There's an old saying that goes, "Never wrestle with a pig, because you'll both get dirty, and the pig likes it." Nonetheless, I feel it is necessary to address an airing of dirty laundry here on Steemit. I have somehow become the target of an angry Steemian, and I request the assistance of my readers in addressing the matter. Please note that this post refers to potentially NSFW comments, and includes screenshots of offensive language.

Background

I joined @steemflagrewards (hereafter SFR) a long time ago to fight abusive behavior here on Steemit and related platforms. While it might be considered a sort of vigilante group, nothing I have seen strikes me as excessive there. The downvote option here on Steemit says,

Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:

• Disagreement on rewards
• Fraud or plagiarism
• Hate speech or trolling
• Miscategorized content or spam

SFR guidelines are in line with these reasons, and users who find posts that violate SFR guidelines may downvote those posts and leave comments stating their reasoning behind the downvote. Those votes are manually verified and approved based on the evidence available. The goal is to identify unethical behavior and discourage it, not to be vindictive.

The Incident

A couple weeks ago, a Steemit user was caught spamming copy/pasted content and buying votes for it. This post was manually downvoted by another SFR member with a comment stating the reason for the downvote. The community followed suit after verifying the post indeed bought votes for copy/pasted content. The intent was civil and constructive criticism that would help this individual become a better member of the community.

Instead of acknowledging the breach of netiquette and striving to become a more respectable member of the community, the user called people bullies and started spewing vulgarity.

He even had the nerve to denounce his critics as "Nazis." I elected to respond to that accusation obliquely in a more general post since I had also received similar bizarre accusations from people on Facebook and other platforms, but I also downvoted that accusatory post and poked fun at it by invoking my joke title as the self-appointed Steem Pope.

The Fallout

Somehow, this individual blamed me personally for the consequences of his behavior instead of taking the high road. He could have admitted he was in the wrong, stopped buying votes, and apologized for the deluge of invective spewed at those who dared point out his misbehavior. Instead, he pretends he has been the victim of abuse, declared a downvote war against me,and continues to spew profanity at his critics.

Needless to say, the ineffectual and entirely nonsensical Steem Pope Excommunication remains in effect.

A Call to Action

As I have been specifically targeted by an irrational, angry, abusive individual who displays what I would casually diagnose as a sort of narcissistic sociopathy, I ask my readers to lend me a measure of support. I don't really want to upvote my own comments, because that strikes me as somewhat sleazy even if it's only to counter his vindictiveness, but I don't like seeing my conversations with others actually censored by this actual bully, and I don't want to buy votes either. Instead, I only ask my readers kindly upvote my comments from the past week that have been downvoted by this individual. I don't want to see other users subjected to this individual's particularly uncouth brand of abuse, so I advise against joining in a flag war against him unless that's your thing.

I also encourage my readers to join SFR. This particular obnoxious individual isn't even close to the worst sort of abuser on the blockchain. This sort of juvenile retaliation is possible, but it is also not the norm. Many are just bots designed to game the system, and some are simply people who don't understand the informal rules of internet etiquette. We can work together to make Steemit a better place where new users can feel welcome, and where the reward pool is not manipulated for the benefit of greedy whales and bid buyers.

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the blockchain, knowing that your labor is not in vain. (1st Corinthians Sacrilege 15:58)