Upvote selling will NEVER die!

oropeso (36)in #abuse • 7 years ago (edited)

Upvote selling violates steemit's own rules, helps spammers steal from the reward pool, and creates an ocean of shitposts. However, steemit will NEVER fix this problem. Here's why.

First, before I explain why, you have to understand that stopping this fraud is a completely solvable problem:

Steemit could provide a simple widget to flag/report content and users who offer to buy/sell upvotes.
Steemeans would gladly volunteer the human power required to enforce the no-selling policy by flagging/reporting.
Steemeans would gladly volunteer for the review committee to block/ban users who violate the policy.
Steemit could programmatically detect and block bots from upvoting.
...and by other means which are beyond my knowledge expertise. (If YouTube and any number of other social media sites can detect and prevent this type of self-dealing, so can we.)

This will never change because of witnesses and whales, who have disproportionate (steem) power and influence, sell upvotes. It doesn't matter whether they are doing it for beneficial/altruistic reasons. Without regulation, ANY upvote-selling scheme opens the door for abuse of upvote-selling by other less honest schemes. It doesn't matter if the scheme is altruistic or not --- Without heavy oversight and regulation, ALL upvote-selling opens the door for less honest individuals to benefit from these schemes. Although witnesses are the governing body for steem, neither steem nor steemit has any formal processes for raising issues, seeking redress, and implementing solutions. All it has is a never-ending tide of gullible new steemeans who are willing to pay for a chance at fame and recognition.

Therefore, I call on you reader, to do the following: