Storm Clouds For Steemit: To Flag Or Not To Flag

in steemit •  7 years ago  (edited)

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When I was in college I made the remark to a professor that about 90% of the students didn't belong in college, they should still be in Jr. High. He got really upset and shouted: "You're erudite... You're an elitist!" Well, here I go again...

When I came to Steemit in late November, I was amazed! It was full of creative people, artists, writers, photographers, videographers, etc. and I felt wonderfully at home. When I posted articles, I got thoughtful responses. When I commented, people commented back and we had wonderful dialogues. I had been writing on Blogspot and this was so much better... not just because of the money, but because it was interactive. Now I'm seeing things that I foresee as troubling.

I write. I spend a disproportionate amount of time preparing my stories, articles or whatever else I post... it's practically all I do. I don't claim to be William Faulkner, I don't think I'm even a good writer (but I am getting better). What I'm beginning to notice is people that create NO content whatsoever... they just comment with something like "Nice post" or even "Follow Me." Why??? Why on earth would I want to follow someone that creates no content? What do they offer the platform, other than an outstretched hand?

Steemit is getting watered down and the reward pool is being taken away by Steembeggars. If this continues, Steemit will be turned into the Calcutta of the social media world! This is what I don't want to see. It might be different if these people were investing their money into Steem, but what I'm seeing is hangers-on riding on the coattails of content creators... draining the reward pool as they go. Here's an example- I posted a chapter of a story I'm doing the other day... I no sooner posted it and I got a reply: "Great story. How about an upvote." If this person read my chapter, he must have been at the top of his class at Evelyn Woods! There's no conceivable way he could have read it. It was just another beggar with an outstretched hand! What can we do?

I would love to see Steemit go back to the way it was. I'm seeing more and more posts expressing pretty much the same concerns... although perhaps in different terms. My real concern is that people that work hard to create good content are having their rewards stolen by beggars. I've been on here since Thanksgiving and have never flagged anyone, BUT, maybe that's what it will take. If we start flagging all the beggars, perhaps they'll go back to the cesspool of Fakebook where they belong.

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I believed that members that interact that way will not find much success.

Many are after followers thinking that it will be the way to success but this platform is about building relationships and creating quality.

I know... That's the point I was trying to get across. What really made me want to be a part of Steemit was that it was content-inspired... not a bunch of insipid nonsense like Fakebook!

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

You know @richq11 , I actually love to see this kind of nonsense.

Here's why:

Steemit is becoming mainstream, because the quality of new Steemians are very immature in their understanding of the platform.

WE know not to conduct ourselves in this way because we've been here a minute.
(I joined in September)

@richq11 , I PRAY we have to put up with this silly nonsense for YEARS...

It's like changing a diaper: gross, unpleasant, but you know what the future will bring from doing it. So you do it with love ❤️

Even though it's STILL disgusting.
It's worth it.

Brother, ignore the smell.
I mean, the ignorant requests of noobians.

I hope we can laugh about the same problem 1000 days from now - THEN we'll know this platform has undoubtedly made its place in history.

Hope you're going to Steemfest in Portugal 🇵🇹
Would love to cheers you in person 🍻

@scan0017 🤝

I'm almost 72... I don't want to change diapers anymore (except for my great-grandson).

Haha!

Haha??? What'd you do, downvote me?

No I just love your humour!

Whew!

Well done! An intelligent response that doesn't lead to silly trolling, but reasoned argument with entertainment value! Two baby poops to you sir = O O
Of course, he has a point. I was yestarday going to put a cat picture at the head of my post for click bait. I stopped myself. They get 500 bucks I see.
But yes how noobies grow up fast. There is a duty of care for us more prolific bloggers who go on forever to lead the way, where no-one knows.
After all if we were at a party, and not on line, we would be the ones who would get thrown out for being opinionated.
Here on Steemit the worst that may happen is that we are hard forked away into our own steemit snob coin.

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

I fully agree there are a lot of people like that here now - I've started calling them twenty fivers - they don't post any content, just moronic comments.

