Friends, Steemians, citizens of the blockchain. Lend me your ears!
We have been granted an amazing opportunity here on this platform to do something that's never been done before. A social network/blogging platform that rewards genuine content and rewards our creativity. You all know this and that's why you're here. You're tired of Facebook taking your intellectual property and rewarding you with "likes". If you're trying to run your business through Facebook you're tired of getting only 7% of your followers seeing your hard work. Steemit is different. Here good content is rewarded. Yes, it might take some time to get noticed but that's true for pretty much any endeavor. The promise of Steemit is that hard work, perseverance and a true talent will be rewarded.
It's more than that though. Here we have a place that is our own, where we can meet people from all across the world and share ideas and learn from each other without EvilCorp telling us what to like and who to follow. If I express interest in a product online somewhere I'm not going to be flooded by ads for that product the next time I log on to Steemit.
This is why it pisses me off that there are people here that make zero effort to adding value to our experiment. Our dream.
We've all seen them. They just copy and paste other people's hard work and then reap the rewards. It doesn't matter if it's only a $0.10 payout, that's still unearned. I'm talking to you @funaddaa.
Then we have the next level scammers that impersonate celebrities or well know websites. Yes, @foxnews.com, @gordonramsay and @pcmobilezone I'm talking about you.
The scary thing is that all the above accounts seem to be linked to @funaddaa. I'm serious. He/she seems to have a web of at least 7 accounts that have the exact same MO. Don't take my word for it. Go check it out.
@funaddaa sent SBD to @gordonramsay here
@funaddaa slipped up and replied to a comment on @foxnews.com here
@funaddaa transferred SBD to @pcmobilezone here
I have also identified the following accounts that follow the same MO as the ones mentioned before. @funaddaa overplayed his hand when I challenged @gordonramsay to verify himself by having the following accounts downvote me here:
@funnyordie
@movieclip
@hdporn
I therefore present this evidence to you, my fellow Steemians and implore you:
As a minnow here I don't have the voting power to do any damage to a spam account like this. All I can do is present my evidence to @steemcleaners and @cheetah and appeal to my fellow Steemians to fight accounts like these. @steemcleaners and @patrice are doing an amazing job but we need to do our part too. These fake accounts are bringing Steemit into disrepute. Let us fight them. If you find one, report it on Steemit.chat. Chances are 10% of the accounts following us minnows are ones like the above mentioned. I know that was the case with me.
If a dolphin or whale might happen upon this post I will implore you to take the appropriate action after reviewing the evidence I've presented.
My sincere hope is that you will be convinced to "fire the laser":
In the spirit of Steemit and given the right that we all deserve a chance to present our side of the story, I would love to hear from @funaddaa and hear their side of the story. The same applies to any account tagged in this post. You have heard my allegations. This is your chance to refute them.
I would ask any readers who have been persuaded to act on my evidence to give the mentioned accounts 24 hours to respond before commencing any flagging.
I thank you for your attention.
All GIFs from https://giphy.com
Team South Africa banner designed by @bearone
The problem is that the ethos in which steemit was sold to people, was creativity is rewarded.
The big players may reward some creators in that vein, but it has already become a game theory playbook.
This strategy is for sociopaths, without a regard of ethics, and certainly creativity.
Getting the two to work together is nigh on impossible.
I fear for steemit, and its longevity because of this.
Imagine if another platform opens, one with the same starting ethos as steemit? - but was made to avoid gaming, (by self regulating rules) and restricts bots running around.
It can be done with a little work, but there doesn't appear to be motivation from the top to change the dynamic...
(why would they? - if they were just gaming, and getting richer - sociopathic behavior)
Another platform WILL come along with these ideals, and many great creative people with emigrate to it - in a heartbeat.
Which is sad, because steemit can be the place to be...with some changes.
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If what you say is true then I foresee small groups of genuine contributors that pretty much keep to themselves and upvote each other surrounded by a sea of spam. Groups like @teamsouthafrica or the Aussies that set up their own territory within Steemit and police their members while fending off spam within the group but not being able to stop what happens outside of it.
How sustainable would that be? Wouldn't Steemit just fall apart? Perhaps this is just the first iteration and if Steemit folds then the next platform will hopefully learn from the mistakes.
I still think we should fight back though. There are people like @sherlockholmes and @stellabelle and many others that are fighting back. We should too, in whatever way we can.
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I've seen people use this strategy myself. They agree to strategically upvote each other's content regardless of quality, and play by a strict set of upvoting rules within the group.
