A broken reputation is perhaps the hardest of all things to rebuild; yet, what does having a reputation on Steemit actually mean?
I'm sure many new and maybe older Steemians have wondered what that little grey circle, containing a small (hopefully) double digit number next to your username actually means.
Obviously the number itself is derived from an algorithm that among other things, will take number of posts to votes ratio into account.
Hence a new user may have a rep score of 25, however once you start posting and commenting on people's articles, they vote for you and your rep starts to increase.
One of the benefits of a higher rep is a greater trust level. For instance the amazing Fluffy Bank Of Neoxian, run by the Steemit user @neoxian will loan you cash in the form of SBD, but only if you have a minimum rep of 55.
There are other benefits to an enhanced reputation, such as the social proof aspect of it. A high rep is a symbol that marks you as somebody who has been vetted by the community.
A new user with a rep in the 50s or 60s is a sign that they have been handsomely rewarded for their content, indicating the higher quality of posts they put out. Which in turn will persuade more people to follow and vote for them.
These are all obvious things, and nothing new in the grand scheme of social media. However the negative effects of bad reputation on Steemit, are being ignored by a lot of new users, and I'm beginning to think it's because they don't quite understand how things work around here.
Let me explain, because if you are in the category of new user who doesn't care about your rep, I think you will care after reading this.
The Ghosts In The Steem Machine
So votes earn you rep points, the flip side of that is, flags lose you points.
The more flags you get the lower your reputation slides, if you get enough whale flags, a minus sign will appear next to that little grey number.
Occasionally somebody will flag a post because they don't agree with the opinion expressed in the article. However this is fairly rare on Steemit, unless you are openly hateful, your views are unlikely to be flagged, especially whale flagged.
No, the thing that gets people's heckles up more than anything else, is spam. In that respect Steemit is no different from any other internet community. Where Steemit differs, is that the penalties for spam are much greater.
The worst thing about this punishment, is its silent, you won't even realise it's happening to you . . . slowly, but surely, you are becoming a ghost.
Where The Ghosts Roam
When you become a Steemit ghost, nobody but you can see your posts, and I'm not just talking about a comment that has a hidden sign next to it. I mean none of your posts will show up on any feed anywhere, even with a hidden sign.
You exist in the realm between the blockchain and physical reality, for ever cursed by a silence that you can't see.
You're invisible, without a face without a voice, you can post as much as you want, but that's it, you won't be seen.
Once that rep hits zero, that's it, you're gone, your posts destined to make $0.00 forever more ... . . .
You still exist on the blockchain of course, and if you or anyone else with the know how and the will to, can find your posts on the graphene blockchain.
But for anyone else visiting Steemit, you are a nobody, if they do by some weird miracle, stumble across your profile page, it will just be a page of ghosted posts, they won't even know your name.
Perhaps they'll wonder why you are ghosted, maybe they'll even reveal some of your posts, but even if they do, it won't be long before they shy away. As is natural in the human race, nobody wants to associate with the pariahs.
The End Of Doom & Gloom
So all is not lost; do not despair yet! You can save your reputation, it might be 11 now, but tomorrow it could return to 25 and beyond.
Perhaps after awhile, after you have behaved properly for some weeks or months, you can write a post about how you have fixed the error of your ways. Maybe the votes that the article gains will bring you back from the brink.
Just remember the higher your rep, the more likely your posts will make anything, it is not a guarantee. The only guarantee on Steemit, is a rock-bottom reputation, will ensure that you make nothing.
Think Kaiser Soze in the Usual Suspects
...and poof! Just like that, he's gone. My guess is, you'll never see him again.
HAVE YOU FULL REALISED THE HORROR OF A ZERO REPUTATION SCORE? DO YOU POST YOUR LINKS ON UNRELATED BLOGS, OR LEAVE SPAM COPY AND PASTE COMMENTS ON HUNDREDS OF ARTICLES? IF SO BEWARE, YOU COULD BECOME A GHOST!
