Scammer in the Making, or Just a Poor Strategist?
Lately, Steem communities have made a real push for unity, coming together for the best interest of the platform. Even Steemit, Inc. has gotten on board with this push, with the naming of Elizabeth (Eli) Powell as Managing Director and Ned Scott as Executive Chairman. Out of this movement has come the SOS Discord, the Steem Business Alliance, and a new Alliance group founded by Steemit, Inc. The movers and shakers in our blockchain universe have understood that the survival of our ecosystem will require teamwork. This is a bad time for maverick action by any solo user or splinter group, especially those who might be selling snake oil.
Several people in The Writers' Block, the Discord community I admin alongside @GMuxx, have received wallet spam from a user named @crypto.piotr. He's on about delegations for his "non-profit" project that has no name, no community, questionable transparency, and no system of accountability. I've been bothered from the outset by his lack of association with any established community or group. But I wasn't overly concerned--what's one more wallet spammer among the bidbots, right?
Well, now I'm concerned. Apparently he's becoming more aggressive, comment-spamming posts with long blocks of text that are completely unrelated to the post and bring no value to the blockchain. Same message, same lack of clear direction. I engaged with him on one such post. And ooooh, boy. He did not respond well.
His first comment was addressed to the owner of the blog, who will remain nameless here. Crypto.piotr managed to drag dstors into his pitch, which @kaliju, @derangedvisions, and @c0ff33a might find interesting. So I asked for more information, and tried to make him aware that he's reinventing the wheel here, that other communities are blazing strong leadership trails in a similar direction.
Well, he gave me more information, all right. He immediately went into hard-sell mode and hit me with meaningless rhetoric like: "I don't want to build another community around monetary/financial rewards." Well, that's commendable, but the fact that he has no knowledge of what other communities (like @welcomewagon) are doing along those lines to help new users on the platform tells me that he's not paid much attention to the resources currently available to Steem users. Therefore working alongside them for the good of all isn't likely to happen.
So I called him out regarding this. As you can see, he didn't like it one bit.
I don't have tangible proof that crypto.piotr is up to no good. He may not be. He may just be lacking direction. Having watched a delegation scammer at work in 2017 from a very close point of view, I'm instantly suspicious of anyone schilling for delegations outside an established community. Either way, is this the best use of anyone's SP--delegating to an initiative with no apparent accountability measures in place?
What I'd like to see happen is closer scrutiny of this user by community watchdogs like @themarkymark and @steemcleaners, who have the resources to vet this guy and either declare him legit or shut him down. Whatever the case, crypto.piotr, I think you're taking a bad direction by becoming defensive and surly when people point out flaws in your strategy. It doesn't make anyone "judgmental" to be cautious about the best use of their SP. I personally don't think your boat is seaworthy. Therefore I wouldn't dream of delegating to your project. Get in line with some successful initiatives here on Steem, network within established communities, and then let's see where you are a few months down the road.
As for other users who may consider delegating to this project...buyer beware. I think there are reasons to be concerned.
In re: @ulqu3's comment -
Yes, I did see that he helped the Venezuelan community. I have also received a memo and comment from piotr. I personally support and have supported various things in South America so it was of interest. I asked him to find me on discord. Instead, he sent a memo highlighting a couple of accounts. One talked about bitcoin and other crypto faucets (some that could be considered scams) and the other just was resteeming a lot of content by the other account. I'm not saying he has ill intention, but since he did not come off chain to actually speak with me, does raise an eye brow. I'm all about helping minnows, and the scale of which he proposed, would need personal interaction.
In re: @rhondak's post -
The fact that the comments made had no bearing on the post itself would - in my book - constitute spamming. Sure, they may be genuine each time, but no engagement of the actual topic from the author means there was no intention for either ill-will or good vibes to be offered for a post. A disinterested comment with its own agenda is, by rights, a spam comment and therefore, Rhonda is in the right to say so.
Posted using Partiko Android
Thank you, Engine. I knew I wasn’t completely crazy with my feelings and gut instinct here.
That awful!!!
What things we find in this life.
Since childhood my parents taught me to value others, to respect their point of view even if it was contrary to mine.
I also learned to defend the just causes.
If I see that they are hurting the weak, I instinctively defend him. If I notice that there is a negative factor in my community, in my family or in my environment, I fight it.
