One of the areas where many of STEEMIANS fail to meet their obligation to the site is failure to consistently flag garbage posts.
STEEMIT for all its fun as a community and place to network is still competitive. As such "Making it" on STEEMIT can be tough, there is plenty of competition and even some of the more obscure niches are quickly becoming competitive as well.
I think we sometimes put so much effort into creating valuable unique content that we overlook the tremendous importance of flagging. The reality is that you need to work just as hard to clean up the trash and keep STEEMIT free of spam posters as you do creating your unique content.
Why? Pretty simple really, each spam posting takes up space in article listings that should rightfully belong to you; an actual content creator trying to make it.
For all of you STEEMIANS that consistently deliver engaging, creative, and well thought out postings you are most likely selling yourself short, by failing to provide even 1/10th of the effort to policing the ranks.
I know the frustration that comes with creating an excellent article, one you work hard to put it together, and post only to watch it slip into obscurity and vanish under a cascade of other posts, many of which are total garbage.
But if I can only get a following you say, I won't have this problem anymore. While that may be true to some extent, you still need to be noticed in order to gather said following to begin with. You will also need to continually add new followers with time, many of which will organically come across your articles. A process that becomes that much more difficult with the plethora of spam vomiting users that have no real interest in the site only the $$$ that can be made if they catch an upvote.
I would say it is almost epidemic in that some users have made repeatedly posting this garbage the entirety of the existence here on STEEMIT. Some go so far as to post STEEMIT related videos from Youtube created by other STEEMIANS. Essentially stealing the hard work of another STEEMIAN and trying to wrongfully appropriate it as their own.
Example:
This user posts nothing but Youtube videos from various Youtube Channels. That's it. If you look into his blog you will even see where he has taken another STEEMIANS Youtube video and attempted to rebrand it as his own. Aside from that just being a total dickhead move, it also takes up space. Perhaps anyone of these garbage posts pushed a deserving authors article into obscurity before it could be curated.
This is probably one of the most egregious offenders I have found today. I mean seriously, no content whatsoever and the entire blog consists of stolen Youtube videos; all of which dilute the gene pool around here allowing shit to linger at the waters surface for to long.
Let us unite, and begin to smash that little red flag in the upper right hand corner when we come across posts like these. Let's dump a big bottle of Chlorox right in the pool here and kill these parasitic organisms off.
There are so many hard working authors here, who's articles get washed down the list by this type of behavior..
Give them a read and a follow, these guys and gals bust their asses... @aussieninja @tombort @deanlogic @chelseajo
A valid call to arms but also comes across a little authoritarian. I am yet to use a flag but now I have read your article I will be more vigilant. Its also difficult to call out people because they post other youtube video's after all they are finding the videos and sharing for others. I get that they haven't made the content but hey, DJ's get paid too ya know.
They are not sharing videos, they are stealing the content of others and putting them forth here to earn a buck. They also do it at the light speed of spam... It's not sharing it's just filing up the article list with bullshit.. If I wanna find a particular youtube video about a particular area of interest I will go to youtube and find it. What makes a site flourish is unique content, not regurgitating the works of others or posting articles that amount to those annoying little inserts in magazines.
What if you made a youtube video, only to find some dickhead here making money on it? Content is original, provoking thought, it's is something you created.. even if it's one sentence long, or a photo you took etc. It's yours and if you want to share it on your blog go ahead. But if you are just harvesting youtube videos and spamming links of no worth then that's horseshit. Especially if people with a bit of rep reinforce it by voting up on it.. No different than those that just take tons of links from google news and make a post... "Bitcoin price goes up.. 5 links from google news".. that's a bullshit post, especially if that is all they do..
Also your analogy of a DJ is not necessarily valid, as they are being paid for their unique skills and creative talent, that being mixing, blending, knowing the room tempo, etc.. Actually quite complex.. Whereas dickheads like I mentioned are selling the DJ's mix on the corner like it was their own.
Okay I'll concede, you make a good point!
Just out of interest, I made a post using other peoples video content. Does this fit in with what you call "some dickhead here making money on it" ?
https://steemit.com/music/@thesimpson/quest-for-new-music-this-weeks-finds
Nah, I would not apply the dickhead moniker to you or that post as the videos you posted are relevant to your blog and apparent profession at the Brooklyn Music Factory.
You likely have a following of music lovers etc. whom take interest in those things. You are using your blog to 1) share your experiences (with content) and 2) share things you enjoy with others that enjoy your flavor and genre of posts. Most importantly though you did add content, context, actual typed text to explain why you posted the videos, why we might enjoy them, where you found them etc.
