ADSactly Steem Commmunity - What Constitutes Abuse and What Type of Content is Suitable for High Value Upvotes?
What Constitutes Abuse and What Type of Content is Suitable for High-Value Upvotes? (Buildteam's Minnowbooster Project)
Maintaining standards on the quality of content suitable for being upvoted is important when it comes to ensuring a long and bright future for the Steem ecosystem.
Not everybody knows about proper academic standards for writing and ADSactly and BuildTeam would like to come together and help people understand what constitutes quality content while highlighting the importance of proper sourcing.
The Steem ecosystem is growing by leaps and bounds and provides outstanding opportunities to gain rewards through content creation and participation on sites like Busy.org and Steemit.com.
But, as the price of Steem grows alongside the Steemit social network, so do the number of spammers and abusers and con-artists wanting to farm the network in one way or another for easy money. This presents a real challenge and represents a direct threat to the survival of the entire project.
The Robots (Bots for short...)
The invention of voting and bidding bots has created a new dynamic on the platform. Before you needed to network and gain favor with Steem Power holders in order to grow your account. Now with services offering the ability to lease Steem Power or buy votes it seems everybody has access to visibility and patronage, they just have to pay for it.
Now, there are many that argue that bots shouldn't be allowed. This is a valid point but in rebuttal I need to make the point that the chain was made in a way that facilitates bots and a very open development environment in which to build upon. The idea of bots being banned from the ecosystem is most likely not possible, so lets move on and look at other options.
How can bots change their systems in order to prevent spamming, farming and general abuse of the blockchain? Many ideas have been proposed but most revolve around some sort of whitelist / approved account list being allowed to access the services provided by bots. But is this unfair to people not accepted? Doesn't this just perpetuate the problem of the few having a voice while the masses are left out? I would argue that a whitelist could be harmful if not implemented in the right way.
A blacklist seems to be a better way to control abuse. The problem is that a blacklist can be very subjective as well. Who is in charge of the blacklist and what criteria is being used to blacklist an abuser from using bots?
In this article I'd like to discuss a few do's and don'ts of content creation as it pertains to posting on the Steem blockchain. Again, please note that although some of these guidelines may be subjective, it is my belief that if a content producer tries to follow them, their content will be of much better value to the Steem community.
Meaningful and Original Content is the Way Forward!
I'll start by saying that I believe everyone has something of real and genuine value to contribute through their writing. Everybody is entitled to their opinion and the blockchain was made for all of us to share our ideas and opinions with the world. So I would say that your biggest ally in this process is simply using common sense.
Lets be honest... Does a copy-paste tech spec of a mobile phone really deserve to be in the HOT section? C'mon guys, if members of the Steem community found a post like this getting a huge upvote they should report it through the Steemcleaners or MinnowBooster discord servers. As a writer who often spends time in the @ADSactly server I can also say that this would be a great place to report abuse as well. The community will listen to your points and support its members. All you have to do is join to become a member. Yep, its really that easy!
What about a simple “selfie of me & my friends?” Does this really contribute to the platform and community that much, should people be able to boost it to hundreds of dollars in post rewards? Nope, I don't think so...
Now this can be messy business deciding which post is spam and which represents a sincere effort and an example of 'quality content.'
Obviously, post length is subjective as it should be. If you break your back as a photographer to get that special shot, its more than likely that people will be able to tell.
But if abusers boost their internet-downloaded pics to hundreds of dollars in post rewards it's a red flag. The community is bound to notice and are completely within common sense to report this behavior.
A Few More Guidelines as to What Constitutes Abuse.
One of the largest bots in the ecosystem @MinnowBooster recently needed to update its Terms of Service (TOS) in order to combat the rampant abuse taking place using its voting service. I'll just go over a few of the main points although for the complete picture, the post can be read here:
https://steemit.com/minnowbooster/@minnowbooster/minnowbooster-updated-terms-of-service-tos
The following are the new updated guidelines of use of the service (I have received permission to publish this content from @MinnowBooster):
What constitutes abuse of @minnowbooster?
Using multiple accounts to post duplicate content and
purchasing MB upvotes for all of them
Same goes for using multiple accounts to post low
quality content just to farm Minnowbooster for profits
Upvoting posts with MB that are written in a copy / paste style
Using a MB vote for very short or repetitive content.
