Thanks again to @gregory-f for another wonderful submission for inclusion into the sewage pond of winners that swim amongst the turds as winners of an article about them for the “Shitpost Diaries”
Before getting into the epic winner of the day, an absolute “All Star” shit poster, let us briefly recap our successful efforts in dissuading a previous winner from their abusive ways and our successful attempts at limiting their ability to selfishly farm the rewards pool.
I’m referring to none other than @amanat1993 whom prior to us showing him so much love had created for himself quite the profitable little enterprise of posting random images of nothingness like this winner:
He then purchased votes from various bots on the last day before the post paid to farm the pool. Some of these “Shit Posts” exceeded $30 SBD in value and he was doing it extensively.
So how did our efforts pay off? Well aside from liberal flagging on spam posts that were due to pay we successfully had him blacklisted from @minnowbooster, got his delegated SP from @minnowbooster that he was using to upvote himself cancelled and brought him to the attention of @steemcleaners that went through and cleaned up quite a few of his postings. He also felt the need to reach out to me through wallet comments here:
https://steemit.com/@amanat1993/transfers
In fact we may have even had a mildly positive impact on his behavior as I do not see late term vote buying at current and even though I still think his recent posts are “meehh” he is adding some text to them now and purchasing his votes shortly after creating them as opposed to last minute. Also in looking at his blog you can see the profitability factor dropped dramatically once he ceased his shady ass behavior.
So that said, we can make a difference.
Enough, rambling on.. Let us get to the absolute soup sandwich that is the “Shit Post Diaries” winner of the day…. Are you ready for this?
I proudly present @shaileshgiri for perhaps a future spot in the Shit Post Diaries Hall of Shame; we shall see.
She posts winners like:
https://steemit.com/funny/@shaileshgiri/funny-hamster ; a stolen Youtube Video due to pay out in a few hours that she shamelessly purchases bot votes for.
So what makes @shaileshgiri so special? What makes her a standout shit poster head and shoulders above the rest? I think it is the fact that she has been shit posting since her very first day here.
Before going into details, let’s categorize her and explain exactly the type of Shit Poster she is. She is of the type that puts in 0 effort and literally goes to Youtube or any other video sharing site and link spams the work of another into her blog. She then waits till the 5 or 6 day mark, just before the post is due to pay and purchases a ton of upvotes from bots to prevent community intervention and cashes out.
Pretty simple really and a relatively common form of platform #abuse here at Steemit. For me I find this type of abuse to be particularly distasteful as it is so transparent, so common and does nothing more than dilute the new list and platform with garbage, garbage that only makes it more difficult to get noticed for those that actually do put in the work to create good content.
I do like that she actually did an introduction post, Her one and only piece of originality, however that was immediately followed up with a shit post:
https://steemit.com/photography/@shaileshgiri/i-captured-these-amazing-portraits
47 bot and purchased votes and 4 views. You can always tell a shit poster and vote buyer when the votes to views ratio is way off. From there she has created a smorgasbord of shit posts that comprise the entirety of her blog.
I did find some irony in the following excerpted piece from her introduction which I will translate into its more literal meaning.
”One day I do seek to be a blogger however. I'm enthusiastic about it yet perhaps not sufficiently energetic or possibly I'm quite recently stuck in the bluntness of schedule. Through blogging, I need to spread as much energy as I would which be able to is one of the fundamental explanations behind me to join this gathering.”
Translation:
”One day I would like to be a blogger, it’s a dream of mine, but quite frankly I’m lazy, don’t have the energy or dedication to create original content and would rather shit post my way to limited success through vote buying and other self serving practices. I can’t wait to spread as many shit posts as I can throughout my blog and buy late term votes to farm the rewards pool. That is basically the only reason that I joined the STEEMIT Community. “
So what do these lazy turd vomiting shit posters do with their ill gotten gains? I mean you would at least hope they would invest it in the platform..
Nope.. straight to Bittrex to cash out and say “fuck the community I got mine”
You will also noticed that the amount is increasing as she refines her shit posting style and uses a portion of her previous shit post proceeds to buy ever increasing amounts of votes from bots.
Do please join me in posting flagging some of her soon to pay shit posts and reporting said shit posts to @Steemcleaners.
