Most of you are probably aware by now, of a flagging rampage that a certain bot has been on for a day and change. To clarify the situation, there are no posts or comments on the bot's profile, it has a rep of 25, and it has flagged hundreds? of posts. The curious thing is that each flag is only worth -1%, and the account was just created and funded with about 1000 SP.Β
Although surely annoying to those hit by it, since what the bot is doing is largely irrelevant in terms of its effect, I think there is a specific message being delivered here; while still in beta, we are meant to pose a few simple questions, and discuss them as a community.Β
- What if the flags were -100%?
- What if the account were funded more significantly?
- What if it was a fleet of bots?
- ???
(Source)
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I honestly can't think of another reason that someone would fund an account with just a few bucks, then do nothing but vote -1%... Anyone else?
Thanks For Your Attention and Support!!
Melech ben Chaya ΧΧΧ ΧΧ ΧΧΧ, @inphiknit
My guess is it's someone making a statement about the nature of flagging in general. There's been a lot of talk about flags, especially from whales, in the recent past, and perhaps this relates to that. The fact that it is only 1% says to me it's less malicious, and more political.
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Seems to be the only logical reason to go to the trouble... Thanks :)
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I think it's just someone that's either trying to desensitize the community to downvoting (which I can see an argument for) or more likely, someone who's trying to piss people off and get them infighting.
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It's not very ethical to actually run a bot like that to disrupt things on a live system, so it'd be grey-hat at best. Reminds me more of a classic eco-terrorist movie villain or something π Poison the water supply so they will clean up the environment, or kill off all humans in the process, thus cleaning the water supply long term. π
That said, you have a great point here, I think it could also be someone trying to force the hand of the devs to implement a UI fix for flagging. Might even be one of the devs themselves! I can easily imagine one of the prominent technically minded whales doing something like this, especially since there's been some friction between some of them recently. π
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It will rip the scab off of flagging. Exposing, we can all survive a flag.
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Probably!
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oh it's a bot? lololol causing all this rukus
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Yeah, it's a bot, but it didn't create itself, just sayin'.
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That's my understanding based on other's information, I could very well be wrong though.
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It looks like an experiment of some sort. They have put money in to do this, but it still won't have a real effect on reputation. Maybe they will get bored soon
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It seems to have stopped a few hours ago, for now...
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Previously someone with a lot of SP was randomly flagging for some reason. There is potential for someone to do damage, but it would be at the expense of their reputation if they care about that. We don't have any central moderation, so this is a risk, but the system is designed to deter it.
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I'm ignorant... Then is there a way to reduce an abuser's rep / flag effect if they leave no posts or comments for others to flag back?
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I don't think you can, but if they wanted to actually earn from the account they either need to post or to have a lot more SP to earn from curation.
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That's the thing, what if it were 1 mil SP, no posts, -100% flags?
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@inphiknit it would be a great pump :D
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In the current sittuation I'm not sure there is and I'm not sure there should be actually. It might be better that anyone can flag and get away with it if they want or provide more information if they want that.
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I hear you. I'm not saying anything necessarily should be done either, it's just a curious situation...
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I was thinking the same, because of the 1% downvote
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I plucked the pre-existing idea from the aether^^
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Flag seem to matter to people whether they have a material affect on rewards and reputation or not. This means the effectiveness of their intended function is limited. We can address this by changing ourselves, becoming more aware and less sensitive or by coming up with another solution for limiting rewards, abuse, plagiarism and spam. @asshole's flagging may have been an experiment.
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There is definitely something to learn here... Thanks^^
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Good points, but it still doesn't stop me from hoping it's creator contracts the worst case of genital warts ever known in the history of humans. I'll get my bokor right on that.
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Better stay on your good side!
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only a joke.
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I know, me too ^.~
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Lol. Take it easy. π
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was joke. heh.
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Interesting... this whole flag thing is very annoying. Admins should do something against it
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Definitely annoying, but I'm sure this has got the devs thinking of a few ideas!
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