When I met @ crypto.piotr several months ago I noticed an educated person with good intentions. I met an intelligent person who encourages interaction among steemit members. It does not give gifts, it does not take anything away from anyone either. I have not been able to notice any illicit or badly intensified enrichment.
On the contrary, I have tangible proof of his kindness. And there are many of us who can attest to that.
It was very sad and unfortunate for me to read this publication.
It is worrisome to see how someone's reputation can be damaged. I can not help thinking that there may be dark intentions behind this post. I can not find another explanation.
Appreciated @rhondak, I would have personally contacted @crypto.piotr instead. I would also have contacted the steemit authorities and made the accusation de rigueur.
But ... do a publication with screenshots of the chats and issue such harsh accusations? I never would have.
I wish you the fruits of this initiative are what you desire. And that in the end everyone benefits.
The screenshots are of public comments. Not private chats.
Also, there are no Steemit “authorities.” This platform is decentralized.
Hi @rhondak,
Congratulations, you definitely can write. Good command of English and there is power in your writing. Today is the first time I come across your community, The Writer's Block. Unfortunately, I have no idea what your community is currently doing. Perhaps you can write a post about what this community is about?
Based on your post, it seems that you have an issue to wallet spam. I receive wallet spam from many bots every single day. Resteem bots, bid bots, etc. Do you know if they are credible bots?
As you have mentioned, Steemit is a decentralised platform and we have the freedom to promote, recommend and educate. However all users also have the ability to criticize, slander and rant. They can write a post about their personal encounters or simply a photo they like.
To what I know, Steemit is addressing traffic issues on the network and has already implemented the RCs. If you have a better suggestion for the next HF, you are welcome to write a post about that on Steemit.
To be a discerning writer and user on this platform can be challenging, I can truly understand that. We have posts on Steemit with a different take on every situation.
@rhondak, with you being a self-proclaimed community leader here, I hope that you write and act in the best of everyone's interests, to grow, educate and learn together.
Steemit is a developing platform and we all contribute our part to improve and assist those in need. I am sure @therealwolf will agree with me. His actions and professionalism speaks louder than his words.
Have a good week ahead,
-tysler
Yes. I know therealwolf. Met him at Steemfest, shared a roundtable session with him, blocktrades, teamsteem, and alexvan. It was a good experience. I've also spoken with him about our project with The Writers' Block. It's unfortunate that you didn't check @thewritersblock Steem blog. There you would have found this post, which goes into a bit of detail about what we're doing in the community.
You might also be interested in the State of Steem broadcast that featured me for a segment on Thursday discussing our strategy. You can find Pennsif's post about it here, and if you'd rather go straight to YouTube, you can find it here. My segment begins at 1:09:30 and lasts through 1:29:45. But stay tuned. Paulag speaks next, then Matt Starkey with Oracle-D, and there is some mention of our project by him. Be sure to keep your eye on the audience chat as it scrolls in the recording.
I'm sorry we've been so obscure for you. Because really--our group is not that obscure. I also apologize for the self-promotion, because apparently that really is the only way to make people aware of valuable initiatives on the Steem blockchain. At least you know now.
So yes, please do speak to therealwolf about our project. And starkerz, and paulag, and most of the top fifty witnesses who've shown up lately to the witness forums and SOS streaming broadcasts. Have a word with Crimsonclad. She's a moderator in our community. She and I had a nice chat today about wallet spam, and the difficulties of eradicating it. So yes. Research me well. I suspect you may come to regret that bit of snit in your tone.
Also notice I didn't feel the need to tag all the people I referenced into the spammer shitshow here. That'll be between you and therealwolf if he does, in fact, respond.
Hi @rhondak (I think I recall the name from the alliance???)
You are slandering a very nice and well-meaning man here.
Your logic seems to be centered on an ideal that if something isn't community-based then it's not legit. That's very poor reasoning and very ironic considering we are talking about a blockchain platform.
I've known @crypto.piotr for a while now and he is using his own unique method to encourage writers as well as build a network of writers, thinkers, and companies alike.
Last I checked, this was a decentralized platform meaning he DOESN'T NEED A COMPANY to operate. Just last month he almost single-handedly rallied a fundraiser for Venezuelan writers. He also worked with some blockchain firms last year and basically gave paid jobs to writers here on steemit.
He didn't need a company to do all this. His methods are HIS methods and he doesn't have to conform to YOUR standard or modus operandi to be called legit. This is the very tenet on which blockchain was built right? freedom of expression.
The only thing in your post that can be seen as a valid point is that his method of reaching out(the mass memos and perhaps comments) may be taken by some as spam. BUT I do believe some of those messages come with an "if you consider this spam please let me know and I won't bother you again"...
All in all, @crypto.piotr is a good person I can vouch for. I would say you owe him an apology.
thank you for your comment and I surely will always keep adding that sentence ""if you consider this spam please let me know and I won't bother you again""
yours
Piotr
No apology will be forthcoming. I think you mean “libel” rather than “slander,” and the fact that you don’t understand the difference means you don’t understand the definition. So I’d withhold using either of those terms until they’re better understood, if I were you.
Anyone who hijacks someone’s comment thread with blatant, self-aggrandizing marketing ploy is a bad actor on this platform. Does this guy do a good deed from time to time? Maybe. I’ve not seen it personally. All I’ve seen is wallet and comment spam, and a really nasty attitude when confronted.
"A really nasty attitude"? Nowhere in his replies to you or anywhere else has @crypto.piotr displayed a "nasty attitude." Actually, it's not in his nature to do so.
As for "spam," it's the quality that counts. I get spammed after every one of my posts by various resteem services. They're annoying, but now I just ignore them.
As for Piotr's memos, at least they have some substance and are well intentioned. And they are definitely not "blatant, self-aggrandizing marketing ploys." Quite the opposite, most of Piotr's memos are intended to benefit others, NOT HIMSELF. That's a simple verifiable fact, as many others are affirming.
If you do not like his memos, please ... just ignore them. And please rest assured that he is not out to take advantage of anyone on this platform. Many of us can confirm that.
“Spamming is the use of messaging systems to send an unsolicited message (spam), especially advertising, as well as sending messages repeatedly on the same site.” That’s from Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spamming Nothing said at all about “quality.” Unsolicited messages are unsolicited messages. Furthermore, clogging up the nodes with spam transactions or using wallets as email services is a practice completely without foresight. HF20 effectively reduced content spam. Thanks to folks like y’all, HF21 may have to address wallet spam. As for the comment spam, well—there is always the downvote option.
Each day, there are currently over 50,000 posts made. And you're worried that a handful of short memos by Piotr will "clog up the nodes."
Rest assured, they won't. But there will always be plenty of shitposts that will do much more clogging than his memos ever can or will.
As for the "spam," Piotr does not use a "messaging system" (cf. Wikipedia)
No. He abuses our wallet feature instead. And that makes it better, somehow?
Are you familiar with MIRA, by any chance? And the reason for it?
OK, you've convinced me. Piotr's memos will bring about the end of this wonderful, blockchain-based enterprise, which will crack under the burden imposed by them.
And just when we thought we could save the world. Damn!
You didn't answer my question. Are you familiar with MIRA?
Your accusations and judgements are really unfair @rhondak
First of all, memos are currently the only way to efficiently contact people here on Steemit. As model of Piotr's community is basically based on active users, in order to "improve" the community and gain "quality" members he needs to constantly contact new people. It's not a matter of one whale who decides to support him wirh huge delegation, but a chain of small delegations combined with huge engagement. What's important, if you want you can always be removed from his contact list.
I suppose that you do not understand the model of Piotr's community and that's where your concerns come from.
I don't want to focus on my personal affection for Piotr (as he has been incredibly supportive to me since march 2018), but on objective benefit that he made for steemit community.
Considering numbers, Piotr has delegated 3500 SP to 80 quality bloggers. I want to emphasise one thing: he has not earned anything in connection with that delegation. The only requirement to get delegation was to stay active on steemit and support (with comments) those who decided to add their own SP to this community.
So we have 3 parties that clearly benefit:
At the end I want to share one fact: I would probably left Steemit without Piotr support in 2018.
This. ^^^ This spotlights the root cause of my greatest concern here. Thank you, @neavvy, for validating my point.
