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My concern is that some bots were going after me automatically, not manually, but automatic, specifically @steemcleaners (not @steemcleaner) and others. See, they put me on these blacklists and target me again and again.

you can talk to the steem cleaners group here: https://discord.gg/JnvkJMV

Tim, I did. I went on the @steemcleaners group on Discord and they placed me on timeout: Here is what I wrote to them:

Steem Cleaners

06:25 PM - @steemcleaners - Three of my comments were flagged. I wrote hi to three different people. So, I am an evil monster, right? Because hi is too simple, right? I can't start a conversation? I wrote an article about this.

I go back to they are allowed to use their stake for whatever they want. You can try to talk to them and convince them to do otherwise, but they are under no obligation to do what you say.

I think you and others make it too easy here. If I flag you once, indeed, I am under no obligation to justify that, but if I automatically flag every of your comments and posts, until you leave STEEM, then I think I should have a good reason for doing so and be able to justify my behaviour, because otherwise one might think all I do is damaging the platform.

I don't know if the flags in the case above are justified or not ... just saying ...

Steem is a decentralized self governing system. Other people are going to act in ways that differ from your personal value system of what is right and wrong, and they are allowed to do so provided the blockchain rules allow it. Self governing does not mean complete anarchy - but it does mean that users / the community are responsible for dealing with their issues with each other. There is no central party to step in and tell anyone they are right or wrong.

Steem is a decentralized self governing system.

In theory it is, yes. But there was ninja minining, and there is a concentration of 93 % of all Steem in about 100 accounts (or something like that). :)
But yes, the ideal of a decentralised system/community is quite fascinating.

Other people are going to act in ways that differ from your personal value system of what is right and wrong ...

To flag in an automated way without even knowing the content of the flagged posts or bother the replies of the 'victim' has nothing to do with 'values' anyway. It's a completely mechanic process.
And yes ...

Self governing does not mean complete anarchy - but it does mean that users / the community are responsible for dealing with their issues with each other.

... for me what happens here is partly pure anarchy respectively "Wild West". Transferred into real life it would mean somebody can kill you in case he doesn't like your face or your way of life, just because he has the power to do it. If you complain people will advice you to smply buy a bigger gun (more SP) to defend yourself.

This kind of anarachy, where people like @haejin or @sweetsssj exploited the reward pool and whales harassed users with different opinions (or just for fun), led to many frustrated people who left STEEM, a very low STEEM price and next to a collapse of the community. You should be aware of that, even if there is some hope again now.

There is no central party to step in and tell anyone they are right or wrong.

Parties like @steemcleaners with very much STEEM power should use it wisely, carefully and put communication (also directly under the posts) above punishment, whenever possible.
Again, the community is very fragile, and the ones with power should act responsible.
Your ideal of decentralization (I am well aware of how you imagine it to work in theory) will only lead anywhere, if in practice the system is able to attract and retain enough satisfied users instead to frustrate them.

If I flag you once, indeed, I am under no obligation to justify that, but if I automatically flag every of your comments and posts, until you leave STEEM, then I think I should have a good reason for doing so and be able to justify my behaviour, because otherwise one might think all I do is damaging the platform.

^ My point is this is how you feel is appropriate to behave on the system. You want others to behave the way you feel is 'right'. Other people are going to have a different view on how it is appropriate to behave, and they get to decide that for themselves. That's what's happening here. Whether they are "right" or "wrong" in their actions is a matter of opinion.

If they have stake in the system, they get to use it how they want. If others disagree with it, they can use their stake to counter it. It's not a perfect system by any stretch of the imagination, but those are the rules we live under.

Awareness:

It is good to respond to those types of actions. That is what I'm trying to promote. I want people to be aware of how subjective it can be.

50 Shades of Oatmeal

In other words, sometimes, things are not as black and white as we may want them to be. Perhaps, there are different sides, perspectives, to situations, stories.

Art & Beauty

Spam can be hard to define. Many things can be when defined subjectively as opposed to objectively.

Tyranny vs Free Markets

Now, a fake version of objectivity can be bad too and it can lead to bad tyrannical centralization. Now, to some extent, decentralized blockchains like Steem are promoting the freedom for individual to make choices concerning upvoting and downvoting based from a decentralized and subjective point of view, on the other hand, and that might be like an aspect of the free market.

The Meaning to Life

So, I believe in promoting the freedoms for people to do what they want. So, it comes down to private property rights.

Is My Comment a Form of Private Property?

So, by the way, hypothetically, if my comment was my private property, and if people downvoted that alleged private property comment, then did that flag (downvote) damage my alleged private property? Good question. I would say yes. But I don't know if a comment is private property or not. So, that is another can of worms that we can open in these types of debates, etc.

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