Also please leave comments for @appreciator @buildawhale and @upme, her shit post upvote bots of choice to see if they will include her in their blacklist.
I suppose that is the main issue I have with the bots, that being no quality control, pure greed and a propensity to upvote whoever throw some SBD and a shit post their way.
Also feel free to use the neat badge below (created by @erodedthoughts) to call attention to other shit posts you find along the way. Typically if you comment his name he will help downvote GRADE A SHIT POSTS...
created by @erodedthoughts
Beep! Beep! @shadow3scalpel at your service. I am here to assist all military members on Steemit. This HumVee will be scouting posts from a list of Veterans that is maintained by @chairborne. If you are a Veteran and new to Steemit, and you have questions or want to join the Veterans community, reply to this comment. We got your six, unless you are in the rear with the gear. Ooh-Rah!
Comment by @inthenow. This is a opt-in bot.
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I think this person must have deliberately taken the piss https://steemit.com/new/@hshanto/tissue-paper
He doesn't bot farm but I just thought it can't get worse then that. Some of his posts get votes from busy but that's it really. Just thought it was funny and had to share.
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that is pretty sad in the grand scheme of things.. I'm somewhat less than impressed and it ranks right up there with the ceiling fan.. lol
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terrific post man.
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Thank you...
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Mate I love this. I can definitely send a few names your way if you need any.
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Of course.. I make the articles based on user submissions... :)
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Check out @kimjongpoo if you want a scam account.
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Hi, there, I have found quite a few shit posts today but I think I have found a repeat offender who last minute buys loads of upvotes and literally just link dumps other peoples youtube videos. tuhin2017 is the name. There is alot of posts and some are worded articles as you would expect on steemit, not sure if original though. Lately just link dumping though. An idea for your next one of these.
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Checking on it.. and he is a candidate..
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Haha, I've seen worse called art than the ceiling fan :)
The "fun image" tag though, now I'm trying to figure out how to have fun with a ceiling fan, you and the shit poster have started a dangerous line of though....
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a dangerous line?
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I undelegate 250 SP from @amanat1993. I didn't know that I was delegating SP to @amanat1993.
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Thank you and I appreciate your efforts in helping keep the site clean. That said may I ask a favor? and it is a big one. As I am continually working to keep the site clean, pointing out these types of abusers and actively downvoting them would it be to much to ask for you to delegate a small amount of SP in my direction to help my downvote power. You are more than welcome to check my voting history as most of my votes go towards followers, up voting comments written to me etc. I'm slowly making my way through the ranks but it will be a while before I have enough SP to make a serious impact on those abusing the system. Also as I see you are an active bot upvote purchaser, how profitable is it? What are your returns in % on SP spent over X time.. I am trying to learn more about the economy of these users and what their motivations are.. Thanks...
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Do you have steemit.chat or discord?
I'm @fbslo on steemit.chat and fbslo#8470 on discord.
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I have both, steemchat is usually easier.. I'll check in a second..
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I think I love the vibrant imagery you paint with your brush of words the most about these posts!
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Thanks... I try.. I just need more submissions.. It's hard to search them down as I trade most of the day or deal with being and "old dad" 40 to a 7 month old girl... :)
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Got a really interesting one you should look into. ryacha21.
Check her comments that are 7 days or older. I never seen so much rewards for just commenting. Thanks for speaking out.
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Not sure how I missed this comment but checking now..
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Good on you and we should be taking an active stand to these wankers who are reward raping the system by using bit bots and upvoting themselves on their shit posts
Some of these turds have become a bit smarter due to the banning and random checks or bid posts.
I call them the Golden shitposters because they know how to get away with it. Makes these shitposters look stupider.
Leaves a bad taste to people who do create content.
Flagged your featured shitposter today just .32 cents at 100% but if they take a lost will be worth it.
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Whats the name and do it without the @ and I will check it out... But yes it is pretty sad in the grand scheme of things how they act.. All I can do is call them out as I come across them and hope the community helps out.. You can check my https://steemd.com/@pawsdog I flag them as I find them.. More importantly I draw attention to them and hopefully others with more power can do the rest. In the one above look at all of her 5 day posts and how they are all voted up and due to pay.. She already has the next batch in que and will be doing the same as they get to 5 days.
