Downvoting is Sweetsss
At the start of the year I wrote a post about a user here who was extracting more than that TA every month by voting 10 accounts over and over, and over. You know the type.
Seven months ago, the chart looked like this:
Today the chart looks like this:
No... that can't be right? Is that the right chart?
Yes. Yes it is.
This has been going on for years.
This morning I was checking in and then and once my Downvote Mana recharged, I put a couple on one of these posts. I would have left a comment explaining that I believe it to be over rewarded, but then... The last comment the account made was the 7th of October, 2018... 11 months ago.
So, I used my little downvote and then noticed that my little downvote was significantly larger than my upvote. So I used it again to test. And then again. Oh and then I remembered to take a screenshot for a before and after and used it again.
Before
After
from: https://steemit.com/@thecatfiles
My upvote took 41 cents off the post payout. However, when I went to Steemworld, my downvote was only worth -20 cents.
It is the convergent curve doing this as while the curve benefits upvoters as votes stack on top of each other, it also benefits downvoters by making the vote strength higher on content with larger payouts.
I don't know the math.
I clicked through the other names on the voting circle above:
https://steemit.com/@sherrychan
https://steemit.com/@angelatang
https://steemit.com/@helgachen
Besides @honeybee who seems to at least randomly try to create content, the rest appears all to be written by the same bot person. Two paragraphs and a picture, no comments other than an automated one every now and again. I have no idea how this isn't getting @steemcleaners'd...
But, this is happening and just to give you some perspective.
Each one is getting about 18 dollars which equals around about 180 dollars a day.
180/0.21(feed price) = 857 STEEM a day.
As this is stake based, we can say that it is pretty static.
It has been 215 days since I wrote the last post on this circle.
251x857= 184255 STEEM out of the pool through these accounts. And because it is predominantly a circle with a few frontrunners, even the curation is going back to the group.
All except @amylee is powering down.
Again, why hasn't this been @steemcleaners'd?
Well, regardless, now there is more incentive for people to take notice of these kinds of circles and this one has been going for a very long time, silently continuing its extraction.
Lol. @angelatang
231 posts, not one comment but...
200 posts, 0 comments.
The last comment by @sherrychan was April 2018.
2018
702 posts, 6 comments 32,000 STEEM.
Nice use of delegations @sweetsssj... again.
While I don't want downvotes to turn into a witch hunt, I feel that this particular circle which is about the most selfish and closed on the platform should be dismantled. I think that this is the circle where my downvotes are going to go as this all appears automated resource extraction. Greed of the highest order.
Everyone can do what they want with their stake though which means, this is all okay if we decide to keep ignoring it.
That was a lot of screengrabs for a Friday night.
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]
I've been wondering who to hit, just went on a spree. I have another 10K coming back in just under a week, so I'll check in on this circle every few days and make sure my free downvotes aren't being wasted.
I am unsure if they will even notice since there are so few comments. most likely they have a schedule of hundreds of posts set up and then walked away. I could write all of their weekly content in an hour.
There are more services coming to aid targeting.
It's about time someone just put it right out there. This has been one of the most flagrant abuses since the original massive
giftdelegation she received from Ned allowing her to build her stake.At one point she was selling votes for steem. She avoided the worst of retaliatory action because she was a member of the original steem guild which .... well, that is a long story and you probably know.
Anyway, cheers. I think I might target these for a while! :OD
There has been a crazy amount of blindeye turned this way since I have been on Steem. The amounts extracted are enormous.
Yep, I know enough of the history...
The amounts are actually jaw droppingly huge. I was surprised myself despite knowing of it, at least thinking I knew of it
You can thank henrichdegrote for that. Powered down everything yet he didn’t pull back this particular delegation...
Madness. Utter madness
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It's most likely
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Wow! Nicely done @tarazkp! Being the uhhh ... "visually oriented" sort, this was an excellent post with the kind of details I needed to understand what is at stake (pardon the pun ... 😉) here ...
Once back inside from working in my garden today, I will take a closer look and, perhaps, cast my first downvotes ever since I "jumped in here" over a year and a half ago.
Resteemed. As always thank you (for all of those screengrabs!) and keep up the great work! 👍
P.S. Also tagged it in @steempeak, since that is my "go to" method for trying to keep track of posts which I would like to refer back to, as needed.
P.P.S. I'll have to go visit the blog of the uhhh ... "big kahuna" of this sort of crap to see if they are getting their abuse addressed ...
Thanks. It took a while to compile, and I am pretty fast with the snip tool. I need another screen :D
It is an interesting case in many ways as it has got overlooked for years and I am unsure why.
Years ago @tarazkp ...