I'm quite new to Steemit so I'm not one to make any judgment, but I see these initiatives as something that may quickly lead to Steemit dying off in the not so distant future.
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I agree that there are dangers to initiatives like this especially if there is an automatic upvote. The trick is for the group to self police itself and discourage its members from posting spam.
Team South Africa for example has something set up where a post automatically triggers a set number of votes but I'm certain that if I were to start posting spam the others would quickly "have a word" with me and if I refuse to stop I would be quickly kicked off the curation trail.
It all comes down to the community, specific groups or the whole Steemit community to discourage spam and encourage quality, even if there is money to be made in just circle voting each other's spam. I guess it comes down to integrity in the end and realizing that quality in the long run will be much more rewarding than just making a quick few bucks with spammy posts.
I'm afraid you may be right... Spam might be the death of Steemit if we don't do something about it.
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I am a newbie (only posting 3 weeks), so still learning my way around, and the dynamics of everything.
I'm working on the possibilities. lol
Thanks for the links to the others who see potential issues
Cheers
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Sadly a reality on most platforms @rahvin84 keep true to what you do and just report those who are clearly in the wrong. If you are following just stop following, enough people use the 'no follower' route in essence drop their numbers.
Perhaps some groups should put up an area for warning others like within TeamSouthAfrica and TeamAustralia to alert the whole team to do a "no follow'?
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I only follow those whose work I find interesting @joanstewart. I won't follow someone just because they follow me. The only way I ran into the accounts mentioned above is because they are blindly just following people (75,000 odd in the Ramsay case). How do we encourage other people to not blindly follow when they're frustrated by low post returns and are only too happy to have more followers (even though these accounts hardly ever upvote any comments and hardly engage with followers)?
I sincerely hope the other "teams" are enforcing a no spam policy with their members but it still doesn't solve the problem of the spammers who don't belong to those groups.
I know it's like playing whack-a-mole. For every one we identify and report two more are likely to pop up but what else can we do?
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I totally agree with you! get rid of the bots and crap. We all can find our own porn as well so don't need that on here either. Some of these rewards seem unfair yes, especially when it's just a pic, or mumbo jumbo that you can't even read is making hundreds off a single post. But I also agree with @cheeto.blue in regards to not starting a flagging war. I know they are there for a reason, but some of these guys can ruin you on steemit if they choose.
I figure it will work out in the end some how....
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I agree that a flag war isn't the solution. As I said the @cheeto.blue, I simply don't have the ammo for one. The lot I exposed in this post however have even less so I'm not too worried about them. I think it will only work out if we fight back against these accounts. I had a chat with Patrice at Steemcleaners and he says there is so much that gets missed and they rely on the community to expose and report spam and ID theft so that they can take the appropriate action.
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Dude, yes, it's quite sad to see all this on the platform, but hopefully it'll get sorted hey 😉
Just don't get involved in any flag wars - you'll be sorry 🙁
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I don't think it will get sorted unless we do something about it. The dev's seem to be letting things sort themselves out. And don't worry - I have no plans of starting a flag war. My Steem power is too low for that. But if I can provide the evidence to the community and to Patrice at Steemcleaners then they have the power to rain some smack down onto these spammers.
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Yes yes!! Report by all means!! It's good for the community in the long run 😎
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This is really good. The community spirit of Steem stands together to ensure this platform is beneficial for all.
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Let us hope so.
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Way to call them out
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I tried talking to them directly but to no avail. What else can we do if they won't change their ways?
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Get rid of the spammers and cheap opportunists!
Name & Shame!
Upvoted
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Indeed. Name, shame and report. Then Steemcleaners can kick some spammer ass!
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Good for you that you are bringing these scammers to our attention. I have upvoted and followed you @rahvin84 - fellow South African
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Thanks @pandamama! I just hope people will take the few minutes it takes to report these spam accounts instead of just turning a blind eye.
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This post has received a 0.37 % upvote from @booster thanks to: @rahvin84.
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This post recieved an upvote from minnowpond. If you would like to recieve upvotes from minnowpond on all your posts, simply FOLLOW @minnowpond
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@rahvin84 got you a $1.24 @minnowbooster upgoat, nice! (Image: pixabay.com)
Want a boost? Click here to read more!
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This post has received a 4.50 % upvote from @lovejuice thanks to: @rahvin84. They have officially sprayed their dank amps all over your post rewards. GOOD TIMES! Vote for Aggroed!
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