An Ode to Spam

in steem •  6 years ago  (edited)

I'm sure there is no social media platform that does not have its fair share of spam, and if there is one, please point it out so we can call some science people to check it out. The truth is that it comes with the territory, there is always going to be people who spam attempting to rig the game, and those who do so unknowingly.



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Not all spam is the same


I have not ran any numbers on the matter, but it seems to me that most of the spam that happens on a network comes from inexperienced users. People who for one reason or another, believe that the best way to interact is by leaving random generic comments with little to no substance at all. In truth this type of spam is so common, that for the most part we can call it benign, meaning that yes, it does consume bandwidth, yes it's not ideal but aside from that it's not really destroying the platform, nor does it threaten to do so.

On the other hand, we have bad actors who are spamming networks with phishing links, and other mischievous scams attempting to lure, trick and deceive other users. We think of these accounts, these little spammy spammers as bad people, but truth be told some of them where victims themselves, and have lost their accounts to the bad actors who we would be generous enough to label them hackers for the sake of argument.

Steem's huge battle against spam


In its current format, with the current code cannot be won. At least it can not be done effectively. In the name of controlling spam we have created bots (us as a community) that tell the spammers to stop, thus spamming themselves. This is somewhat comical and it reminds me of the hilarious idea of fornicating in the name of virginity and purity. Now, this is not to say we should not do something, that we should not attempt to clean our network, of course not, I'm simply making the observation that the weed, simply grew out of another crack in the cement.

Code could fix it


Or in the very least control it to the point to where the bad actors, that is the spam farmers, don't have the monetary incentive to flood the blockchain with their proverbial garbage. A little while ago @timcliff proposed a possible solution to this gargantuan problem. His idea needless to say, was not well received, but we have to admit it could be effective.

If you subscribe to the TLDR crowd, it can be summed up with making dialing the dust vote tolerances higher. Meaning that if a comment or post did not hit the 0.02 threshold the payout for said post would be effectively zero.

If your mind started to race, and you started to feel sorry for our tiny plankton accounts who struggle to make any headway on Steem, then you will probably be on the side of the isle that somewhat attacked him, just because he suggested it.

We need to be a little more pragmatic


And not allow our emotions to get the best of us. Without a doubt the growth of our blockchain is not helped in the slightest by the proliferation of the spam farms. You might think I'm exagerating a bit, and I would not blame you in the slightest. Before digging into this subject myself I remember thinking - "Pfff.. How much could they actually extract??" - Only to find out the number is in the ten of thousands on a weekly basis.

You read that right, its not pennies as you might think simply by seeing those ridiculous comments on your posts.

You could do your part


Which is to say, that as much as I'm not one to advocate for violence, the little flag on the top of a comment or post was designed for exactly this purposes. We are supposed to be a community that self polices, that understand the value of the blockchain and is also aware of its detrimental ailments.

My point is that if you see a spammer, if you see someone who is purposely "attacking" the wealth of the blockchain, don't just let it slide. Report it to SteemCleaners, if you don't have enough SP in your wallet, but allowing the spam to roam "free" if you will, goes against your own financial interests too.

If however, the user is someone new, someone who does not know what spam is all about. Do the right thing, let that person know what is the proper way of interacting on the blockchain, and we can do this while at the same time being kind.

I wonder, how many spam comments this post will get, it would be ironic, funny, but ironic...


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SteemCleaners also pays out a little for people to report to them. It's one of the better ways for new/small users to make a little SP. I wish it was promoted better.

Yes of course, this reminds me, its probably a good idea to bring this up next monday too. Its a good reminder for everyone.

Even though we have a handful of things to counter and fight spam and spammers, it's actually weird that we haven't seen anything major from Steemit inc if you ask me. On the other hand, I don't see much from them at all, except for some "super-cool-amazing-SMT-updates" and whatever.. Sigh.

I wrote a post several months ago. Now, I don't know how to make it happen, or if it would be possible for that matter, but I did get an upvote from Dan on the post... So I guess he agreed with something of the things I said at least.

What I was looking for, or what I was trying to suggest, was some form of -rep and a way to report people if they were repeat-spammers. My suggestion was not only bound to Steemit though, I would've loved to see the same "report-thing" implemented on Steem.chat and Discord too. For all the spammers who simply send you direct messages with urls for their articles.

Upvote-beggars are disgusting... And I've been trying to teach newcomers how to approach Steemit and how to behave.. But it's impossible to teach everyone.

Oh btw.
"Wow... good post" ;)

Are you using Steem Plus, because the Sincerity Database is super cool. In which by the way you are surprisingly 100% human. That is pretty amazing, because last time I checked I was human too, but according to the database I'm 1.7% bot.

How can you know How much bot you are, wanna know.
I see some some soam from newbies that is not bad intended, they attach they think it is not bad seen. So I just point out, we must also be tolerant until people learn especually newcomers. Those who know better, they teach. It is on us too. Then there is obvious blatant and sometimes malicious spams.

