Our reputation and motivation is clearly known outside of Steem. Verifying someone's identity is not a problem. However, is it the practice to "flag" new users automatically thereby censoring their posts as soon as they join, before they even have a chance to identify themselves? Assuming they are guilty as imposters until proven innocent?
We posted a direct link to our website with our contact page as soon as we joined, unlike others in this group.
As we have already noted, the flag came after our first comment, which was simply to ask how we could get to know who the leaders of the @familyprotection group were, since they were forming a group and soliciting donations.
If you care to do a little research and see who were are, how long we have been around (pre-dating Steem), you would not even need to ask this question.
It seems others are receiving the same response from this group, as one of our readers at MedicalKidnap.com posted this comment about her experience here:
"Well. Brian, I can say that MedicalKidnap.com is an exceptional resource and one of the few credible resources available for parents and advocates fighting against CPS/Family Court corruption. I am sorry that you have been attacked in this way. Please do not let it discourage you from continuing your work to uncover the corruption and unlawfulness that is running rampant through Child Protection Agencies and the Family Court system.
I will give you my experience with this @familyprotection group and why I choose to have nothing else to do with them for the foreseeable future. I too have a Steemit account that I used to advocate for CPS exposure. I hadn't used it lately, but I was there the other day and saw this group. I read something from them and when I made my posts I used a tag that they were using. I can't remember now what it was, maybe #familyprotection. Well, I guess they thought they had "ownership" of that tag and started messing with me.
I still plan on using Steemit, but I will not be choosing to interact with that particular account and will definitely not be recommending them to any other families or advocates. If there is a mute or block option on Steemit, I will be employ it for them as I do not trust them to not attack MY account.
Again, thank you for all that you do and all of the hard work you pour into helping families!
Bite me once, shame on you. Bite me twice, shame on me.
Steer clear of @familyprotection is my advice.
Here is a recent interview Victurus Libertas did with Terri LaPoint. Sadly, Victurus Libertas got their YouTube channel shut down and are currently working on rebuilding:"
Our motive for being here is to have another platform, one that cannot be so easily censored, to expose this problem.
It would appear that others here also have a monetary/profit motive? It is the only reason I can think of as to why we have been criticized and questioned, just as you have just done. Are we somehow seen as a threat because of the monetary value being earned on this subject?
I wrote the post because we deal with hurting and abused families every day, and there are many imposters and spies in social media on this topic.
As I have already written, anonymous status is wise and even desired by many, but when one solicits funds to be given to a group that has leaders that are anonymous, that raises many red flags in our community outside of Steemit.
It is a shame that this has happened. We didn't come here looking for a fight, but we continue to be criticized and questioned, when in fact we are the ones with a public profile and history in this movement.
Doing the above is of no help verification wise. Surely, you realize that, right? Did you even read my promising new user information above? Anyone could come here, post a link to another webpage and say they are a famous person.
To verify yourself, you have to do the opposite. You have to link BACK to this new steemit account from your existing accounts. For example, I used to have Twitter, and I would link my steemit posts through that account.
Anyone can come to steemit and open an account. They can say they are anyone they want. I regularly go through new user's posts too looking for imposters. I know you are new to this platform, so perhaps you don't realize how many imposters there are.
Using an attractive woman's images or an already successful person's content off steemit to profit here is very common. I seek to stop as much of that abuse as possible. If people refuse to verify too, they will be flagged for it.
That is steemit's control system. No, there's no centralized censorship here, but there is community censorship. There has to be some form of protection after all, right? We, as a community, would be unwise to simply trust everyone who comes here to be who they say they are.
Again, the more famous a person is or the more valuable their content, the more important it is for them to verify their account. Verifying their account can be done poorly or well too. I highly suggest people with valuable content or good reputations to protect verify in the properly way.
How? You mention your account in a RT episode as Max Kaiser did. You post a link to your new steemit account on your Instagram account. You share your authored posts on steemit on your other social media sites. Posting anything here by itself is completely meaningless.
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On the contrary, that is exactly what DID happen.
Someone from the group contacted us via the contact form on MedicalKidnap.com and asked if we had joined Steemit. When we replied to the affirmative, it was apparently enough to satisfy everyone and the flag on our posts was removed.
No one seems to want to answer why we were presumed guilty until proven innocent. Why not ask for verification, politely, rather than make accusations, "We don't believe this is the real Health Impact News" and flag our posts right off the bat in a very confrontational, in-your-face method?
Do you honestly think everyone joining Steemit is going to invest in many hours of reading through all the guidelines, FAQs, etc. and immediately understand on their first day how Steemit operates?
What threat did we possess to this group that they had to take this action on our very first day on Steemit rather than explain things to us politely and try to work with us?
Is it because of the economic value of this topic that they see us as a threat?
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Wait. You posted that you provided a "direct link to our website with our contact page as soon as we joined" and that is very different from what you just wrote.
Someone had to make extra effort to verify you. You didn't initiate it or do it from the beginning as would have been better.
Perhaps they saw your comments, posts, votes, and wallet and thought they saw some red flags? I'm not sure why their distrust was so high at first.
You verifying properly would have helped avoid the issue though, right? :)
This is the second time you've mentioned "economic value." As I've stated before, myself and others work hard to make sure people with valuable content verify themselves. The reason we do is for the exact economic value you just mentioned.
Are you here for a long time and have a consistent record of doing good things? If you are, your reputation will quickly go higher and people with a lot of SP will upvote your posts and possibly delegate a lot of SP to you to support your efforts.
There's no mystery to how this place works. It does not work like other social media either.
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It is not different from anything I wrote. But feel free to continue arguing with yourself. I am sure you guys will gain a lot of new members to your cause who are currently not on Steemit this way.
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