IF YOU HAVE ANY COMMENTS, AS EVER, LET ME KNOW BELOW.
havent read your whole thing yet, but i was writing along the same lines as you (but i work a full time job that has TOO much OT and it takes me much longer to push things out)
But there is an underlying issue with the vote to view count. Many people arbitrarily upvote to try and earn curation rewards and the reality is that its very difficult to get your work seen (at least in my opinion)
You wrote a bit about having low rep count and your post not being listed anywhere on the steemit.com plaform (but maybe it will show up on the busy.org platform).
Regardless, there is a saturation of the middle group of people with rep counts in the 50-60 range. Where do our post go? Because I have a hard time getting views without using promotional services such as bid based bots.
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Yes unfortunately this is a whole other issue; I wanted to focus on the spammers. Because they believe that spamming will earn them rewards, when exactly the opposite is true.
As for honest Steemians trying to get seen, it is hard, however their posts aren't hidden like the ghosts. Instead they're hard to find, there seems to be a lot going on behind the scenes.
I'm hoping that the introduction of groups, or sub-steems will help alleviate that problem somewhat.
Hang in there, and Steem on!
Cg
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yes! the communities features thats been talked about is going to be a huge deal maker for steemit. While tagging posts can do the same thing, it doesnt allow us to band together under a single umbrella. The more you think about it, the more steemit is going to reflect reddit.
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Thank you for this post @cryptogee. I never saw it explained like that but it makes a great deal of sense.
I read that the future of the internet will be reputation based. Since we have long paid third parties to act as the "trust agent" we are in need of a new model. The reputation based upon what one did on the blockchain appears to be this model.
I was not aware that those who hit zero rep became a ghost. Heck, I believe I even saw one or two with negative reps. I guess this shows there is a lot of incentive to flag those posts that are spam in nature.
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Thanks for stopping by @taskmaster4450, I'm glad you found the post informative and useful :-)
Like you say, the future of the internet will be largely based on rep. Maybe you've read The New Netocracy? That book predicted way back in 2000 that reputation would be a major factor in the new informationalist society.
The blockchain is accelerating that world ever closer...
Once you go to negative rep, it's very hard to fight your way back, by that time you are continually being flagged for your misdeeds. In fact most negative rep accounts have a flotilla of flag bots attached to them.
The bots flag any and every comment they make, usually the owners let the accounts know who they are, so that they can redeem themselves. But they never do...
Cg
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Thanks for the info @cryptogee.
I would presume, at that point, might as well open a new account. No way to salvage the old one.
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Ah yes, I was waiting for someone to say that, of course that will work up till a point. Say a person was doing annoying but harmless spam, and they realise that they're beyond redemption and open a new account, that could be fine.
So they open a new account and apologise or don't even mention before and build a great rep.
However I've seen cases whereby people open new accounts and their troubles just follow them. Either they carry on in the same vein, or their misdemeanours are so big, it gets found out who they are in the real world.
This is why when people reveal who they really are on Steemit, it is valued very highly.
Cg
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Interesting! I am always watching my rep score. I didnt realize that there are ghosts that we cant see!
None of us should be spamming. I feel bad for people who get caught up in flagging wars.
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Yes that's the point :-) It is a genius device to keep us from those that would see this platform as another chance to spam and make money from that spamming.
Imagine if that wasn't there, a nefarious spammer could create a thousand bot accounts to spam as many posts as possible, and then create another thousand to vote for the spam.
The comment section on each post, instead of being a space for debate and comment, would become a spammer's paradise.
This way, no matter how many spam accounts you create, they will all eventually get ghosted, and you won't make a penny.
The scenario I described above happened last year; then knowledgeable people in the community got together and created tools like @steemcleaners.
Flagging wars are sad, especially as their are no winners, everyone involved is damaging their rep in more ways than one.
Cg
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I think it was great that the community got together to create @steemcleaners! We solve our own problems! A lot of these copy pasta spammers have been stopped dead in their tracks!
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When I was just starting in forums I was a violator thinking that I was being funny but it did made me realize that I was doing the wrong things. And I changed, I got reformed and learned.
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Exactly, I think in the early days when we were all growing up it was not as meaningful as it is now, especially when you bring the blockchain into the equation :-)
Cg
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I ain't 'fraid of no ghost..
