[Content Cop] How To Protect Yourself Against SteemitDefenceLeague
It's been roughly three weeks since the user @camillesteemer started their false flagging campaign using puppet accounts, masquerading as one poor bullied user that's part of a collective of similarly abused users. I don't think anyone bought into this charade at any point, but they are still maintaining their innocence. At this point, the number of puppet accounts they've set up has almost doubled, and they are lashing out and attacking more and more genuine users.
What dragged me into this mess was a simple comment (not even a flagging) left on a post of theirs, where they were claiming to be "under attack" by the abuser.... @abusereports. This was over a month and a half ago now, and to be honest I had completely forgotten about them. That was until I started receiving flags on my posts and comments from a seemingly mysterious anonymous-esque group known as the Steemit Defense League (triumphant trumpet plays). I soon linked it back to them and their other account @mybestnews, and since then they have just tripled down on this stupidity. Their numerous accounts are too low on VP to make any difference, many users have started deploying countermeasures and no-one seems to understand what their endgame is. Why waste all this time? Why draw more and more attention to your shitty behaviour?
I'm currently ranked #3 on their list! What an honour!
Anyway, the fact of the matter is this is happening, and they're becoming so irrational at this point that they could start flagging anyone. There's a few simple things you can do to protect yourself from this harassment though, and we'll go through a few of them.
Steemit Doofus League
The user @anthonyadavisii has created two bots to help tackle this problem; @neutralizer and @ SteemitDoofusLeague - @neutralizer and @randohealer. The first will neutralize the attack, and the second will help boost affected posts and comments (I believe). This is a great solution to this horrible situation, many thanks to @anthonyadavisii for implementing this. You don't need to do anything, as the bots check the puppet accounts and counter any false flagging.
Dustsweeper banner by @charisma777
Dust Sweeper
@dustsweeper is a great new service designed to help newbies and minnows when it comes to the dust vote rule. Basically, posts and comments with payouts below $0.0249 will be boosted above the dust vote threshold so that you get the payouts. Simply send 1SBD/STEEM to @dustsweeper and that's all you need to do. You'll then have a balance which upvotes are deducted from, and they'll notify when you need to top up again. Especially if you're being flagged by @camillesteemer, sign up to this service as soon as you can.
Steemd/Ginabot
To keep track of the flagging, you can check Steemd or there is also @GINAbot, a new notification service that uses Discord to keep you updated on everything you could want, far more than you can get from just Steemd. You can read more about it over on their introduction post, it's free and I have to say since activating this service, it's been a lot easier for me to keep track of everything thats going on with Steemit.
The wonderful Steemian @antimetica has already written a great post about @dustsweeper and @ginabot, which you can read here, and it goes into a lot more detail.
If you're under attack from this thick-as-pig-shit abuser, let me know and I'll happily boost any posts or comments that are being wrongly flagged. I hope you find this helpful, and if you have any thoughts or have seen another service to tackle this kind of abuse, let me know down in the comments section. I really enjoy reading what you think about these things, even if I don't always comment back straight away. As always, make sure to follow me for the latest Technology, Internet and Pop Culture updates, and if you're a fan of bizarre or interesting YouTube videos, you might want to follow me on Twitter too. Until next time, take it easy!
P.S. If you're new here, you might want to check out my Ultimate Beginner's Guide To Steemit, which covers everything you need to know to get started making money and meeting new people on Steemit.
Sources:
Image of Akahigi Hyakki no Sōen from Narutopedia (http://naruto.wikia.com/wiki/File:Akahigi_Hyakki_no_S%C5%8Den.png)
its just so annoying... everday he creates a new account. i know that it doesnt effect anything because hes voting with no value but its simply just annoying to scroll through 30 downvotes everyday to keep track of the real eventlog.
the fact that nothing seems to be done against bot and voteabuse like this makes me loose fate in this platform to be honest.