Length is subjective, but 150 words is a good safe guideline.
Posting duplicate content is just asking to get blacklisted. Steemians want to read original content made by you! We want this to be a living breathing platform, not a boring repository of copy paste internet materials compiled as simply a means to milk the reward pool.
Short content is fine but again its a very subjective thing to decide if a one line poem deserves 100 dollars in posting rewards... Perhaps you could write something below your poem? Tell your readers what inspired you to write it? Maybe add a few pictures if there was any visual inspiration involved?
Photography Post Rules:
Single photo posts are not allowed.
Photography posts must contain supporting text
and show significant effort in terms of
production value (location, setup, lighting and subject)
to be considered boostable.
Again this seems reasonable. If you are a photographer, why not place a few pictures in a post rather than just a single image? If you really want to show off a single image because you're incredibly proud of it, that's fine too, I'm sure if you are that passionate about it you could write a few paragraphs about the experience of getting that magical shot right?
Public Domain Content:
Sources and Authors used in posts must be
correctly cited and linked to original content
This is a very important point. As a writer on Steemit you should try your absolute best to follow academic standards. You can write about whatever you want, you can use the work of others and stand on their shoulders but you must do it the correct way.
Lets say that I wanted to quote a snippet from an article I enjoyed. Instead of copying and pasting it into my post, I would format it as a quote and tell readers where I got the information from in the source list below. Don't know what I'm talking about? Let me show you a few screenshots of an article I recently wrote on @techblogger.
Here is the article:
This was written about a robotic pet that can help remind you to be more social... I know right?! What's going on with the world these days eh?
Anyways, let me show you where I needed to quote some information from the article in which I learned about this new and strange pet.
Notice the middle paragraph is a different shade and indented? This was copied and pasted from the original article in which I sourced. If you would like to do this but don't know how, the Steem markup language requires a (>) in front of the text which it will convert to the formatting which I have shown above. Finally it is important for my readers to know where I got this quote from. I provide a list of my sources at the end of my article. This can be seen in the image below:
So there you have it. If you want to write about a topic and you are using research materials to create it follow the method in which I taught above and you'll be on par with the world's greatest academics. Lets keep things civil and high brow on the Steem blockchain shall we?
I know my fellow @ADSactly society members know how important it is to protect Steem and maintain it as the top crypto platform for social interaction. We don't want farmers, plagiarists or spammers clogging up the feeds. We want real posts made by real people. I hope some of these ideas have helped clarify what I feel constitutes abuse and in knowing we can all be aware of these guidelines as we continue to write and publish to our heart's content.
Once I found Steem I was amazed that someone hadn't thought of it earlier! If you have already moved from Facebook to Steem, I commend you.
We can make Steem what we want it to be. It's a community effort after all.
What do you think about the abuse taking place on the blockchain? How can we promote a healthier environment for original content producers? How can we help them get more visibility for their outstanding content?
Here's a chance for the @ADSactly community to leave their thoughts and opinions on this topic!
Thanks for reading.
Authored by: @techblogger
In-text citations sources:
"MinnowBooster - Updated Terms of Service (ToS)" - MinnowBooster
Image Sources:
MinnowBooster, Pexels
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Thank you!
Abuse here is the place to be. Over time, the platform is growing, which means that the number of messages is growing. In any place there will always be very nasty people who want to get "easy" money. They are not used to creating - they just copy information from other sources and give it away for their own. Besides them, there are many spammers and they are a threat.
But there is another problem that many good bloggers are facing. It is lack of support. Everyone understands that without support here - the probability of getting a good reward for their work is low. I see a lot of messages from users who work their time and labor in creating a quality message. But they do not get support and lose motivation and optimism. At other times, spammers abuse the system and get a good income.
On the other hand, I see many "strong" users who support newcomers. This is very good in my opinion and is a counterweight to spam messages. I know some users who do this.
I have an idea to create support for talented and promising bloggers. I want to organize the support of good messages and the maintenance of newcomers who bring value. Thus, we can affect the overall trend of messages. That is to help in the development of promising bloggers and weed out spammers and those who abuse. If I find support for my idea, I can achieve a result in this work.
