I'm not certain what precisely went on respecting this incident. But here is a thing of which I am certain:
@trumanity / @oneazania is a good and honorable man and is an asset to the blockchain in general, and a huge asset to the poetry community in particular.
There is precisely ZERO chance that he is involved with any kind of SCAM. If you see something of his that has been flagged as such, it is most certainly erroneous. I am willing to stake my reputation upon it.
Recently, I wrote a Series of Articles about "How to Fix Steemit." The second article in the series discussed the issue of Downvoting in general, and Censorship Downvoting specifically. It also discussed a proposal to address this increasing problem. I highly suggest you give it a read.
Here's another couple that are pertinent:
Throughout the Series, one of my themes is the necessity to start including the "human element" into the system, whether in adjudicating conflicts or with respect to the curation of content.
"Commie! Dictator! Fascist! Nazi!"
Cryptocurrencies were created, and are largely run by, 20- to 30-somethings who believe that algorithms can, and will, solve all of the world's problems. No Rulers, No Rules is their mantra. Human involvement, in any form other than their own (because they still have to have Lambos), constitutes blasphemy, a moral sin.
Indeed, I have discussed, at length, how this belief has become a "ideology" akin to a "religion."
As a 50-year-old, I can assure them, and you, that they are wrong.
Computers have an IQ of zero and algorithms are incapable of "exercising discretion," using common-sense to adjudicate the particulars of a situation as opposed to blindly applying a series of IF/THEN statements.
One of my central proposals was the creation and implementation of a Sheriff & Jury system. In essence, the election of 2-3 full-time Sheriffs who would ferret out Offensive Behaviors (as defined by the community and articulated in formal Rules of Conduct) and refer them to a randomly selected, and anonymous, Jury of Three Steemians for adjudication. Offensive Behaviors, I submitted, would include SPAM and SCAMs.
@arcange's algorhythm's made a mistake and, to his credit, he quickly admitted the mistake and made a public apology. So ... no harm, no foul, right?
Maybe. Maybe not. The "story" always gets a lot more play than does the "retraction." Are there people who saw the allegation, but not its negation? Are they now talking about this via DM and in Discord chatrooms? Have they un-followed Trumanity as a result? Did the allegation trigger curation-bots to blacklist him?
No one knows. But if it can happen to him, it can happen to me and it can happen to you.
The broader issue is why such as bot is required in the first place. I have argued it's because there are no Rules of Conduct, and no practical method of enforcing them even if there were.
Bots are created when no human alternative exists. So what's standing in the way of a human alternative ... the ideological objections of the "crypto-anarchists / anarcho-capitalists" ... and yes, "anarchy" is a name they sport proudly.
Oh ... what a hero.
Quill
@quillfire it is not everyday a person receives the kind of public support in the form of a testimony like this. It is a bit cliche to say in this case, that one can't sufficiently express gratitude and appreciation, because appreciation isn't a description enough of my experience of this act of yours - you have performed an act of of testimony or witnessing to another person's character and value here. I am not convinced the description of me is accurate, but your saying so encourages me to keep doing what I do.
I was pleasantly surprised by the response from arcange, an operator of a bot who acted responsibly here. I am left still processing how the human actor behaved - why the flags, bro - and why the lack of apology. I ask the question knowing that I have to come to a conclusion myself, but hoping the conclusion I am drawing is wrong. When I am completed with my impressions, one day later, I will be told my impressions and conclusions are erroneous. No doubt. I always hold out hope for people - always. As do I the same on myself - we are always in a process of becoming.
A few weeks ago, I came across a thread where I was dumbfounded to read that YOU of all people was being called out for spamming. Unsurprisingly, it was nothing of the kind. You were drawing people's attention to publicly available facts, and others were taking issue with your the bringing into light of such facts. Calling your informative text spam, was their pathetic response. I wonder, if you won a top spot in a contest - publicly-available information, and I used pre-formatted html code to let you know of your win, would you say it is spam Perhaps those who lost the competition would be the ones complaining - the losers, as it were. Well. Call it spam all you like. Simple rule of thumb, it is probably not spam if you have no need to offer the recipient a means to opt out of receiving further messages.
