I could set my wallet to not even accept less than 0.1 sbd. If someone has something to send, they can pay a dime. If I respond, I will have to send it back. I did a joke post yesterday night with a picture of a whale. It elicited several real, humorous, responses and one "Great info thanx for sharing will follow." I might be guilty of monetizing stuff, but it's actual stuff not doo-doo.

making up their own languages? lol that's new

Weird isn't it and thanks for reading🐓

Ive had some peoples comments make more than my original Post. Between that and the Bots, not sure who's real and who's not anymore. I agree its getting out of hand.

Thanks so much for stopping by and commenting. I'm just a gal who plays by the rules of etiquette, some folks don't seem to have much home training. I did go on a rant, but it feels better now.LOL🐓

No, you're not the only one sick of it. But, unfortunately, this is the same sort of thing that we saw with other social media platforms like YouTube or Twitter etc - where people were buying subs/followers, views, and likes. Wherever there's something to be gained, there will always be unscrupulous people to exploit the system for themselves.

So true, there's always somebody looking to scam something or someone. Thanks so much for stopping by.🐓

Part of the reason that your reporting to Steemit doesn't seem to get anywhere is that, I suspect, Steemit is probably making minimal effort to stop bots and fake accounts. The focus for Steemit right now is to grow the number of users on the platform so that they can boast (to advertizers, investors, and other stakeholders) that this platform is growing by xxx number of users daily and has xxxx users in total to rival Facebook/Twitter/Snapchat/Instagram/YouTube etc.
Let's face it, Steemit isn't here to be any different to those other platforms I've mentioned. They're not here to be "the social media network that cares and wants to change the world". They're here to make money and the product that they're selling is their users.

You know I hate to admit that you are probably right, regarding your accessment of this problem. I want it to be different, but it's always about the money isn't it?!🐓🐓

This post recieved an upvote from minnowpond. If you would like to recieve upvotes from minnowpond on all your posts, simply FOLLOW @minnowpond

It is getting out of hand and makes it harder to tell who is real, who's a bot, who's a troll and who's an outright thief. I have gotten some really annoying language and clip art too. Enough already.

Agreed! It seems to be people making up names that are obliviously weird with photos that don't match their English. Thanks for having a looksie friend.🐓

I agree it is so annoying! I always report spam comments that are clearly copy/paste or irrelevant ("Nice recipe!" when there is not even a mention of food smh). There is a new form to fill out to make sure @steemcleaners takes care of them! It will take all of us to keep Steemit (relatively) spam free! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScCZuBdZmqg4FcOWcpF_nfvZ0_6rQbZJfnbUJjtglepuwcAhQ/viewform

Haha re the recipe, I was confused at first. she probably was combining her responses to this thread and the recipe in my Weekly Chicken Gazette. I posted one towards the end.
Thanks for the link it's appreciated greatly.🐓

I didn't mean this one specifically when saying "nice recipe" lol I meant in general people like to say "nice recipe" or "nice photography" when there is no recipe or photos, etc. They just post generic copy/paste comments even when they don't particularly apply lol

Oh dear, what a ding dong I am today! Can I blame it on lack of sleep.LOL

I flag their comments but to no avail. Still they truck on through. I would start making rude comments back but I don't want my own things flagged.

Good for you. I used to try to ignore, but figured if I didn't flag they would get away with it completely. It annoys me when people think they are pulling something off🐓

Thanks for the heads up; reminds me I have to go FLAG those trolls on a couple of my own posts. I could not believe the language, completely unintelligible!
What a waste of time; but important to flag them, or they can upvote themselves just before the rewards get doled out.

Exactly! We earned it. 🐓🐓

If they could just stop the "copy and paste" comments, and at the same time, increase what real readers get, we would have something! We need to incourage real readers to join AND stay.

I agree! Thank so much for coming by🐓