Neavvy's statement is false. Multitudes of ways exist for Steemians to contact each other, and after conversations this morning with several people, I understand that Pied Piotr has blatantly spurned those better methods. So it isn't a lack of awareness. It's a deliberate attempt on his part to remain separatist and reject the wisdom of the greater community, where other options exist. This is a huge red flag for me. Words can't express how huge, or how red.
The fact that Pied Piotr's drone army is also unaware of the options is deeply troubling. Also, that so many of them blatantly disregard the fact that wallet memos en masse will ultimately impact transaction times is disturbing on a whole different level. Without the buffering influence of a knowledgable and invested community, what will ultimately result from this is a generation of takers who don't have a clue about the realities of blockchain dynamics.
What Pied Piotr and his drone army are missing are witness forums, live interaction with Steemit, Inc. representatives about leadership changes, MIRA, and power downs. They're completely missing any real connection to the heartbeat of this platform. They're missing the Business 101 lessons about putting in more than you take out in the interest of sustainability. The SOS polls. The opportunities to meet a whole world of Steemians who never have to send a wallet memo in order to communicate with each other.
It's sad, really. But it's their loss. However, the spam and valueless wallet transactions are very much my business, and I will continue to speak up about this until some clarity on the matter is reached.
Seems to me you are the one with bad attitude indirectly insulting others.
What else would you call them?
First off, accusations work as such: innocent until proven guilty. Your claim of this guy being guilty is based off the fact that you made personal attacks to him and are offended that he politely defendes himself? 😅😅
Personal attacks:
You did not approach him to genuinely learn about his initiative to better grasp what his strategy is, you deemed it what you wanted and yourself claim to have "called him out." Your choice of words is a clear show that you have claimed his guilty without putting any effort of making a grounds for it. That's just baseless judgement.
By the way, I think you are very detatched from blockchain technology despite claiming to be a community leader. Blockchain technology has native accountability built in; you might want to correct yourself on the claim that there is no accountability on what he does. Hashes, comments, posts, replies--it's all clear.
It just seems you are annoyed he does not want to join your own causes. That's his choice as is yours to not join his. There's a lot of projects on this platform and he needn't know about them to create his own competing initiative; competition is good.
The main question remains: before you want on a rant on how he is defending himself against your accusational and aggressivemess (this post in itself a proof of that) and before you leaned so harshly towards him being guilty (pressing on the word leaned), did you actually bother to monitor his activity?
Maybe consider that next time you hilariously decide to attack some one on the basis of what others did (2017 scam).
Innocent until proven guilty? Tell that to all the wallets he’s invaded with marketing crap and now the blog owners whose comment threads he’s hijacked. I may be detached from blockchain tech in your opinion, but you’re detached from reality if you think I have no basis for my complaints about this user.
@rhondak almost everything you've done here is malicious and irritating. You do not have any concrete evidence to prove that @crypto.piotr is a fraudster or swindler yet you attempted to attack his integrity.
@crypto.piotr has a right to associate with whoever he deems fit, so not belonging to your cult of communities does not cast a shadow of doubt over his integrity and credibility. I have known Piotr for a while now and I can boldly say he has one of the finest intentions for this blockchain. Fortunately, you can't dictate to everyone of us who should be taken seriously or not.
Piotr's mission here is to support those who write good articles bothering on the blockchain and AI. He has done that by organizing contests and curating good posts. Also, he has helped to raise money to support Venezuelans in need. Are these bad or good for the community?
I will advise that you hang your frustrated pen. You targeted the wrong person.
Cc: @majes.tyty
Actually, I said he's a spammer. And there's tons of proof of that. And no--the fact that an entire colony of likeminded users who think it's okay to clog the nodes with useless transactions and sully the comment feeds with unsolicited marketing goes to show for a FACT that I target the right person, and have exposed a hornet's nest of potential abuse of our system.
Do you know that what you call spam, those unsolicited messages, have added to the ratings of the Steem blockchain on sites like blockactivity.info? Those transactions you call spam make Steem boast of being one of the blockchains with the highest number of daily transactions.
Your essay would not have been seen as being malicious and desperately virulent had you also criticized other bid bots and big boys who use the memo messages.
My goodness. You really ARE out of touch. Are you familiar with MIRA, and the reason for it?
