Let's All Bash Dan!!!
Yesterday I made a comment on The Politics of Negative Voting by @dan and it drew a lot of attention. I would like to address my previous comment with the post below. @beanz replied that they hoped my comment "doesn't start a Dan-bashing trend". I have posted this in the comments section on the original discussion as well, but that has paid out and is likely not to get many eyes, so here it is below for those interested.
For the record ... I'm not bashing Dan.
I type from the heart on the fly and perhaps my rants read worse than my thoughts on a particular matter actually are, simply because I'm not a writer and I don't generally proofread prior to clicking "Post". There is too much on my plate as it is.
The disapproval expressed above with Dan's voting, at times, had simply been brewing over the past few months and I never have had an opportunity to bring it up in a place he could see it.
My views on the matter are not entirely isolated to me and contain bits of info I've gathered from others in chat, comments and post here on Steemit over time. Dan is the ultimate whale here and what I have expressed above is applicable to any whale and perhaps even Orca's (still whales), a group I belong to.
Recently I was called out for retaliating against a minnow that was abusing the flagging system against my account simply because they did not agree with what I had to say or how I was voting.
Over the past few months I have spent a lot of time (too much) going around Steemit flagging plagiarism, catfishing, spam and other attempts to game the system. Flagging people from the tuck-fheman account cost a lot of voting power for quite some time and I took a lot of heat from scammers for catching them.
I'm fairly certain the person that made the post saying I was a "bully whale", after they flagged me 6-7 times for no good reason and I retaliated, is simply someone I had caught gaming the system in the past and they saw an opportunity to try to make "tuck-fheman" look bad.
Then I had a run in with someone else recently who got upset because I simply questioned the veracity of their reporting. This person starting accusing me of "attacking" them simply for asking questions about their "report".
They made several videos where they attacked the tuck-fheman account with childish name calling, false accusations and played the victim card simply because I called them out on their fallacious "report", asked tough questions and when they responded saying they were not attempting to provide any facts, only "entertainment" I asked them to please put a disclaimer on their post up front stating that so investors and bloggers didn't get the idea that they were actual vlogging about reality. They were hurting the platform in my opinion.
Combine all of that together with time and you get my rant above. I saw Dan downvote someone, ruin their reputation instantly and it all came out in a matter of minutes because I simply needed to release some steam (pun intended).
So, although I can see how it looks like I'm bashing Dan, in reality it's me expressing my frustration on the current voting situation on Steem (mainly) and the best target for that frustration is Dan.
I cannot thank Dan enough for creating BitShares & Steem
Dan has single-handedly (well, he's had some help) made my life and wallet much happier over the past three years. Outside of BitShares & Steem I do nothing but praise Dan and defend his platforms and decisions on various social media outlets, most recently on Youtube. When and if I have a complaint, I keep it in house. But overall I am thoroughly satisfied with what Dan has created and my numerous post promoting his platforms can attest to that.
What's funny, and discouraging at times, is that I rarely, if ever, see anyone mentioning how much I promote and defend Dan. Most people want to focus on the few times a year I express my displeasure with a single action Dan has taken, yet rarely say a word about the countless times I have stood up for Dan and his platforms as a whole.
In some ways, I apologize that my rebuke above made such a splash and drew so much attention, but overall I think it turned out positive. Criticism generally draws in more eyes than approval and I do far more approving of Dan's work that's rarely commented on or upvoted. That's just human nature I guess, but I don't know for sure so I'll leave that question to the numerous philosophers here on Steemit. ;)
You said it all when you ended a paragraph with "They were hurting the platform in my opinion." That's what you have earned/bought/paid for the privilege to do. It would be nice to have a downvote for whales (even orcas) that wouldn't ruin a reputation, or a way to vote and restore reputation without the financial reward. For a reputation system to truly mean anything it can't be completely undone by a single person.
Now to look for yesterdays post, and the incident that caused it!
Agree.
Found and read through the "incident" with Dan. Well said man. Certainly got the shit stirred lol
There is a way to vote with less weight and I heard that it's coming to the interface too soon as right now it's only available through the clid...
It was implemented the other day. You should see the tuner giving you the ability to adjust your voting weight, although it may not be available on mobile view yet.
Ahhhh, I was not aware of that.
Wait, we have a tuner to adjust voting weight? where?
Hey Tuck. I was on my mobile when I commented above indeed but now on the PC (Win10+Chrome) and still don't see the tuner...
[Edit]: I just saw a comment on steemit.chat from @jesta that it's active only for accounts with 100M Vests or more...
That would explain why I'm not seeing it...yet.. :)
@pierce-the-veil: I agree @tuck-fheman there are some serious improvements to be made to the voting paramaters (not just upvoting crap, also whale downvoting power).
Being fond of rants myself, I did a post that went largely unnoticed titled: "Whale Ho, The Slippery Facebook Slope", whereby i tagged ned, dan, and a few others in regards to whale-upvoting standards.
Fell mostly on deaf ears faded out of the stream, except for one "apologist" who left a reasonable neutral comment.