BUT - now here is the good bit - they don't make any money, their wallets are bare, and eveyone is ignoring them - I think they can be ignored pretty safely, and like small weeds in a big garden, a dog will probably come along and shit on them :)

Great pic... I like "The Russians pooped in the hall." Maybe a few flags and they'll really get the picture!

I love that one!

I never follow for a follow, and I only upvote content that provides me value.

I will upvote other peoples; comments and replies when I feel that people are authenticly participating in the conversation.

I know that the "beggars" are increasing, but I think that we can help curb the negative effect of this type of interaction as long as we do not reward it.

It takes extra work to work through the junk, but once people see they can not get free hand outs, then they will move on. But it is really important for new users like me to be committed to this. We need to be more concerned about growing a quality community, instead of a large community.

There are solutions to this.

a) Be more ruthless in those you follow & pay any attention to. Its easy to ignore throwaway comments.
b) Upvote good comments. Sooner or later people will get it - You get rewarded for positive interaction.
c) Hopefully in the future we will see closed communities (invite only), where you have to have proved yourself as a valued member. Here only the best content creators would gather.

With growth and new users this was always going to happen, but remember Steemit is still in beta & is still finding its way!

I know... I just fear having it turned into Calcutta in the meantime!

Truer words were never spoken! I've also been noticing a LOT of circle jerking going around Steemit - especially on Steemit chat where upvote for upvote and follow for follow is the status quo unfortunately. I've generally avoided flagging anyone yet but some of these spammers and plagiarists are really pushing me! :)

I haven't done it yet, but I'm ready! It's off to write The Song of Roland (how about that, I can't even come up with an original title lol)

Steemcleaners FTW! Have fun writing today and make some nice squirrel friends too!

Being authentic is the way to go the beggars will be flushed out in time i think but people need to understand priorities maybe Steemit could make a Tutorial video once an account is made explaining it all. would def lower the odds of people trying to become the content vampires!

Agreed... It just chafes my ass that these vultures believe they're entitled to the same rewards as people that work long and hard on content!

i have been here now for a week and i have seen some grow fast because of the mindless attitude but while im doing my work research invest my time and creativity like a true trooper i notice there is indeed a sort of imbalance in rewards distribution.

I just love this site and what it stands for i even invested in Steem Power - Steem Dollars and i want the community to grow and so that everyone has an equal shot at this.

See... You have an investment. When I came, I had nothing but a few ideas rattling around in my head. I work 8-10 hrs a day on trying to provide good content (4-5 writing) the rest thinking... my stories, although they might not be very good, don't magically flow from my fingertips!

Yeah well to be honest i have been scammed all my life lost thousands of dollars when i was 18 and that was all i had, all i wanted was to provide a life for my mom pay her debt and hopefully give my little brother a nice future without worries, don't wanna be sentimental but i have lots of back problems so i work now atm half time 27 hours a week else i wouldn't be able to hold on you know.

And during that time i heard about crypto currencies and i regretted not buying Bitcoin in 2012 so arround 2015 i decided to involve myself and invest in crypto currencies and now each month i place 10% of my monthly salary in crypto currencies. I actually wanted to invest in ETH and BTC till i had 1 Coin of each but then i heard about steemit and now im basicly involving and investing myself in Steemit since it seems like a wonderful oppertunity and maybe the dream of helping my mom can be reality someday who knows :)

I have learned though to have creativity you need family and my little brother and my mom are motivating me so much they are the true MVP's

I started on here in Nov. and have made over $12,000 counting all I've given away. If you're honest and hardworking, the community will embrace you. That's what I love- it's a community in the true sense of the word. You just have to find the right people and the beggars make that difficult.

Yeah well i once got $10k from a chinese woman because at that time i had a youtube channel, and i made art for my subs and asked little to nothing in return for it and basicly this one day this chinese woman approaches me and says she will send me 10k through post mail in dollar.

I thought it was a outright scam or joke, but she indeed did that and thanks to this wonderful woman i was able to buy my first car and apply for a job that required a car so thanks to this woman im here right now.