I'm with you, having to sift through all the false flagging to find the genuine interactions can be a little crushing. That's all they can hope to achieve though, is to be somewhat annoying. Why would someone waste so much of their time on this? They can't post anything without the entire community landing the finishing blow and flagging their account into oblivion, so what are they hoping for? I suspect this is a lonely person, probably late teens/early twenties, most likely male who doesn't have an awful lot to do with their time. Maybe we could all pitch together and offer to buy him a night with a sex worker?
That is exactly my feeling at this point, why are Steemit themselves allowing this to continue? Left unchecked, it will ruin this platform without a shadow of a doubt. The number of spam accounts is on the increase, and it's really starting to worry me. I don't want to invest time and money into something that is doomed to fail.
Well now, seems like this lot have too much time on their hands ;) Thanks for bringing it to everyone's attention.
That's what I keep thinking, the mind-boggling amount of time and effort they've put into this pointless crusade... why not put the same effort into writing good posts, or curating other posts? People make my brain hurt sometimes.
Eh, some people are clearly just born to be Internet (or RL) trolls
Some people are so childish, and they obv dont know how Steemit works - I looked at their Steemd page when you posted a while back about it and they had the minimum SP and were just flagging left right and centre
Yeah that's the bit that gets me, they clearly don't understand how it all works, but they are so damn sure about what they're doing. I'm curious to see how this will end, I suspect they'll eventually give in after a couple more weeks and start a new account. If only they redirected this energy into something productive, they could be very successful here. A pity really.
What a bunch of incels.
haha black-pilled incels, that's a group I've been meaning to do a post on!
Waiting to read.
I've just bumped it up my list of article ideas, so maybe by this weekend if I'm having a productive week.
I've read /r/theredpill and /r/mgtow They make a few good points.. but mostly it's a circlejerk of hate about not getting laid.
Just get a fleshlight.. jesus.
I've found this little sub-community to be so fascinating, I often think of the "nice guys" as red-pilled, whereas the full-blown incels are black pilled. It's all so weird, definitely a good topic for an "Internet Oddities" post.
I get that... I have a need to understand people like that. /r/incels is fascinating to me.. so is /r/twoXXchromosones.
How can so many people think wrong about so many things?
Example...people who litter. Why? How? When did they start and why don't they stop? Why do they get so angry when you point it out to them? Do they not care? Is this the LEAST bad shit they do?
Yeah that's it, although I haven't looked through r/twoXXchromosones. Given me some homework there!
Don't get me started, there are just so many of these types of things that people do. My pet peeve is dog shit, I had a real problem of someone using my drive and track as their personal dog toilet. Ended up building some motion-activated cameras to stop/catch them, and it worked. Yeah, I won't go on anymore.
In their books it isn't a bad thing that they're doing and they just don't get why you're "having a go at them". The mind boggles.
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Well you replied to me on your other post. I use Dustsweeper, I just hope these trolls don't keep Dusty from upvoting my posts. I also followed the bots that counter act the down votes. I realize their SP is too weak to effect my earnings and rep, but its annoying getting a crap ton of down votes. Is it possible for the Steemit staff to IP ban the user, assuming they aren't running these accounts on different devices or using a VPN.
No they don't prevent @dustsweeper from working, in fact on comments that wouldn't have otherwise paid anything out, you can end up earning a few cents. They'll flag, the bots will upvote and dustsweeper will come in before payout and upvote too. I don't know if @dustsweeper is triggered just by flags, but in the days before these bots I'd just upvote the comments myself.
I'm working on having the SP removed from all of the accounts I've identified, 64 so far and growing. Steemit won't IP ban anyone, as they still want users to see the errors or their ways and still interact with the blockchain. I sincerely doubt they are smart enough to think about switching up devices or covering their tracks in any way.
It is very annoying, even if they aren't hitting you financially. Unfortunately I guess this comes with the free and open nature of Steemit, people are free to act like immature c*nts.
Dusty hasn't upvoted me lately which led me to think something. Also the troll accounts continue to target me, but the bots you mentions counter voted. These trolls makes this place like Reddit.