Just know this: when talk comes down of making each memo cost significant RC, and requiring a minimum amount significantly higher than .001, that Piotr and his drone army (including you) were responsible. Because the truth is, people will find a way to abuse any system and justify it with bullshit like "add to the ratings" to a point where even dencentralized has to be regulated. It's sad. But as long as the takers get to take, right?
And for what it's worth, the wallet spam isn't what set my teeth on edge. It was the comment spam--unsolicited, unrelated crap comments on a post that had nothing to do with Piotr or you clowns in the drone army. Bad form, bad business, and bad manners. Definitely nothing most major users on this platform would ever consider supporting.
Hello, I have read through the comments and noticed much have been said already.
I have known @crypto.piotr from when I joined Steem. He is one of the few that had interest in keeping me and many others on this platform. He has rewarded me several times for simply making decent comments and encouraging undervalued posts related to blockchain and Cryptocurrency because that's our common interest.
I understand you do not like his approach of sending memos and not been part of any community but then that's his own approach. I guess you should have reached him never to send you such memos. Someone people rather be heros on their own you know and it is working for him if you doubt this, reach out to some of the Venezuelans he supported with his initiative.
Well, you said it all in that statement.
Again, I feel this was just an issue of telling never to send you memos.
Have a great weekend!
We should never have to tell spammers to stop, especially when they show up in our wallets or comment threads. It's rude and impertinent of anyone to abuse their freedom to post in this way. Just because he insists on being the savior and community leader himself rather than be involved in someone else's work doesn't give him the right to abuse my wallet or other people's comment threads. There's something really sideways about his approach, and while some people are gullible enough to fall for it, I am not.
Hi, I hope you're doing well, @ crypto.piotr has done various campaigns to help many people (including me) from collections for steem donations to delegation to new members who were affected by the H20 and were frustrated with their intention to publish and vote in steemit, I find it funny that you speak of "established" communities but you can simply compare the account you mention welcomewagon with that of @ crypto.piotr and you can notice in the post that the welcomewagon account does not have any interaction while in the post of crypto.piotr you will see dozens and even hundreds of messages, because people when they help them are grateful, so without an "established" community it is evident that it has helped many more people than some communities.
I think the title of the post is offensive, and more because it is shown that someone who has helped many people apart is definitely a better strategist than many leaders of communities (to the facts I refer), I invite you again to see their post and the great interaction they have, mass mailings can be seen as a spam but if you look at it thoroughly you will realize that most of the time what it does is try to give visibility to other people's posts that it considers quality and that are forgotten by most of those "established" communities that you mention.
I'm sure your intentions are the best but I do not understand why to attack someone who with a simple inspection of your account can show that if it helps the community, while we all get spam accounts offering reestimals or votes, because you do not attack to those accounts if according to your the problem is spam?
PD: by mistake, publish from my secondary account with which I play SM, but here republishing with my personal account.
Greetings and have a happy day
Please read my replies to other comments here. I'm tired of repeating myself. Thank you.
Hello dear @rhondak , I have come to this post to inform me better about other topics and I am surprised that the topic here is about a great person who is providing great help to new people in the steemit community,
I know @crypto.piotr and I know the great work is doing, all the work is decentralized to help the steemit community and without affecting anyone else, I am very surprised by what is exposed in this post related to scam, since the platform of steemit has the system of sending memos as a literal email,
This does not mean that this is a scam, @crypto.piotr I´m sure he is not a scammer, it is just a way to be able to communicate quickly with other people.
Another point is that he does his work reading the posts that are interesting for him and only shares the links with other people, and people decide to read and comment on his point of view,
Now also delegate SP Steem Power to new people to my point of view is very broad and keeps new people with a huge motivation, to continue working and improving their creativity in quality content, and continue to believe in this great project. Steemit.
I am sure that all of us belonging to steemit is because we believe in this project and invest time and money in steem, we are people with different skills and we always create quality content.
All my respect for @crypto.piotr for his great work, kindness, respect, and honesty and trying to keep people united and motivated to continue in steemit.
Then perhaps suggest to him appropriate ways to interact with users besides comment and wallet spam. No, there is no “system of sending memos as a literal email.” It’s an abuse of the memo feature and irritating as hell. If he wants to gain influence on this platform and not come across as a snake oil salesman, he should get involved in the various communities and show more than lip service about all this “great work” he’s doing.