Short post about flagging... short for me anyway.
So the flag wars have begun and it appears creating bots or accounts just to flag has become a tactic.
Source: giphy.com
@skeptic is posting in spite of things, and I cannot fault what he is doing.
However, I have noticed that beyond @asshole we now have @livemoral, @livehonest, and @topikzmonster that are blanket flagging.
The exception is that I see them up voting @skeptic.
First - Two wrongs do not make a right. Your anger at @skeptic's treatment will receive no sympathy from those who have not flagged him, or you.
I've been an anti-flag person and very vocal about it for closing on 7 months. I have stated I will not down vote subjectively, or for disagreement. I will only down vote for spam, abuse, and plagiarism.
Accounts created to blanket flag are abusive. If you give me a way to flag those accounts I will do so.
If you come up with a more productive way to address flagging such as with WORDS and to lead by example (in a good way) then you'll have my support.
If you blanket flag then you will not. That's all I have to say on that. So if you want sympathy and to fix things, you are going about it in the wrong method. You're effectively throwing a tantrum.
I will look at your account. If you are simply flagging my post, and/or you provide me a reason I likely won't flag you. However, if I look at your account and see you blanket flagging people then if I can find something of yours to flag I will so that the reputation system can lessen the impact you can have.
Update 1: @topikzmonster replied enough that his reputation is low enough now he shouldn't be able to hurt anyone. Just became the 2nd person I've muted in close to 7 months. Congratulations.
EDIT: @skeptic is not endorsing the actions of these flaggers.
An easy fix would be to disable down voting until you have posted something or make it unavailable for inactive users like someone that doesn't post anything for a week.
Yeah that'd be a quick way to make them vulnerable.
Looks like they need to implement something fast before this gets worse. Has @dantheman, @ned or @jamesc said anything about these flagging bots?
I haven't seen anything... but they may have said something in other channels.
A fee could also be a solution. If flags / down votes were not for free, there wouldn't be any abuse like the one we are facing right now. @asshole and friends would be bankrupt in one day...
That would stop the low powered flag abuse. It would not solve the abuse from the high powered wealthy users that kind of LIT this fire in the first place with subjective flagging.
EDIT: Unless they had to spend as much as they took away with their flag. That might stop it.
Currently there is a lot of abuse by low powered users, that´s where I was referring, too. Maybe we cannot solve all the challenges of the platform at the same time :)
We won't realistically ever be able to solve all of them. Something we haven't even seen yet, or thought of will raise it's head.
Thanks for the blog. I just had this on my last blog within a few minutes. I thought I was seeing things at first until I checked out that they are "NoBodies" so total irrelevant. Nice to see someone sees Steemit as a threat..!! For me the more Flagging by "NoBodies" that goes on the more powerful Steemit MUST BE..!! Thanks again for sharing the blog. Stephen
If any of these bots or accounts makes the mistake of posting anything, be it a reply, comment, or post they give you something that can be down voted. This will drop the reputation so they have less damage to people since they are just flagging at will and don't care who they flag.
If they have no post, comment, or reply then you can't do this. This is what has protected @asshole so far, but I suspect there will soon be a way to rectify that.
Silly people that think breaking things will make people have sympathy for them. If @skeptic is endorsing this he just lost my support, but I won't pull that away without knowing. I do not believe he should be getting blanket flagged either. He was fighting back with words and images, and I supported that.
When you have something that is potentially a threat you have to accept that there will be a small few who will try and break it. When asshole started I didn't get involved but now there are 3 more it makes it more exciting. No one, but no one would go out of there way unless they see it as a threat. For me it is so obvious what is happening and as long as they are flaggots and not real users I will keep powering up..!! The more flaggots, the more I will power up..!! It's a no brainer. Stephen
@asshole was smart enough to not post anything, reply, comment, etc. Exploiting a flaw in the system. There is no way to flag them and reduce their reputation. So they potentially can hurt people with a reputation of 25 or lower. People that use their personal account, and/or reply comment on something give us something to down vote and we reduce their reputation so they can't really harm anyone and are just a nuisance at that point. Once they have no reputation you can use the MUTE button and just forget about them.
I hear what you say but what I am talking about is that Dan & Ned have just rolled up a snowball and tossed into hell..!! Social Media sites that have shareholders and are making money out of users posting their stuff are not just going to roll over and have their bellies tickled. I accept this to become the norm to put off Steemit users. Stephen
Yeah and I know Dan is aware of this and trying to find a solution. That's the thing these bozos don't get. You can see something is broken and yell FIX IT.
It doesn't happen magically though. Every fix has potential ways it can be gamed and taken advantage of.
That is the tricky bit at the moment. How to fix it without leaving the system open to be totally gamed.
Also @blacklist, although that account has been quiet for a couple days.
I am pretty anti-flag. Yet I do consider blanket flagging and just flagging without caring who your target is like people smashing windows, cars, or tossing a bomb into a cafeteria as their form of protest. It is abusive and is one of the rare cases I'd ever use the flag.
I haven't had to use the flag for a very long time, and until today I bet I could count the number of flags I did on the fingers on my hands.
I agree. The only case where I'm sort-of persuaded that flagging for value is warranted is to prevent sniping as-in the "crab bucket" scenario in the whitepaper, but I've never actually seen it used that way here in the real world.
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We are 2 different people me and skeptic, but I will vote up a friend who the same thing is happening to and knows well why I am doing what I am doing and pissed off. When lies and control and theft stop, I will go away. Not a moment sooner. The people left me no choice.
You always have a choice. You just chose a bad one. Doing the wrong thing cannot defeat doing the wrong thing.
Evil cannot defeat evil.
Two wrongs don't make a right.
Protesting by destroying shit doesn't gain sympathy. It loses it.
Speak for yourself. Choice B won't happen. I'm not a dog.
No dogs have more sense. ;)
I can surely see someone like you partaking in beasteality events and knowing a fact like that. Now we are eye to eye, no?
Could be... Want to watch?
In fact I was up voting some of @skeptic's posts. If I find out he is encouraging people like you then he just lost my support.
People like me? Go fuck yourself. I speak for me not skeptic. If you can't understand the difference go bump your fucking head on thin air.
Do you know what the word IF means? I don't have to fuck myself. People like me. :)
Define "people". Because this person thinks your a slobbering retard that has zero brains and just an asshole in the middle of your face you like to spew shit out of from time to time.
Heheh... yeah and you like hearing yourself speak. Thanks for giving me all these comments to flag. I can soon MUTE you and you'll effectively be harmless to anyone.