So no, that I would see for what it is and that is sharing of your likes and dislikes on your blog. Granted the financial aspect of STEEMIT in regards to youtube Authors could be iffy. Especially in the music business as artists and labels can be extraordinarily aggressive when they find their works being profited on in some form or fashion that does not reward them. Regardless, I would say what you are doing is cool..
However, if your entire blog was just videos, no context, no text, nothing.. and you posted one every 30 minutes for no apparent reason then I would at that stage call you a dickhead. If you went through youtube and just found videos with a high amount of views and randomly vomited them all over STeemit just for the sake of it, again with no content, context, or reason for sharing then again I would call you a dickhead.
As it stands now, I like your blog.. I'm more of a Reggae type myself.. folk does not do it for me.. :)
Yeah man, respect!
Did you check out Vin Gordon on that post, some really cool reggae going down! I love reggae, I come from the town where the original UK Bongo International was.
Sweet.. but going back to the subject here.. https://steemit.com/@labony He has vomited out 20 bird videos into the introduce yourself section over the last couple hours.. Spam city.. and nobody here does anything. They read this post, but do dick about it.. What he is doing is simply pushing down authors that take time to write a good introduction post with his bullshit posts.. He is the cancer that we want to cut from here.. Do your part, look at his blog and flag that shit, any with a payout especially..
Yeah. @pawsdog I 100% agree with you. Pictures and videos in posts must be used to improve your content. Comments of pics and videos are appreciated. But best it works as reminiscence of your content.
Here is one my example of, I think, good use of videos!
Check here.
you are totally right and i agree with you.
Its like the plague around here; lol. I also think that down voting should not count against your voting power. As it currently works, you are discouraged from down voting as that limits your ability to curate. Also voting up your own comments? Bad etiquette perhaps.. How about vote the article up, follow, reach out and I will do the same. This is another practice that I find somewhat iffy though there is nothing technically wrong with it. Regardless thank you for the post..
Until i read this article i only went so far as to flag 1 post, but it is not only true but very noticeable that some of these articles are complete crap, consisting of an image, 3-4 sentences, and 3-4 links, with zero effort.
I'm not the kind of writer that makes a rough draft, and plans it out, I only write when it pops in my head, and it feels important to say. sometimes it can be a couple paragraphs or pages long, but it comes straight from my heart.
the payout here is cool, and though it is the reason I initially began writing here, its not the reason I write, I believe information is extremely important, and to see people push horse shit by the boatloads irks me.
I have still grown to like steemit and am pleased every time I google some random thing, and I get a steemit article as a top result, there is great content coming in, and its awesome to see it grow!
I will most definitely begin flagging bad posts more often, even if it costs me a little steem power.
P.s. I up-vote my own post simply because the option is there lol i thought that was a funny addition too
I agree with you.. Hell the comment you just made has 1000 times more original content than the examples I posted. That said if you write something directly from your heart and find a following then you should be rewarded. If you are actually putting in the effort and "creating orginal content" then its a shame to see it pushed down the list and vanish because of high speed garbage posts like the links I provided... 1 penny for you, thank you for your views.
Voting down on an article that many other people downvote should boost your reputation and/or steem/power. Voting down on an article that everybody else is upvoting should bring voting power down. I'm sure this would make users follow a trend but there must be some mining technique to achieve the desired result of making downvoting worthwhile.
Agreed, also down voting should not cost voting power as that discourages down voting and cleaning up the trash..
\
i gave you a 100% upvote ...i agree with your cause but i disagree with your method..
My method?
Oh muh gawd dude. I am listening... you get a resteem and a vote for this. I completely agree with you and am taking note. This is the most frustrating part of steemit for me. I put work into what I do. I try to stay competetive, but I feel constantly drowned out by the garbage heap of stolen content.
Thank you.
I know, its pretty bad... but that said of the 55 views on this article only one person downvoted on the examples I provided. That is the apathy that I am talking about.. So what if a person that is spamming the fuck out of STEEMIT with garbage things I'm a dickhead.. Oh Well.. I must of pissed him off as he messaged me that he was going to "Kill Me'.. lol.. https://steemit.com/simple/@labony/3-simple-life-hacks#@labony/re-pawsdog-re-labony-3-simple-life-hacks-20171215t191208643z check the comments.. lol..Regardless his type of bullshit speed spamming of garbage needs to go...
let bust that bad asses HARD!!!