And i know exactly what you mean with that people recognise true potential and hardworkers :) But this community is one of the best i have seen in a long time though.

WOW! A long time ago, I wrote on Triond.com... I was contacted by a Nigerian princess that wanted to hide her millions in my bank account (If I sent her $10,000 as a token of my good will)

Great point. Authenticity is incredibly important. I believe if people stay their course with communicating from a true heart we will be able to navigate through the tall weeds of disingenuous babble or plagiarized content. A tutorial would also help to get people up to speed to, hopefully avoid muddying the waters further.

I agree totally with you. Upvote and resteem!

Thank you... I was afraid I was going to piss a bunch of people off!

Yes, flag the beggars. That's a great use for the downvote function. Beggars and spammers...flag and flag some more. Reputations should offer a reflection of one's value to the platform. If you're a beggar and/or spammer, a negative rep is probably justified. Make it so. It's what downvotes are for.

I've never even done it! Can you downvote comments?

Yes, absolutely. Most of my flags are on comments...usually for spamming, trolling, and now begging.

This is another incredibly well formulated and articulated article and even though I have literally only been on Steemit for a matter of 3 or so I have already seen cracks in the system. Granted the cracks I have seen have been viewed through the eyes of more experienced veterans of Steemit but that doesn't make it any less valid to my mind.

I may be a newb to this platform but even amongst all the BS with beggars etc there are so many genuine content creators, genuine individuals with true intent like everyone here and many more.

I myself can't say that my content is exciting or imaginative but it's my thoughts, beliefs and experiences that I express. I may on occasion use a link to an article or post a YouTube video but they are always explicitly stated as someone elses and that they should retain all rights and credit for the work.

But I understand everyone's issues with all the topics raised here. Hopefully no one finds any issues in what little I say here but if there are any problems I know you will tell me.

Thank you for taking the time to read this little comment. And thank you for all the comments on here as they have been incredibly enlightening and though provoking.

As long as it's your own content. If I had a dollar for every YT video I've used to back up a point, I'd be rich! I use secondary sources a lot. Lately, I've been writing fiction, which I enjoy, but it's the truth disguised as fiction.

Thanks Rich. That puts my mind at ease a little bit. I would never claim someone elses work as my own. I feel that this is horrible practice (to say the least) and they have worked incredibly hard to create it so they deserve all the credit. So I am grateful for your response.

And like you said about your truth disguised as fiction, there is more world truths revealed these days through fiction and comedy. It's just a shame we need to rely on fiction for our facts and not, oh I don't know - the news. But I respect the hell outta anyone who has creative talent like yourself. Would it be cheeky to ask if I could follow yourself to maybe check out some of your work? I don't want to come across as someone who just follows for the wealth of it.

Much love and respect.

Absolutely, I would welcome it! Glad to have you aboard Followed back!

Thanks for expressing your concerns. I'm only a week into this so I'm still learning how it works. I will take caution. My joy is to deliver content that makes people think and hopefully provoke positive dialog. Most of my ORIGINAL content (takes hours to prepare) is addressing spirituality, faith, kingdom of God, politics from a Christian perspective (not a false right-left paradigm), and life. I would like to get your perspective. You seem to be an intelligent individual who actually cares for people and desires integrity in the community. I will follow you and upvote. I'm at @actsinmotion.com. Blessings.

I write a lot of the same as you. I've done a lot of political nonfiction from a Christian perspective. I'm different from most Christians in that I do the stuff instead of running around waving a Bible yelling "Look at me!" Christianity is a way of life... a way of interacting. I'm also a Catholic (in the true sense of the word, not a part of the Vatican Cult). It's the ministry that Jesus started and "The gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.

I hear you loud and clear. Doing the stuff, yes. Or our faith is in vain. "Be ye not merely hears of the word but be ye doers of the word." I'm glad you're not apart of the "Vatican cult," now ran by the Jesuit black pope. What's this world coming to.

