No, I&#x27;m not God, the New Sherriff in Town, or a Vigilante

patrice (65) · 8 years ago

We're working hard to prevent this from happening. Unfortunately, there are users that believe that by commenting and flagging we are censoring or trying to form a "police force" to dictate to other users.

There is a bit of tug-a-war going on with different opinions and ideologies. The tl;dr version:

Information is free and once you say it or write it, it isn't yours anymore, so who cares!
Ignore abusers and they will stop, or we'll learn to live with paying them for theft.
It's the wild west and everyone should act as individuals without forming groups. Might makes right.
The "owners" of Steemit need to institute rules and enforce them. Where are the mods?

Then there are those like me. I was invited to join a group to try and fight abuse in a respectful and organized manner and help guide others on how to deal with and report abuse. You can check out the two posts here on the group: https://steemit.com/@steemcleaners

I encourage everyone to check out the guidelines and participate. I hope we can prevent the waves of abuse from becoming unsustainable. The only way to stop it from happening is with support from other users.

I liked the metal art video, by the way. The little robot was awesome.

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2 votes

drlupo (54) · 8 years ago

Hey thanks for watching, I am trying to also get folks to find my humor article but it is finding no legs yet.

I am not sure what to do. I don't really believe in copyright but I wish there was a way highjacked shit would not be rewarded. Not sure what to do. Maybe just make groups so and isolate ourselves from spam. So only interact and vote up people who have been vetted and are in that group, otherwise it is ignored.

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drlupo (54) · 8 years ago

Ohhh here is the comedy article. https://steemit.com/funny/@drlupo/shortage-of-tofu-gluten-free-bagels-and-almond-encrusted-swordfish-due-to-approaching-weather

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patrice (65) · 8 years ago

That's not a bad idea. You can create your own tag to find posts by those in your group and also coordinate on steemit.chat to share links withing your group. It's a little more work but the rewards for sharing within the group would be higher.

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sigmajin (65) · 8 years ago (edited)

retracted

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aleksandraz (61) · 8 years ago

And here I would like to have a downvote button so I could show you my attitude to your comment without flagging it. :(
If you use some of these harsh words addressing somebody, you should give more details on it than just your words. For example, we never say an article is plagiarism without providing proof, and in many cases we actually just leave a comment and not flag anything.
I myself was a witness to a situation when @patrice commented on a guys post which contained tag abuse and the guy then just flagged @patrice. I do not know, maybe she flagged him/her back, but I would not consider this as "revenge flagging".

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3 votes

patrice (65) · 8 years ago (edited)

I should have noted in my post that I did flag a lot of steemitmarket's "upvote/flag for sale" army accounts without commenting. There is a bit of a flag war going on to keep the 800 of his accounts from gaining reputation and SP.

2 votes

sigmajin (65) · 8 years ago

I did not know about this guy. you may have done him a service as im buying those accounts out. I intend to use them for good though (well, good-ish)

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sigmajin (65) · 8 years ago

well, here's the thing. Though i don't agree with the guys spamming, i don't agree that selling votes is necessarily bad either. as a matter of fact, i think it couldbe the only chance for the platform at this point.

patrice (65) · 8 years ago

Please be more good than -ish. :D

sigmajin (65) · 8 years ago (edited)

The user was ezrathecat.

I went back and looked through the posts i was thinking of. It looks like patrice only flagged a couple of the guys posts. Others who also flagged those posts with her also flagged everything the other guy had ever posted, most of which was innocuous.

I do not agree with even the flags she did make in that case, though i understand her rationale. Ive retracted my statement, and also sent her 30 steem (partially because i recognize others who have sent her money)

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patrice (65) · 8 years ago

Thank you, I appreciate the retraction and the donation. Not sure what happened with ezrathecat. The only reason I left my flags after he changed the post was because he tried to hide that he did it. My flags had little effect. I followed him and upvoted a later post that was original as far as I could tell. I randomly upvote those I follow that need it.

I noticed he flagged me after that and I ignored it. Researching this I see that he posted this right before he flagged me: https://steemd.com/@ezrathecat/hey-guys-i-still-wanna-play I'm kind of stumped as to what prompted that post and the flagging.

I will look into it further to see what started that flag war with klye and the others. It looks like it started right before or after that post. I'm not sure there's anything I can do to help since it has escalated.

aleksandraz (61) · 8 years ago

All the time reading the post I felt that we are missing a share button on Steemit... Or some button which would allow to donate extra money from one's personal wallet to support the post.

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patrice (65) · 8 years ago

Thank you, I appreciate your efforts as well. Don't think I've chatted with you directly but I've seen you around.

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aleksandraz (61) · 8 years ago

Thank you, @patrice.

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fajrilgooner (55) · 8 years ago

The view is haunted.
Nice pic @ patrice

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arnoldz61 (42) · 8 years ago

Facebook has rules too. The fact that you have to create an article pointing out rules is a tad abusive IMO. But I respect your viewpoint.

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patrice (65) · 8 years ago

I find it tiring, especially days like today. There are no official "rules" for steemit. We have to work together to ensure that the platform isn't abused. As part of a group, we have self-imposed rules for how to handle abuse so we don't become the abusers. The one good thing is that we aren't the"authority". Other users can nullify our actions if enough of them decide we are being abusive.

I really don't want to see steemit become a platform filled with Reddit type link posts, twitter hashtags, or worse. In the last month, I've helped research and flag numerous cases of identity theft. Seeing new users sign up and start posting plagiarism is tiring to deal with.

Where's the value in it? This should be a place for users to post their own work, thoughts, feelings and share.

Trying to encourage users to comment on the youtube videos photos or links they post is likened to censorship and coercion by the Gestapo. Don't ask someone to actually talk about what they post.

Ugh. I'll stop, it's been one of those days, thanks for the comment. Loved Fiona and Bodie. I need to get my dog a cat.

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arnoldz61 (42) · 8 years ago

I understand your concern but I think creating a "rules" post for a sea of Anarchists, which to my understanding is a strong make up of the citizens here, seems counter productive. I do understand and agree about the plagiarism of other work and I do absolutely support calling people on it on individual posts. I haven't flagged any posts or even down voted any posts yet. I'm not a reddit fan although I have used the site for personal information so the actual participation is rather new and feeling the waters. I sincerely hope this site does not end up like Facebook. Thank you for mentioning my cats. Believe it or not it took a lot of effort for me to write that. This could be good therapy for me.

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patrice (65) · 8 years ago

I'm off to a slow start, years ago I used to write a lot for myself. Since finding steemit I haven't found a lot I'm interested in writing about. I do enjoy reading what others write, though.

Look forward to reading more of your posts.

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judyd100 (48) · 8 years ago

Is it okay to add a you-tube video in with your comments or post in order to support your piece? I was not able to discern from your comment on youtube videos whether it is against the rules to post them. Can you clarify? Thank you!

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