Of course my dear friend, I only flag/report the blatantly ill intended. The rest, I try to educate... sometimes I say a funny, but I don't assume they are "evil".

Nope. I'm not using Steem Plus. I've heard about it before but never looked into it. 100% human you say? - Well, that's what I'm hoping for... :D

Edit:
The asapers use it though.

Well as much as I share your skepticism for the upcoming updates. They have been promised since before Korea had nukes after all. If, and I'm saying If we implement Hive/Communities we could do something of the sort.

Accounts could be labeled Spammy Spammers and the community could render them inert. Meaning, they could post, but not make any money. Which is both cool and scary.

Cool and scary, yeah. I agree, but I also think it's necessary to actually punish spammers in some way so they learn. I probably get 2-3 messages on Discord each day, and all of them are from upvote-beggars.

"Please dear, kind, best Sir. I want your upvote and you have my blessing for life."

I hate it. I tried, for a very, very long time, to reason with these people. To tell them how to behave and approach Steemit. I did everything I could to help them. To teach them... And it was all for nothing.

Nowadays, I ignore most of my messages, but that means that I'll actually miss out on something good or genuine too occasionally.

However, now I'm talking more about off-Steemit than on-Steemit. The spammy comments I get on my articles are boring and annoying too obviously, but I don't get as many comments nowadays as I got a few months back, so I'm okay with them.. Well, I don't have any problems to just ignore them.

The agreed upon solution to my understanding is the next fork will introduce 3 changes. First, a fee taxed onto SP. This will mean when you are a new user, you'll have to have ~2SP before you can have any effective presence. And a 10SP user will be voting like an 8SP user. So a new user will either have to power up or transfer or delegate SP, effectively exposing their connections if any. Secondly, there will be no more delegations from Steem Inc. So new users won't be able to just sign up 100 accounts on 15sp each and start business. Not sure yet if all outstanding delegations will be withdrawn or not. Third, the dust vote is totally going away. So real users with real steem power can give and get their teeny votes. That's great for someone who was like me whos first investment was only a few hundred dollars.

I use steemcleaners frequently but I'm very strict about what I report because I believe strongly in the premise of it being a censorship free blockchain. Also, flagging spam can waste bandwidth and votes because it doesn't go anywhere- it just hides it in condenser and removes the reward. I think the downvote is really best for removing money and preventing phishing, but otherwise it's a waste. I see a lot of wasted votes on downvoting too, and I don't support that really (like downvoting welcome bot or grammarnazi, etc.) No shade I just think it's a waste on both ends.

I do report all malicious code or nefarious attempts of hijacking users. I also report when someone rips off another Steemian's work if they can prove it, or if they're someone I know and they feel strongly about it. I do however think those hackers have a right to do what they're doing to some degree. But their code on the loose does not have inherent rights. ☝️

I guess you can say that's my ethical compromise.

As for the new users or those who don't speak English, I think it's always good to educate or ignore. I try to be an example of not overreaching, and also try to be an example of not giving unsolicited advise-- although we all suck at both. Work in progress.

P.s. I totally blasted @timcliff post but I ended up voting for him too haha. He's a good sport. I'm going to go updoots him randomly now.

hahahhaah you little rebel you!

The only reason I'm railing natural selection on this one is because I don't have better bots to out bot the bots that would be left if all the humans leave. Lol ;)

Yes, we need a bot to counter the bots that are trying to counter the bots who tried to counter us in the first place. That's what I've been telling the devs, but they want to find a solution that runs parallel to the divergent and I tell them all the time. What did I just say? They are both confused and inspired.

Yes, right... NO!

hahahah but listen... I serious... See if you can guess my puzzly puzzle... you can do it..

climbs on a chair

New idea! Make whale bot. Put in 2,000,000 loan. Make a few special upvotes. Withdraw and payback loan. >_< I didn't say that out loud. Going to see post.

You are really funny brother with this, though you have a good point, steemcleaner should be giving role to enlighten people more just like giving them warning before the flag, since majority of spam is from the new users who have little or no idea how things words on here, do you agree with me on this.?

Yes of course, we must try to be patient with the new users. Show them how to interact... My call for action is more for the spam farms (upvoting themselves) and the phishing spam links.

All spam is bad but sometimes thinks look spammy to one and not another...

Agreed, on the phishing links front though I think its easy to tell... but sometimes the user that just says...

"Wow... good post"

Is just unaware of how this whole thing works.

This is an important post ... with which I fundamentally disagree. Yes, kinda' unexpected, right ? Therefore I wrote a post to explain why I disagree:
Spammers gonna spam - focus on original content!

This must be some sort of synchronicity...

checks for safety flaws on his computer

hahahah ok, on my way to read...

hahahaha....