At the time I saw this accusation against you, I was afraid to say anything, to stand witness or provide testimony for you - as you have done here. Calling foul in a fowl place, would lead to no good end. When one observes the impunity with which such things can be done to someone such as yourself, and to see zero reaction from everyone else, drew my awareness to the fact we inhabit a jurisdiction where mob rules and fear and greed appear to surface as the strongest factors. But is it so? We exist at the mercy of the mob and the basest of tendencies of the various players in that mob, are allowed free reign. that which is the most common or basest of reactions, being the most common one in a situation, suggest that we are all of this most common nature? I think not.
Here are no gavels, just pitch forks. In defence of the members of the crowd, they are not all necessarily cowards (though I felt I was acting cowardly to remain silent). Cowardly-aggressive actions against others, occur with impunity not because other people are cowards, but because there is no enforcement of law, or there is no law. Laws are sensible, enforcement of sensible laws requires procedures that are logical. A relinquishing of almighty power too, from the hands of am elite, to the hands of logic, fairness, etc. Those who would oppose sense, are those who prefer rule by violence. In such circumstances, the wiser route is silence. The wiser route may even be violence. The wisest would be to challenge it as you are doing.
Here is a hymnal and from it is being sung... Write your own hymns and then sing them at your peril. Let us stand in peril together then.
We need to to scrutinise the term witness. What is the nature of a witness? Ought he or she not take a pledge to remain accountable to the end user as well as to the corporation? Rules of conduct are a good thing - reggaemuffin has written on a related topic - adoption of hard fork - requirements. I have to wonder if that will find any traction. I hope that it does and if so, that when/if it does, it doesn't descend into a PR farce .. i drift off topic here. or maybe not.
Your suggestions have a lot of merit in my opinion. You know that I keep reading the series, and remain engaged as far as I can - given that it is not my area really - I am just a fly on the wall, an observer of actions and drawer of conclusions ;-) These incidents will happen as long as we do not have a method to arbitrate or to enforce ways that mitigate against the harm that they cause.
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@trumanity,
No problem, brother.
Quill
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Interesting that this was handed to me a few moments ago but I wasn't tagged in the post.
One of the many things @arcange does on this site is look for phishing attacks and he is more right than wrong. I have many new accounts that appear in my comments section who could click on such links unknowingly. So, caution first. I removed the flag when @arcange identified them as incorrect.
The issue isn't just "check the blog to see" because as this user themselves proves, that is not good enough in a world of alts. The ones you mention are not their only and they have been around the platform for quite some time as far as I know and some of the alts are not so pleasant in their approach. This for example is an interesting case considering I was not tagged yet my name was mentioned. Interesting approach.
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Your apology could not be found beneath the excuses and innuendo.
Why would I tag someone who doesn't read comments and instead flags them? You flagged the comment i left containing a link (you could easily have seen the link wasn't the same as the phishing scam btw).. one might at a push, concede to your excuse there, but what's your reason for having flagged the other comment?
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There is no apology. I acted in the best interest of my followers on information I trust until proven otherwise. Once @arcange updated the comment, I removed the flag. I have nothing to apologise for as there was no intentional harm done. Your feelings about it are your own, I can't control those.
I have gone through and flagged entire streams of phishing comments in the past. Phishing scams cost a lot here in user experience and I have spent my time in chats trying to get people's stolen accounts back. Give it a go sometime.
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Do you know that by hovering over a link, you can ascertain if the link goes to the phishing site or not? Give it a go sometime. You were willing to carelessly flag my comment without checking if it actually was a scam.
You say no harm was done? How many people saw my account named as a scam? @arcange found it within himself to apologise for a mistake in his bot code - he has an excuse, you have no excuse for having done what you did.
You speak about going through lists of phishing comments.. does that mean comments with suspicious links in them? The second comment you flagged had no link it, so I ask you again - what gave you the impression it was a phishing comment? My impression of you is at an all-time low right now. If you do not wish to raise that impression, that is fine. Be on your way.
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p.s. feelings don't come into it, in a real world scenario, this slander whether as you say, purposeful or not, would have constituted sufficient grounds for a civil action, with ample grounds to claim for damages. so I find your demeaning approach to minimise this into one about hurt feelings, more than offensive. Very disappointing indeed. smh
@arcange apologised for the mistake, but you seem to be of a different calibre. nevermind
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