De-escalating steemit elders (Part 1); an open letter to @ned and @officialfuzzy

Dear @ned and @officialfuzzy,

Let me start by saying I admire the shit out of both you. @ned, I spend hours on this platform every day. I've built a 4,400 Steemian community in Discord, and we're in the middle of building a radio show to support it. I love it here, and you were key in making that possible. I'm exceptionally grateful. Thank you for creating this place and thank you for continuing to move it forward.

Fuzzy, you're awesome. I wouldn't have MSP if I hadn't been talking with you earlier in my path here. Whaleshares was a giant influence in how I crafted the Minnow Support Project. There over a thousand minnows every day that benefit from the insights you shared with me. 1600 votes a day! That's what we're doing, and it wouldn't be possible without your tenure in the crypto and guild space which you used to help me understand how to build a community around Steemit.

I'm personally indebted to you both, and insanely grateful to you both. Hopefully that comes across in the next part of this.

Flagging in general

Here's how I've come to think about this after my own brief visit into flagging. There are basically two different types of flags: offensive and defensive. It's remarkably easy to blur the lines.

A defensive flag is one where you protect yourself, usually from disinformation, lies, trolls, or to generally punish someone for harming you.

An offensive flag is where you're trying to stir shit up. You have a point to make, and you're letting your SP do the talkin'.

One challenge though is that Flagging is a form of violence. You cause harm, both to rep which people work hard to attain and post rewards for authors and curators. So, a big flag harms the intended post author, but also take rewards away from many curators. If you took $1600 from me on the street I'd call that violence. If the government coerces me to pay under threat of violence I'll call that violence. When you take post rewards away on Steemit that's violence too.

I'm a pacifist, but some violence is justified. We'll discuss some of that in part two, but for now, if you flag on Steemit with a bunch of anarchist libertarian peace loving people you sure as hell better come with a good reason. Otherwise you're inviting the exact opposite of what you intend.

Unintended consequences of flagging

What I've learned is that both of these approaches have consequences on this platform, and more often than not it's not what you expect.

I'm left to speculate as to the reasons of the flagging because there wasn't anything left publicly spoken on the block, but Ned doesn't toss a lot of flags around, so I'm assuming he felt slighted. I listened to the talk on Fuzzy's show. Nothing sounded outrageous, but I'm betting there's beef here that goes back a while, and maybe I'm missing a piece to this.

But those flags Ned did a few things right... You took post rewards from people that upvoted them in good faith, and then like a million buzzing bees there were suddenly posts all over Steemit about the flags. Instead of looking like a potential victim of a long grudge you look like the aggressor, and so people are rallying around Fuzzy. In the end you're actually bringing increased support to him because now people that don't think your flag is righteous feel compelled to rally around him. The other thing that happened was that news and commentary of your intended-to-be private conversations on slack leaked by Fuzzy.

Fuzzy, I'm betting that's but a tiny trove of things that were said under the pretense that they were meant to be kept private. I can't quite tell if you're justified in releasing private conversation publicly, but I know you're riding a very tight line here between defending yourself and betraying trust.

Luckily though there isn't real damage that can't be undone, so I'd like to ask that you guys as leaders in this community to chart a different path forward from here.

It starts with deescalation

Ned. There's still time to remove the flags.
Fuzzy you haven't released anything damning. Please don't.

Can you please both agree to put the guns down?

How about a conversation?

You both know how to contact each other. Can you please pick up the phone/device/Discord and try to talk this shit out? We all go to the same moon you know!?! We're all trying to work on this platform. We're all trying to make this place better. It'll get there faster and be better if we can collectively work together on it. Honestly, we really need you guys to model the best behavior possible. It's ok to get angry, and sometimes this shit has to come out, but now that it has it's up to you to figure out how to navigate it.

You're both doing some pretty epic shit. I know there is some competition with BTS and that community, but they are on Steemit in a big way. The Steemit community benefits by having them here even with a little cooperticion.

Similarly look at what you're doing recently Fuzzy. You've made a shit ton and can build to your heart's content because Steemit whales are supporting your mission.

This relationship is mutually beneficial for you both and for the whole platform.

Again, please work it out. This whole community needs you to!

A word of caution about victimhood

I'm sure you both feel to some extent like the victim here. Please be careful with that too. Victims are often violent. They lash out when they shouldn't. I hope you guys can holster that feeling too, and hopefully you can both extend a good olive branch to the other.

A few months from now when we're all sitting on $10 steem we'll laugh at this, and the first round's on me, but this whole community is looking at you now. Please don't let us down.

Namaste,

Aggroed