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These shitpost diaries are probably my favorite posts you've started doing. Gave the lovely shaileshgiri a couple flags for whatever my 0.01 vote is worth.
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Hey every bit counts... :)
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What an amazing shit poster! She totally wins a spot in the shit post hall of fame! Before you translated her intro post for us,
All I understood here was exactly what you said. You could not have translated it any better.
Onward to the flagging
The upvote bot helping this plagiarist win is not grumpycat compliant as they only require 5 days or newer
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Thanks, I appreciate it... So many of them... so many... and they are getting smarter. There is one I know of that basically paraphrases wiki articles and posts them and then bot purchases a shit ton of upvotes to the tune of $80 or more.. check my wallet transaction notes for that info and give me your opinion.. It may not be shit posting per say but it is abusive of the rewards pool..
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That is unbelievable. I read a post a while ago about how steemit is turning into rephrased content. Why am I wasting my time posting anything original when I can make 50 SBD from paraphrasing a wiki article?
I find it hard to promote this platform when I see these things happening. "Hey friend, join Steemit, you'll make money. But don't plagiarize! Don't abuse the system! ... Oh hey, by the way, check out this plagiarists and abusers BANKING off the system!"
I can literally exchange 1-5 ethereum for a bunch of SBD, post a bunch of crap (I too can paraphrase), pay for upvotes and I'll be a Steemit Millionaire in no time. Better yet, I can double the money and get my eth back.
Not saying that I would, but what's stopping anyone else when the abuse goes mostly unpunished?
"Join Steemit" they said.
"You'll get paid for your original content" they said.
"People who don't follow these guidelines will have low rep accounts" they said.
They Lied
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I agree, and that is why I am waiting on wildspark and synero amp...:)
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@upme @buildawhale and @appreciator are the ones I see upvoting the most shitposts.
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Because they have the larger amount of voting power.
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It wasn't to say that they are bad just need to do more to not upvote bad posts. You know, with great voting power comes great responsibility.
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What you suggest we do? 80% of Steemit is spam and plagiarism.
Got ideas? I'm all ears. Blacklist an account, they create another one.
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Well it's work and usage would fall but what about white listing? Say something like, new users can only use the service at its minimum payout level for say the first 3 times, then their limits increases after a human takes a look at the previous three posts? Sort of a semi moderated reputation system within the bot.
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There is a certain level of entertainment that goes on around here. It's a big part of the business. When trying to entertain, and abuse is taking place even if it's something as simple as a songrequest feature, you take that feature away from the users til you can correct the issue. If you can't correct the issue then perhaps it may not be worth doing.
This would also take further thought, because I am not exactly wanting you to shut down your profitable business but if your profitable business is hurting the community, we are all a part of the same community. Even if you have your own little community set up in one corner, if your community is hurting, so is mine and vice versa. We are in this together, it is us. It's not you and me and this guy and that guy. It's us, all of us.
I think one thing that brings value, and what brought me, to the platform was the idea of manual curation. If 80% of the people using your service are plagiarists and abusers, why should 90% of the entire community suffer to benefit 20% of your community when we're all in the same community? Or is it that 80% of STEEMIT as a whole are abusers, thus making it hard to bar 80% of the accounts from using your upvote service? This just tells me that buying upvotes isn't exactly working as expected.
So when you ask for a solution, I am honored to have your ear and hopefully I can give you ideas now and in the future because we are all in this together and it is up to us to come to a solution when presented with a problem in a decentralized environment. When it comes to automated curation, I just don't think STEEMIT is there yet.
Proper automated curation would probably fall under the term Artificial Generated Intelligence (AGI) which yes I am literally pointing at SingularityNET and Sophia the Robot because what you are trying to accomplish with upvote bots is a system of artificial intelligence.
With that said, it is important to know that in most cases, cheatahbot and steemcleaners probably don't communicate with eachother autonymously in the same way that AI (Sophia the Robot) plans on communicating with other AI like herself in the future.
I am not sure if your bots uses a SQL database to get Steemit data, but some kind of solution needs to be made. It is a hard problem to solve in the name of decentralization but if we want automated curation then AI implementation is really the only way to go. Blacklists are only temporary, can cause problems and can be biased. which means we need more people working on it and more time spent/wasted on flagging or adding people to a blacklist, whether it is a central blacklist site that all upvote bots adhere by.