VERY HARD!!
Upvoted and resteemed because I very much share the same sentiment. But I must stress the importance of having a clear constitution regarding flags. I don't know if you were involved in the discussion but there was a case where some whales were flagging because they deemed the posts were earning too much. These were accounts like @dollarvigilante @sgtreport @michelle.gent
People should be flagged for what's objectively bad and not based on some arbitrary valuation on what a post is worth. I think @miti would find you reported list of offenders helpful.
Now here is the worst part: https://steemit.com/@simaroy/comments
A serial spammer with a reputation of 59. Since lower reputation flags won't drive this guys rep down, he's still at 59 even after @miti downvoted him. If you guys know anyone with 60 or higher reputation, flag the above cancer out of steemit.
Yeah that guy must be related to the same dude that I posted links about.. It's garbage, his whole blog is garbage.. I think the whole "FLAG" thing as it currently is positioned, labelled etc is dumb and mislabeled. Its just a down vote and should be moved down under the article and have equal real estate with the upvote button.. We should keep a flag but it should be reserved for users with rep of 50 or higher and for items such as illegal content, drug sales, porn, offensive content, racial content, that kind of stuff.. As for downvoting based on earnings.. I'm not sure the politics that went into that.. I'm not a fan of upvoting my own posts or comments to make a buck or push myself forward as I think that is questionable behavior. Did I do it previously, yes.. but at that time I was not seeing the larger picture in that my power should be used to benefit others.. If I have 1,000,0000 STEEM Power and am using that to vote up my own articles to make more then I think that could be gaming the system and abuse of power.. I don't know I will have to see what happens when I get there.. .
I'm 3 days in, and your post is probably one of the minimal things I ACTUALLY UNDERSTAND about steemit! We do want this platform to be renowned for its high quality content!
So, just to clarify, downvoting is clicking the flag thingy, correct?
Yes, that is correct at the top right of the article.. Alternatively you can go to that users blog and hit the flag there as well. It will be to the right of each posting.. It's tiny, and should probably be much bigger with a label "This is shit, nuke it".. but I suppose we are stuck with the microscopic flag for now..
You can report spam on the steemcleaners site. I'm not sure what action they (can) take though.
Likely not much, but again it falls back to the fact that it behooves us to police our own ranks. I think folks are afraid of being perceived as dickish or they are just generally to pussified to do what needs to be done. I'm curious if the two that I mentioned will even collect any downvotes.. While they are mentioned they are not the targets of my annoyance, they are just 2 of many that I come across daily. If we keep flagging posts like these, or flagging ones with rewards it will quickly become non beneficial to continually do it.
Down-votes and up-votes are just two sides of the same coin. There is nothing inherently wrong with one versus the other. It's unfortunate that the down-vote is labeled with a flag in the UI though because that gives the wrong impression as to its use.
It does help to report a spamming user to someone with great voting power: a high-value down-vote will reduce the reputation score of the spammer, and hopefully ultimately discourage them from posting because they will get little or no monetary gains from it.
I think you are right.. the flag does send the wrong message entirely.. good call there.. the flag makes you feel as if you are only supposed to hit if for porn, or egregious offenses. It just needs to be a simple thumb up or down.. to encourage more liberal use for articles that suck.. similiar to Youtube, FB etc.. Everyone will get more downs I'm sure but that is the nature of the beast and would encourage you to provide solid content and engage your users one on one..
New here, Saw title and thought to myself "There's a downvote button?".
Pretty sneaky hiding it in the upper right, away from the other interaction buttons.
I agree, I think it needs to be more prominent..
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STOPAbsolutely agree with the annoyance about the absolute garbage on here but I dont believe use of the flag is the way to fix things.
The flag is for a specific purpose and flagging shite isnt it. When you use the flag, someone has to look into the post to find out if the post is against the rules and is going to make a lot of work for some poor admin so.....
As I discussed with some friends in a post recently, I suggested that the only way to curb this spammy behaviour was to comment on the post, which the OP cannot do anything about. I personally like to add a slightly trolly comment such as ' is this your video/work/photo' ? or even something like 'this post is shite'. If you do this when the post is new, it will make others think twice about the post before they reply or upvote.
Playing the system back is the answer as opposed to abusing the flag system I think.
I also suggested making mandatory use of @originalsteem and asking someone to kindly create a bot similar to tineye which can check source of photos and videos.