... I thought often of getting a 2nd screen, but always thought I would save the money and do without. Like I was raised ... 😉
It was actually at work, where my employer finally "broke down" and got us all a 2nd screen. Once I found out how dramatic the efficiency gains, etc. were, I quickly got one for my home workstation as well. I will never be without a 2nd one again ...
As for how this "circle" escaped, you know more about these things than I, but I am certain there are much bigger violators than these. We'll see if they are "taken on" now that we have HF 2
12 behind us ...P.S. Some people (a lot of people?) actually do an amazing amount of posting with their smartphones?! I'd go blind pretty quickly ...
I have 2, but no room for them as I lost my office to my daughter. I am on a very low power laptop at home.
I need a new home.
This is one of the largest operations on steem. with each account voted taking around 25,000 Steem a year.
I can force a post out, but I rarely comment from my phone because when I do I try and cut it short and it becomes shallow.
Hmmm. Let's see ...
Okay then @tarazkp! Go big or go ... home ... 😉
You've achieved an amazing amount of success "in here." How much more STEEM would that take?
A lot more than I have. Finland is one of the most expensive countries in the world with one of the highest taxes on crypto.
On a side note, that SP earned is no longer representative of what I have actually earned because I have been using the ocdb distributor for a year at least. It has helped me grow but means my numbers are useless :/
Following through on my commitment @tarazkp, much later than I had hoped, but ... Was immediately stopped by two issues:
In the limited time I had, I didn't see hardly any downvotes on these posts, so a long way to go ...
On the post beside the 'resteem' button, there are 3-dots.. Click them and there you will see the downvote option on Steempeak.
Okay, so we have a different mechanism than upvoting @kharma.scribbles. Guess it is sort of "tucked away" then ... Thank you!
Yep handrik has been supporting this for some reason the entire time. I am not sure if she pays for the delegation, but there are no direct sends to the hendrik account.
I have never seen @steemcleaners focusing on big accounts ...
I think especially before HF 21 took place, many whales had been a perfect target for @steemcleaners, if ... my first sentence was wrong ... ;-)
And yes, I noticed the '@sweetsssj-syndicate' as well.
That is a heck of a lot of milking going on and happy to add my 5 c or maybe 20 c on a downvote.
I am unsure if they would even notice considering it appears mostly automated.
We will see lol.
Nice find and I agree with you the perfect way of using your downvote!👍 and regarding steemcleaners did anyone ever tell, I assume the cleaners can’t be everywhere?🤔
Posted using Partiko iOS
I am pretty sure they know but it isn't always so clear for them due to the stake they are using.
I don't get this part actually... What do you mean by not always clear due to the stake?🤔
They are using Steemit Inc stake and that comes with certain kinds of limitations that are kind of culturally imposed by the community.
Finally something worth while to do on Steemit! I can cast aside the Armadillo and become Downvote Man, doing my part to pump out the bilge and help right the good ship Steemit. I am going to have to make my self a costume. With a cape.
:)
Are you going to wear a cape with a big D on it?
I might. I will take pictures.
Please, use the cape to cover the little D at least.
I noticed my downvote is huge than the upvote. I took off 20 cents from a post by using my $0.05 value upvote!
Yep, kind of cool.
Holey macaroni. But she seemed so sweet.
All kidding aside, that's truly unfortunate. Early on I thought her content was quite good and even voted a few times. This kind of shit makes me feel like I got used.
Yeah, I hate that feeling. Not the first or the last I assume.
One guy once told me, "You know what dude? I was once one of those people who was only nice to you for a comment upvote." I was shattered...
LOL! People...
Ina world where there are animals like highly toxic jellyfish that have no brains, we are still the strangest animals on the planet.
That sweetsss account has been doing the same thing from the time I got here over two years ago.
She is supported by a couple of whales with delegations?
You mentioned it in passing in the post.
It's easy enough to find out who they are as themarkymark pointed out above or is the old fear of retaliation still lingering somewhat?
At least you had the balls to post about what you found and that's worth an upvote alone.
Well done Mr T
Hendrikdegrote and systema, who I think are the same.
Yeah I followed the trail and found the same things.
I think a bot to track this behaviour could be helpful and as for a reason to downvote this use of stake.
I think it may breach the TOS in terms of 'proof of brain'?
The concept of steemit was for people to select the best content. If this process is automated then where is the proof of brain other than someone had the brains to game the system?
#justanidea
THe brains to game the system is actually a pretty good PoB if there was the incentive to stop those who game the system... oh, now there is ;D
I think the bots will arrive and I also hope there will be statistics and analytics to gamify the downvotin experience to some degree. Feedback on how we as a community and the health of the ecosystem is doing.