It doesn't solve the problem of the user being able to create an account, but doing nothing in the name of profit just seems like the wrong approach. Obviously you agree in some way because you're open to suggestions.
Again I don't exactly want you to have to shut down your service but maybe even a temporary one to hurt the plagiarists a little. I know even making such a suggestion might even be rage inducing and completely out of the question, which means even for automated curation, you can't fully depend on automated curation. At least for the time being, so literally policing every post that gets promoted should be checked. It eliminates automated curation but still allows you to sell upvotes.
I don't quite believe in it, because I think buying an upvote defeats the purpose a little. I think it creates false value. An illusion. The abusers see it and they take advantage, and cash out to bittrex every time.
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I agree, vote selling by its very nature hurts the purist ideals of the platform..
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@themarkymark good to see a larger player in the game on the article... Thanks for commenting and I'm sure there are solutions. The most probable one and its early this a.m. so my brain is not 100% is essentially quality control. That would eliminate a large portion of the garbage. The problem with the bots is that they automatically perform their tasks regardless of content quality.
This is efficient for the bot owner as it allows them to be hands off and generate revenue much like I do with ubercart and my many websites that sell digital products, courses, classes books etc.. That said and my market is a bit different I have no control over whom my customers are as anyone that checks out and has paypal gets what they pay for.
The same applies here. Perhaps the only solution would be to unautomate the bots bots in some fashion with additional code that limits max upvotes per day, or requires some form of human interface prior to an upvote such as an "are you sure" pop up or something. Again likely unreasonable as many the run the bots are also highly influential members of the site and are less than motivated to take a course of action that could limit their steady profit stream.
The most likely probability is that like the market, them all being on one side of the trade will bring it to its knees and swing it the other way and turn Steemit into the next myspace. As there is competition for this niche Synero AMP, WildSpark etc. It is most likely that without intervention of some sorts, the bot owners promoting the shit content will bring about their own demise and loss of steem value as the quality of the site continues to plummet into shitsville.
No matter how you slice it, some form of stricter moderation is needed here. The anarchist principle is good in theory but not when running a business enterprise. There needs to be direction, policies and penalties. Also if you like the article, or it inspired thought.. toss an upvote..
Thanks.
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I was about to go to bed and saw your comment here. There is one thing that really stood out to me that you said. It was Quality Control.
Quality control is so important. The lack of quality control involved with the rewards pool and more importantly, the buying of upvotes is astounding.
By astounding I mean astronomical. This is coming from someone who knows all about quality control.
I was a Land Surveyor. I still have the skill to go do a Land Survey of your property. It is a skillset that I've retained and I won't forget.
Being a Land Surveyor requires so much Quality Control it's ridiculous. When I set a property corner, my accuracy needs to be within a few hundredths of an inch. 0.03. Even that is too much. We want 0.00 to 0.01 (especially with a property corner)
When I set the corner to a building, along with the height in which the concrete slab will sit at. The precision required for this is within 3 hundredths of an inch. Zero room for error. Quality Control is a must, because without it, the engineers build the corner half a foot into the easement. Then they have to knock the building down. Failing to adhere to strict Quality Control protocols is detrimental to any business. Steemit functions a lot like a business.
Before I pick up my equipment, I must perform a backcheck. This is by pointing a laser at a traverse point. If I am off by more than 10 seconds of a degree I have to document it, and try to find out at what shot I bumped my gun. A car driving by rattling its exhaust, or a harley davidson, could shake my gun enough to throw my traverse point off by 2 miles. Quality control is a must.
If you think you can overlook quality control, you're overlooking a key concept to a successful business.
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just read your answer to my other comment. nice to see you made your own schedule :)
i love the 'grade a shitpost'-badge, definitely going to use that one if i find something deserving that very 'special' kind of reward...
nice to see that you seem to have some kind of impact and some are (at least trying to) improve their content and get out of 'shitpost-range'.
keep it up!
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Thanks, if I get a good sumbission and the market it not to busy I try and put something together.. It seems as if people enjoy it and my writing style in this regard. As long as the community enjoys it I'll keep them up..
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