Best of Luck to you, im following and look forward to further posts.
I thought your comment was pretty justified in comparison to a lot of complaining comments I've read directed at Dan. Most of them are clearly misunderstanding the concept of steemit and are unfamiliar with online etiquette since there's never been a platform like this. So when I saw the success of your post, I just wondered if those same users who are panicing over a (currently) non-existent whale problem were to see the support you got that they might foolishly think their own complaints were being validated. Hopefully not, I think a lot of things need to be clarified to help those who have been misinformed.
It's only natural for people to pay more attention to the one cat barking out of the hundreds of cats purring. I think Dan knows he has our support but a lot of people are just confused or misinformed.
And you should know that too. Your abusers thankfully can't touch you and though they might retaliate by hurting someone they can influence, Dans suggested solution sounds like it will do the trick and hopefully we won't have to deal with them as much anymore.
Good points. People tend to focus on the negative (Murphy's Law). I did a quick scan with your username, and even with all of the scam/plagiarism/catfish hunting that you're doing, still 92% of your votes are upvotes! There's a lot of good out there. Like I showed in a post yesterday, the top whales on average use their votes as upvotes about 94% of the time. We're only human, and we're bound to make mistakes. But in the end, most whales are actually quite conservative with their downvotes.
Tuck' s the man!
@ all
I am in no position to judge anyone here so I'll stay away from naming names and taking sides. I am also fairly new to the whole scene at Steemit. Besides and compared to you two I practically don't exist.
@tuck-fheman
I like what you've done with this post. You publicly and very clearly expressed your opinion. You explained your actions in a transparent and very direct way. I applaud you for doing this. I am following you because you stand by your words and your actions.
@dantheman
Your downvotes can practically delete a person. In fact, they do this. I am not saying that you shouldn't do it. I am just pointing out the consequences. I can imagine how it feels like to be deleted from the community such as Steemit. I've had such an experience at Bubblews. It wasn't my fault but I've got kicked out anyways. Without explanation, without anything. So, please, take a second or two to reconsider the outcome from the other party's point of view. Thanks :)
To conclude - Steemit is a great community and is growing day by day. It is like an infant. We should always be aware of that.Let us do not forget this is still a beta.
Anyways, you are both doing a great job! I admire you for that. Good luck.
Beter and better.
If I could put my thoughts into words properly this would be it.
Respect to your respect, @tuck-fheman!
Communities are highly benefited by transparency and accountability (we know that well!). If we truly value truth and honor, then all are benefited when adverse behavior is called out and considered. Steemit is a revolutionary platform on many levels:
--Exchanging ideas illuminates opportunities for upgrades, and the game evolves and the game evolves
--we've got a brand new economic and social model unfolding that can reflect genuine values (we're all about those values! https://steemit.com/homelessness/@gardenofeden/sustainable-community-illegally-feeds-the-homeless)
it's great that you're not afraid to express your personal point of view, I am proud of and I respect such people, but unfortunately not everyone is ready to hire something is not convenient for them, hope that dan is not one of them) be well)
and my own special steemart picture for you
Well Dan gave us BitShares & Steem, that's why Dan is the Man!
@tuck-fheman To my mind you have nothing to apologize for. @dantheman has ALOT of power on this platform.
We're all visitors here, this is his house.
You were telling him that he needs to pay attention to what he's doing and if you look at his activity on steemd, it looks like he's doing exactly that.
This is what I like about @dantheman if I were to hop on facebook and call out Mark Zuckerberg, I would quickly find finely dressed gentlemen in black at my doorstep.
Dan isn't like that. He's a real human who sincerely wants to make this the best platform he can. But it's a bit like all of us being in a bus together, with Dan as the driver.
Sometimes he takes his eyes of the road to read the map, text or whatever and we all yell at him. Then he snaps back to driving.
I tend to be more critical than most. Of literally everything and that includes not holding back on @dantheman as well. In fact I'm probably more critical with him because I care so much about this platform and sometimes I see danger coming. Yet he seems to take it in stride.
It's an incredible feeling to know he doesn't place himself above constructive criticism and feedback.
I know this because even though he rarely ever says anything directly about it, I tend to find him upvoting the really important stuff and the really good stuff regardless of if it comes from a minnow or a whale. To this day he's still my number one upvoter. Good to know he's one that listens.
I think all the recent posts by dan have been very disturbing, I see a deep black hole being formed with the topic of voting and rewards. I am looking forward to moving beyond the topic, before it drives certain people over the edge and into insanity, as it seems to already have. I think this is all a result of the "fear of money" and the inability to deal with "power over others". Happily I do not have such fears, and I'm happy to post 5 times daily and earn an average of $3 per post, because as long as the bloggers who follow me are being entertained, I am doing a great service to steemit and myself.
It is possible to be critical of someone with out "bashing them." We should be able to criticize people we like, with out people or even those we are being critical of getting angry. Open dialogue is how progress gets made.
Also, your post is well spoken, and your intentions are clear. I am sure dan knows that you didn't mean badly towards him.