Did you read the recent post, "Give me liberty or give me death?" or "Ambassadors of an extreme kingdom?" Little by little I'm become better at writing, been a long journey. Maybe one of these day I can write as good as you. :-) Enjoy.

Happy independence day! Real freedom ONLY comes from our intimate relationship with Christ.

Amen, my friend, Amen! I'm sure you're at least as good as I am!

It is a marriage of chaos/entropy and order/structure. There is a battle of that kind occurring and we have no clue what the long term shape will look like.

I do believe these beggars will be a norm, especially when they ever open the flood gates. They still have a waiting line of people wanting in. I know as my youngest son finally is in that line.

So we will continue to have such people. We as a community simply need to learn how to ignore them. I don't up vote things that someone comments in my posts telling me to go up vote theirs. I typically do not follow someone asking me to follow them in the comments section of my post. I have on a few occasions if I took the time to look at their blog (which sometimes I do not) and found they were actually writing anything interesting.

Right now I think it is as much about us learning how to handle these people as it is them needing to learn that is not the way to do it.

I don't see it going away. Our society is full of beggars. They can't wait to ask the government to give them that next FREE thing without realizing there is no free.

EDIT: Also I disagree with Ev on the MUTE. I only use MUTE for abusive people, though I try to sway them first. Mute is basically an ALWAYS DAMNED attitude and to me smacks of a belief that people cannot learn, and change.

Great idea for my next meme... WELCOME TO STEEMIT... NO FREE SHIT!!!

I've been wrestling with this for a few days now- I've never flagged anyone. Mostly because I'm an advocate of free speech... but I think that "Follow Me" transcends free speech. I worry about the effect on the reward pool for actual content creators. I don't want to see the platform watered down with more and more content parasites.

I try to fight with words. If I ever get to the point where I feel like I'm going to start flagging for that crap I'd likely create a short text I can copy and paste and I'd copy and paste it to respond to those for awhile saying this type of activity actually hurts your chances, in my own words (probably overly verbose). Steemit is a pretty alien place when people first get here.

It was alien to you and me too... I could see right off that it was designed for content creators- that's what drew me. One reason my FB friends aren't coming is I told them that it's for writers, artists, photographers etc.. I don't think a gentle hint is going to sway any of these people... enough has been written already.

Funny though, since I posted this... I haven't gotten any "follow me's" or "Hey, how about an upvote"

I agree totally but our feeds are becoming full of blogs about this issue instead of content. I think we should all just ignore or flag people who ask for follows and upvotes that are not relevant to the conversation :-)

That was my point... that's what I'm suggesting. It's hard for me, I haven't flagged anybody in over 7 months.

I have never flagged anyone haha..... to much of a wimp! I just ignore them now.

Great responses on your article @richq11. I, too, hate the f4f crap. I think there ought to be a disclaimer when you comment or post. It should tell the consequences (automatic steemit flag) if the following things are done (then list plagiarism, c+p, no sourcing listed, claiming something as your own, etc). Then the flagging can be seen as done by steemit and the person has no one to blame or retaliate against. Then a steemit bot (@flagbot?) would need to be created. Or more than one. Steemit should be proactive and nip the problem in the bud before it gets bigger.

I guess that's one of the drawbacks of being noncensoring... it's up to us to do our own policing.

flagging for me is a test of discipline. when i saw people commanding upvote or resteem, i don't do it. i flag them instead.

There is a learning curve here just like college. The beggars will slowly realize they don't belong here and will move on. I only respond to good comments and repost good articles.

So do I... But as long as they can get a buck for nothing, they'll stick around... I'm goin a'flaggin!

Everyday i learn something new on Steemit thanks to Steemians like you. Thank You.

don't flag
flagging is wrong.
mute them...
erase them from your world

I suspect that I've been on Steemit a little bit longer than you
I've seen it happen before. Once something of value is made the vultures appear. It's pretty much a law of nature. Parasites.

The best way to handle them is to ignore them. If everyone ignores them they'll wither and die on the vine. Muteing is the Diatomecous earth for follow-beggars..

Flagging is akin to nuking...a disproportionate response with colateral damage.