Finally, curbing the use lf upvote bots will help and encourage organic patient growth of peoples blogs and content.
It just needs the community to support this with group action.
https://steemit.com/steemit/@nathen007/so-much-shite-and-spam-posted-here
I am not so sure that an admin will actually look into a "Flag" as it is nothing more than a downvote. What I do if downvote any of those vids that have a payout so hopefully discourage it. Also the whole "FLAG" thing sends the wrong message entirely.. the current flag should just morph into a thumbs down and share equal real estate under the article with the vote up option. This would encourage more people to engage with a post without the whole "FLAG" thing.. If we are to keep a FLAG it should have a real purpose which would be offensive content, illegal content, snuff videos etc.. As the flag currently only carries the same weight as a down vote it should be labeled as such and put where it belongs..
fair play, but the problem with a downvote button similar to the upvote button is that people will use it if they simply disagree with a post or the opinion of a post which isnt fair. The good thing about Steemit is you can enter ito discussio , or simply not upvote, like we are doing here lol
I still think much better to troll the genuine bs and spammy cut n paste posts out of the community!
That is life, people are going to disagree, you can't please everyone all the time. You will get downvotes.. as it life.. happens on youtube, fb etc.. being afraid to put the whip next to the carrot or use the whip is what allows the proliferation of spam to begin with.. That and human nature to be somewhat sheepish, afraid to hurt feelings etc.. more a byproduct of the participation trophy society we live in now.. Regardless and to prove my point. Of the 70 odd views this post has had, only one other user has nutted up and tried to make a change for the better by downvoting his garbage..
Take a look.. https://steemit.com/@labony In the last 2 hours he has spammed the life out of introduceyourself with bird videos. What has he accomplished with his 20 odd posts to that category in the last few hours? he has knocked down or out 20 odd posts from people that may have put some work into their introduction post in the hopes of actually getting noticed.. Ergo he is a cancer.. Exercise your power.. help keep it clean and see that deserving authors get a change to be seen.. down vote or flag those posts, especially any with a payout.. or be a sheep and sit by and watch.
Imagine how you would feel to put an hour or more into your introduction post only to have it pushed off the list by that bullshit group of bird posts...
A tineye bot is totally needed but I see some bots making a ridiculous amount of money. These devs are getting rich off an autonomous bot. Gov't are looking to tax these things because of the AI involved
Yes ALL the bots are definitely an area which needs looking into.
@pawsdog..
You're totally right..
When I joined steemit, I was told this exactly and the uniqueness of this platform is the fact that original contents are assured...
Good one altogether!!!
True, I think part of it goes to the mindset that people don't want to stand out as a flagger or are afraid to flag a post for fear or retaliation or the like.. I also think that like I mentioned earlier the "flag" sends the wrong message and it should just be a "thumbs up/down" with equal real estate under the article. I believe that would incline more people to vote one way or the other. Hiding the flag way up top in the corner seems be a bad place for it.
I've never flagged anything, but I think I'll do so in future. I've mainly been muting anyone that puts up terrible content... but I'm also not really browsing categories though.
I have noticed people with really low reputations, and these people seem to be the worst offenders... so hopefully we can get some code in Steemit that just doesn't show posts from low-rep users until they raise their reputation through up-rated comments maybe? (Or just get banned altogether).
Very interested to get more info on what happens to a flagged post...
I have a problem on the website Fiverr, where someone keeps flagging my gigs as to not compete with their own gigs... and the Fiverr support team are too lazy to act appropriately... I think a support team on Steemit would be useful here... and shouldn't be too hard to put together if there was potentially Steem or SBD earning opportunities there.
Also man, thanks heaps for the shoutout!
No problem, But if you take a look at his posts the example I provided, he is still spamming. .he has put like 15 videos of birds in the introduce yourself section and every 15 minutes he throws another one in.. Also this does is take up space for real authors that are trying hard and really want to be introduced and get some exposure.. It fucking irks me... And people on here who have read this post, are still to afraid to down vote the asshole.. grrr...I can't wait till I get this account up to a decent level where I can put a huge dent on someone that is doing this shit..
I've just flagged everything for the last hour for both of them, but man, fighting spammers feels like such an uphill battle.
I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out what Steem is, and what it should be, and what I want it to be... and I think you're right. If I wanted to review a video, share my thoughts and opinions then that is totally fine... if I'm trying to profit off someone else's work, super not cool.
These video spammers seem to only get $0-0.02 - per post... I do wonder if the effort is worth it.