Thank you, good article
Sure thing! All the bots should have double mission - to support only the value, good content and to discriminate spammers or any other shit content makers. I hope it is technically possible to generate bots which start to clean the steemit from such shitty content posts... I see growing number of accounts which don't generate anything useful for community - informative, artistic, creative... just searching for extra money for nothing. In such community, built up on a real currency, all the spam makers should not be tolerated. I hope I am not the only one who think like this.
Hi adsactly...
nice to hear about minnow booster new policy against spammers and low quality work or copy paste articles.Others boost should follow these steps to encourage good work and quality.
many people start using steemit but cannot handle it and quit.How to write a good article and not to be spam. in my opinion people with some skills or knowledge can make their place here easily .
when any body starts a business ,work hard on it according to its requirements for profit.so why not on steemit. For your original quality work use your good skills here like art ,photography or others.If you don't select tags you want to work on them and improve your knowledge by reading good books and articles about it.
You have touched upon a really painful subject for many. I have not been watching the trend messages section for a long time, because most of the time it is filled with meaningless silly posts that have gained their payout with the help of bots. It really makes me upset and depressed. I deliberately refused to use bots in my posts. Even if the post is less than a dollar and my vanity is dead, I hold on and I don't go to the bot. I chose an honest way. I urge everyone to take this path. Stop, stop milking the system! So we will not be able to become a platform 1 on the Internet.
Imagine a situation. A major investor learned about the Steemit and decided to take a look at what it is. It opens the page of the trend. And what does he see? He sees real shit that doesn't make any sense. Of course, the investor will leave.
I fully support the idea of flagging those ridiculous messages raised by bots. We must all fight for an honest and fair Steemit. Every dollar given to a bot to a worthless post is a dollar taken away from those who really work, and deserves awards.
Not sure what to say. I have been tearing my nails off try to comprehend the disparity of the people that claim they are writers, poets, painters, builders, philosophers. Very depressing, I spend hours upon hours learning to stay in touch with technology. Everytime I think that I have a leg up, I get trumped. As you can see I am new to the community. I am floored by the members on here that have no content whats o ever, yet have a wallet that sends shivers down my spine.
It has always been a uphill battle for me it seems. I never ever like the way the people of the world embrace certain ideals. The "mob" has always scared me. Me personally have seldom been on the same highway, and have always taken the back road to salvation.
My experience with other multimedia platforms as left me with a bitter taste in my mouth. I learned the hard way, you see, I was raped by a IP huger. My music and written word were ripped out of my so called copyrighted thought. Going into a tail spin I vowed not to let that happen again. It has been two years since my father and best friend past away. It is a unbelievable feeling watching souls die, enlighten souls, competent souls. I look at the people that survive and wonder to myself when am I going to wake up. The dream that I am currently in is full of dismay, trespassers, resentment, sadness. I often say the same as the author, the copy paste generation. No original thought, they want it easy, they want a quick fuck. The moral and ethical standards of the people that embrace the devilish placement of embedded corporations. Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Apple are an example of entities of abusual fortification offering "free" cookies to the unsuspecting children.
I will close with this poem....
Do not look over there
You will not like what you see
If you come with me
Over the glade will be
just over the sea
there will be a blanket
covering your state of being
r.a. di pietrantonio
take care, beware, I will be waiting for thee
bid bots is a money making machine on their part, they should only vote that is quality and original content, the whole concept of reward is meaningless if spammer are richer and wiser than quality content creator.
Minnowbooster is helping Steemit to get better!
I have been so furious about the crappy content in the trending and hot page. When an artist like me with quality posts get zero attention after posting since aug of 2016 (another account). But yesterday I was looking how much they actually make. Of a 770$ post they have paid for 730$. If someone wants to pay that amount to get attention go ahead. I feel sorry for them not being able to create quality and have to buy their fame
Like you rightly said, the war against bidbots is like a lost war. Personally, I don't support it one bid and I've made a few comments round the community which showed my disapproval but what can we do, the chain was built to allow it, therefore, people will keep building them. I only hope the bot owners will get to read this and implement a couple of things here to help clean the community else it will be a case of flower and bee which @tarazkp wrote about last night.