Abuse Series: From My Desk
It has been a long time since I last contributed to my Abuse Series. I have enjoyed, for the most part, reading other contributions for the last four months. The anti-abuse category has expanded since its inception. I want to take a moment and let everyone know that security
is also within the scope of the Utopian Antiabuse. If you have expertise in that field, please feel free to contribute.
Summary
Welcome back! I will not bore you, or disgust you, with another cat and mouse chase. Instead, I will humor you with some of the things I have been up to in the background. Like many other projects on Steem, a lot of work happens off-chain and most of them never come to light.
One of the items on the itinerary has been the wellbeing of our abuse fighters. This involves more than downvoting and counter voting against retaliation. In fact, it has more to do with their involvement in the community.
Recently, I compiled a shortlist of various communities on the @steemflagrewards Discord. I based it on my own list of which I use to traverse on regular basis. I have made it so that administrators and moderators can add or edit them as appropriate. Of course, members in the channel are welcome to make suggestions as well.
The list is also available on HackMD. Anyone is welcome to take a peek and snatch the first draft for their purposes.
What does this accomplish?
The frustration amongst stakeholders and other Steemians are mounting. This is an attempt to remind our collaborators and abuse fighters that there is more to Steem. There is more to the perpetual negativity they witness on a daily basis.
The last thing we want is for people to actually rage quit because they are feeling burned out. Some of you may have noticed the humorous #ragequit posts some weeks back, but the reality is closer to that joke.
Aside from community support, there are also other incredible services such as @freezepeach. Believe it or not, not everyone is aware that such utility exist on the blockchain. Part of this is due to the nonexistent community features that need to change.
Some genuine advice given to me by other long-time Steemians: take a step back.
This not only applies to our abuse fighters, but other Steemians in general. Go do something else on or off the chain. Explore other projects and communities. As much as I welcome any effort on the anti-abuse front, I would prefer them to have fun on Steem.
Future directions?
There will be more internal focus on the organizational front and workflow. This includes decluttering the Discord channel and update the scope of the project. The hope is that we will have significant progress into Q3, if not finished with them.
A good operation needs to have good organization. I know SFR founder @anthonyadavisii has been taking notes from community feedback. One of the main attractions of SFR is that it adapts to the changing culture of dapps, communities, etc.
Abuse Series aims to document progress in the anti-abuse front from my perspective. Your perceived realities may differ.
Previous post: For Profit Promotions
Next post: When Mistakes Happen
Hello @enforcer48,
I didn't think I would get to read a post about the morale of the anti-abuse community, particularly one that also quotes myself, but I'm glad I did. Morale and burnout are very real issues amongst those who dedicate their time and effort to combating abuse on the Steem blockchain. It's a thankless job but someone has to do it.
Keeping the anti-abuse teams resilient towards attrition, burnout and general morale deterioration is one of the main measures we can employ to strengthen the Steem ecosystem's defenses against scammers.
As my quote above says, I've walked away briefly from Steem early on in my journey here and I can honestly say that was due to frustration about the unchecked state of scamming and exploitation. Had there been projects like a the robust Steemcleaners we have now, SFR and Jaguar Force, that probably wouldn't have happened. Giving up is always a mistake but a sad reality for many users who see abuse around them.
Moreover, you presented the existing steps taken to bridge the anti-abuse initiatives like the SFR with communities, most of which can be found through Discord groups, and gave readers a way to contribute by adding to the list. This is excellent for community discovery and collaboration.
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Thank you for your kind comment.
There is a lot to be done in the background. Frankly, they should have been fleshed out long ago. Alas, time constraint is a real thing.
Thank you for your review, @guiltyparties! Keep up the good work!
Think that is exactly what happened. Also, trying to get momentum back since the baby and it's hard!
Just put a desk in my office for my laptop so now I can get away from the noise and work for a while. Finally!
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Wait, you never had a desk before then?
Not for the laptop. I've been trying to work amidst the chaos of the living room on a coffee table. Wasn't a good setup at all. lol
Some good advice there in regards to diversifying your efforts and not getting to hyper-focused on one area. I have a bit of OCD so I can tend to do that and sometimes it can be useful or helpful to hyper-focus, though it can surely end in burnout and feeling overextended.
I also like the emphasis on having fun, I think that's a good point! If we take things too seriously it can certainly have unpleasant results. Those are some good reminders for me! Spread my time out a bit to different things and remember to have fun. :)
Totally.
Unless you are building some sort of career or business as primary source of income, I don't think it's healthy to take everything on here super seriously.
Hi @enforcer48!
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I think I like this series. Always great to be informed on what's going on in the platform, both good & bad. As someone who's been bullied on Steem, I appreciate every effort cleanup communities like SFR put in. xxo
Thanks for your support! As for bullying, you should thank @r0nd0n for putting @freezepeach together.
Keep it up :)!
Posted using Partiko Android
Thank you kindly.
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