Whether or not it is worth it depends on a bunch of factors.. for me it would not be.. but if I were in the Phillipines, or Thailand where I could have you killed for say $20.00 then it may be worth it.. When I was in Thailand many years ago, waitresses were making $35 a month... that was early 2000's.. at the time $1200-$2000 would of been the US equivalent.. I agree, its just garbage what he is posting plain and simple.. Well I gotta post the market report now and the study results.. told you I was bullish on BTC yesterday in that analysis...:)..
Hahaha, @pawsdog bullish = all time highs... maybe sneak break of $20k.
I just go by what the charts say.. :)
Very interesting convo here. From what I've seen, getting a post flagged keeps it from showing up on feeds and I think it also stops the payment from the post. When I first started, I started with 25 rep. When I first saw @pawsdog post, his rep was 25 (sorry , I totally forgot to follow you, I am still new, but I am here now!). So it is my understanding that new accounts start with 25. I really like the idea of low-rep accounts needing to raise reputation through upvoted comments. However; there was a recent dispute on steemit where literally two whales were having flag wars against eachother. Here. At least that's when I joined the....show? It was not fun, and one of the "whales" who was flagged is still sitting at -18 reputation. Quite frankly, I can't exactly see who is even wrong in this situation. All creators, IMO, are unique original content creators. Is this guys account forever scarred? It's almost like we need some kind of appeal system.
I was recently flagged because someone thought I copied and pasted someone elses post. I was able to have a conversation with the flagger via said post and he apologized when he noticed that I never copied anyone. This flag was then lifted, by the flagger. It was quite an experience, and let me know we're all human, real people, and there is a lot of vigilance out there dedicated towards plagiarism.
You are right and I would like to start / join this call to arms in whatever way. I think the hardest part is spotting the plagiarism. There goes a long way to do this, and flagging also costs voting power. I have flagged an obvious spammer that was posting the same post every 5 minutes before. There are so many posts coming in every minute that it can be very difficult to keep up and cycle through these posts.
Are we in agreement that there's a difference between a bad original content post, and a garbage copied post? I hope that we never get to flagging a post just because we don't like it. We must keep it original, that's what makes it valuable. Stay vigilant and keep your eyes peeled!
I totally agree, and I could care less what original content someone posts. If it is there original thought, then they are welcome to share it on their blog. People do occasionally ad Youtube videos and the like, me as well, but there is context behind it. On the ones that I have added, they are relevant to the post or add a comical anecdote to the point that I am trying to make. That said if a person just spams videos or copied links with no context, content or thought to go along with it then it is spam. The links I provided are the perfect example. He was posting bird videos stolen from Youtube every 15 minutes in the introducemyself area.. I run into a lot of content on here that I dont' like.. but opinions are like assholes, every one has one and they all stink. That said I don't or would not flag if I simple disagree as someone else may enjoy it. I will only flag when it is blatant what they are doing or they are obviously attempting to abuse the system..
Absolutely. I also did some further digging on this melindaa account. Created 30 days ago, I've skimmed through every page of that accounts steemd information. It has been spamming posts since day one, and it has yet to collect rewards for any of its posts. This tells me that this account is 100% bot. Someone set this bot up, and is yet to log in and collect rewards (and never set the bot to collect rewards?).
With that said I assume that if someone were to keep a close eye on this account at one point or another someone will claim the rewards and send them to their steemit account. I want to assume that there is an easier way to check when an account collects rewards and/or when an account sends his/her rewards to the "parent account". This would let us know who really owns the account. This person probably already know this, which is probably why nothing's been collected yet. "wait til no ones looking".
Good thinking to keep tabs on it.. I'll watch it as well.. I'm sure it's probably a bot network, as I see alot of the posts updated by other low level accounts...
My last action! This asshole @melindaa is now full of red flags as a China street in Beijing on national Holiday!
loving it
Another loaf of flags!
Sometimes it feels like pissing into the wind while riding on top of a bullet train.. lol
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I always feel like flagging something is a bit of a dick-move, since I kind of migrated here from reddit... But I guess part of curating quality content would also require flagging content that is poor quality, theft, or misaligned otherwise. Thanks for this.
No problem, and I agree, I think they should just make it a simple thumbs up or down.. that would likely send a better message
I'll save my down-votes for very very blatant offenses.... I'm new I've never down-voted either. I think I should also be a user for a while before down-voting anything at all.
It's should be more of a thumbs down, a flag sends the wrong message.