Thanks!!! And I thought Diatomecous was an old Greek philosopher!

hmmmm....there are parallels to be drawn from that.
I might add that spelling is optional...

I just copied it from you!

that's what I meant...I was wingin it.

I knew what you meant... My friend in Wisconsin had a huge box of it. He ate it (are you supposed to do that?)

ewwwww...
Texans generally quit eating dirt around age three months..

I guess Wisconsin is different?

I guess Buddy! What's that stuff for anyways??? I know it's supposed to be good for you! By the way- if you're having any prostate issues, let me know. Someone (kus-knee) sent me a link for great stuff. One pill and I can feel a difference!!!

I'm newer here and do see what you're saying. But I've just been here a couple of months and I've already seen a lot things change, and that's sure to continue. Apparently Steemit is quite a bit like the weather.

Well put!

As you should know I love your stories and cannot wait for the next one,but somehow we seem to be heading downwards instead of upwards. But at least now I can give a little when I upvote. Thanks for being such a nice friend.

And thank you... I treasure your friendship. Tomorrow I'll post another chap of the Night Gods... It's almost done, just needs a little polishing!

I completely agree. Downvote them! why is there no downvote? I'm trying really hard to create actual content and it's barely getting seen while others are posting stuff they found in the internet. My blog from yesterday did get some great comments. So that pleased me. There are loads of kind smart people on here.

There's tons of great people on here... It's just that the beggars are watering down the platform.

Amen Richq!
I think we need to take them on by

  1. Not following LQ or No Content providers AND warn them of Step 2
  2. Flag beggars (follow or upvote requests)
  3. Incorporation of a BLOCK feature into the platform
    Blocking cuts a user off from seeing content or interacting with the person who has blocked. Not sure how workable that it, but heck, it would cut down on spam.

If all the beggars remain among themselves w/o investment - they run out of Steem v quickly, no?

You're way ahead of me... at least I understand "Flag Beggars"... the rest will have to be up to you guys. I write- that's all I know how to do. To me, this machine is a glorified typewriter!

LOL Rich - I am no blockchain guru either - far from.
But as a community of honest content providers, we can and must work together to address, techie or not.

The word is more powerful than the sword.

Well, you have a point... I'll stick with the gun!

I am quite new here and I have also noticed that some people that create nothing of true value are at the top of the whale chain making hundreds or thousands on a post they carelessly throw out there and that this is all about making a quick easy buck. However that is normal human behavior and no place will ever be free of that. We can only concentrate on ourselves and work and contribute for the greater good. Ignore the beggars and cheap posters and do your thing. Cheers!

But, those people invested thousands (and more) of their own money. If you invest, you get a bigger say- just like anywhere else in life.

Yes, it takes money to make money, I am aware. Not why I am here though.

I agree. Not everyone puts an effort to create something good. I also think that steemit needs to be improved a bit. For example, when people blog, there should be an option about which category to choose to blog. Now, for example, some people write their first tag as 'vacation' and others, as 'travel', and both write on the same topic. When you click on 'travel', you don't find all the relevant posts there. @richq11, what's your opinion?

...but I think steemit has a way to hide low-quality content, so this can help.

There is a learning curve to this platform, and I do wish that there were video tutorials on the platform I have been watching YouTube videos that other steemers have made, and I believe that I know what to do now, and I like the concept of this site..,..

I found out about Steemit on a YT video. It said if you like "blogging" check it out! Apparently people thought they said begging...

I predicted this when steemit had like 150k users @richq11 I knew bringing in lots of people would eventually in turn bring in these "beggars" also maybe the flagging could be something to consider hmm

I hate to do it! I haven't had it happen since I started writing about it!

whats your definition of beggars here on steemit?

People who don't create anything other than "NIce Post" gimme some money!

agree! like the standard comment: "Great Post - Thank you" lol not even constructive feedback..

I say that from time to time... But, I also work hard to write good (I hope) posts myself. My problem is that people who ONLY do the "Nice Post" stuff think they're entitled to as much of the reward pool as people who work really hard!