Cleaning up Spam is like Raking Leaf Litter

Each LEAF is like a Single Spam Post or Comment!

I work for a relatively small business, and while my normal work is behind a desk, the Fall affords me an outside duty. Leaf PATROL. Yes, we have big beautiful leaf-prolific-trees surrounding the building, and I have the duty of managing the leaf litter.

So, I am outside yesterday raking up some leaves and the wind starts to pick up. The wind started to do my job for me. It was blowing the leaves and even blowing them off of our property. For a second I thought about stopping. For a second I was going to let the wind do the work and go back inside to my warm, comfy desk chair. But I decided not to, and here is why.

As I was thinking about it, I knew that the wind doesn't always blow in the same direction. And these leaves that I let ESCAPE today, may be back in greater droves tomorrow. Additionally, any and all leaves that I gathered up and removed from the leaf litter would be less leaves that our neighbors would have to deal with. So, me continuing to rake and blow and gather up all the leaves I could, was good for the ecosystem!

This is a good analogy with SPAM. If you ignore Spam, even a single leaf, it will pile up and grow and become a big problem. I believe that the Steemit community as a whole has been ignoring Spam long enough. A spammy comment here. A questionable post there. A little plagiarism that is funny.

It has all been ignored by most Steemians in their day to day 'travels' within the Steemit universe.

And now.....NOW those Spam posters, and comment upvote farmers have learned that THEY CAN earn money just cooking COPYPASTA and SHitPosTs and Using Account Creation Farms to STEAL FROM the STEEM REWARD POOL.

We are now dealing with a large, wet, stinky, rat infested 'leaf pile' of rotting SPAM POSTS!

This won't do. We need to FLAG it when we see it! We need to Report it when we see it! We need to Speak up and warn them that this type of comment spam is not acceptable. This type of proactive effort will GREATLY work to improve the Steemit ecosystem by discouraging and stopping negative, harmful, ugly behaviour. And yes, we should speak to newbies when it seems they maybe don't realize it is wrong. We SHOULD encourage them to post original work, and comment with honest engagement.....or not at all.

This action of Flagging, Explaining and Reporting is like Composting the Leaves in a good way. We gather them, we shred them, and we turn the compost pile so it doesn't get stinky!

Let's work together with @steemcleaners, @spaminator, @patrice and myself @public-eye and Everyone that is working to nurture Steemit into a clean, welcoming, healthy and productive platform!!

Thank you, and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!