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Cg
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Nice post.. Steem on.. But I'm not a steemit ghost. Lol
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Haha, no sorry, I didn't mean that, I meant that if you're finding it hard to get your good honest content out there, you should keep the faith that things will get better, tools will emerge :-)
Cg
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Great post with useful information...being one of those new members I am working to create useful content, but it can be tough to get viewers which is why I believe people just resort to spamming.
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It can be tough to get views; however by joining debates like this, and engaging in content that genuinely interests you, will do so much more than spamming.
That's what I want people to see, that spamming is the equivalent of finding your self in a hole and getting a great big shovel and digging deeper as fast as you can, and then wondering why you're in a hole.
Spamming gets you flagged, flagging wipes out profits ergo;
spamming = flags
and of course
n flags = ghosted account
The way to beat the formula is to not spam, no spam = no flags
no flags = visible account = a chance to be seen.
It won't always be like this, things happen slowly at Steemit, so if you take the view you could have your account for 5, 10 or more years, building up a little slowly at the beginning doesn't seem so bad.
Cg
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Great article. One thing I personally don't like, is the fact that you as a dolphin/whale can boost the reputation of your new accounts by upvoting your own articles with ease.
I mean, I've worked really hard for my reputation. However, if I had a million dollars of Steem I'd be up at a reputation score of 66 within a couple of days. Maximum. All because of my own votes.
I love the idea behind reputation scores, and I definitely believe it's an important factor... But even though a whale might be important for the community, it doesn't necessarily mean they contribute with superb content. That being said, they might be important for us, but they don't deserve a high reputation score just due to the fact that they're heavily invested.
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Interesting, if macabre, article. Thankfully i create every sentence and take this stuff seriously. Also, i have become involved with a group where i fell lime i actually know the people i interact with -- so there's no bs.
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Haha, yes, sorry it was a bit macabre, but I really wanted to ram home the point of spamming. I want to send a message to spammers, if you want to have a chance of making money on Steemit, don't spam.
Simple :-)
Cg
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👊😎
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Thank you for the well written and interesting post. Your choice of images was great too.
I'm new to Steemit so this was nice to find early in my exploration of the platform.
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You're very welcome, I'm glad you like it :-)
Thanks for stopping by!
Cg
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well ghost or not, I love reading all the posts from @berniesanders :D
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Lol! You are talking about 0 rep, I have even seen accounts with over -30 rep.
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They have very little chance of redemption . ..
Cg
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If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.
- Albert Einstein
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Thank you all for valuable information!
Great post!
Please follow me!
OK, OK. Don't shoot!
I realy liked the post.
Kaiser Soze was a powerful ghost he chose to disappear :)
If you have negative reputation you can do 2 things.
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Lolz :-)
Those two solutions will only work if you also implement a third thing; stop doing whatever it is that caused your negative reputation. :-)
Cg
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It is a hard thing to change human behaviour
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Hey there, thanks for the mention. Reputation is a very useful tool; it is one tool in the toolbox. It's not the only thing I look at, but it helps.
I also try to scan the applicant's history and get a feel for them as a person. Just today I had someone with a rep of 63 apply, I nearly accepted but then noticed that they had been cheetah banned for plagiarism...application denied.
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Hey no problem! I really like what you're doing, and feel like I'll soon be a contributor in some way shape or form :-).
I wanted to concentrate on the Spammers, but as you say it is not just a numbers game. Our reputations are something we carry with us constantly, and various things can harm or enhance them.
It is at once a poison and a panacea that everything we do here is recorded on the Blockchain. So it is not just about building reputation, it is also about acting in a way that keeps it in good standing.
Thanks for stopping by, and please keep up the awesome work you're doing :-)
Cg
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The ones I feel a bit sad for are the ones who became ghosts out of personal vendettas and feuds between opposing philosophies and viewpoints. Then they spend months getting back into positive territory, only to be bombed again by their original nemesis.
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Unjust flagging kills rep as well; whilst it doesn't always reflect in the numbers, everything you do on here is recorded on the blockchain. So in the end, you've just got to realise that reputation is more than just a numbers game.
Cg
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Amen
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Thanks for the explanation... I have been wondering how someone can have a negative number for their reputation score.
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Yes, these poor ghosts don't even realise that they are invisible to most of Steemit.
Cg
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This is sad. They exist yet nobody really know their existence
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