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Has it Really Come Down to This?

No.

I'm joking.

After spending much of last night murdering my voting power to flag a spammer who felt it was necessary to abuse this great thing we have going on here, I honestly felt like I should be getting paid for my efforts.

Why?

Monotonous work. It felt like I was working in a factory and it was my job to push the button all day. It was me versus a robot. The same post was being published every five minutes, for hours. People were actually voting from time to time, but I made sure to flag those rewards away. The spammer doesn't deserve it.

Who Am I to Say Who Deserves What?

Someone who feels it's necessary to protect my investment. I don't want to see this place overrun by spam bots. Those behind these things don't care if they get two cents per spam post, or two dollars. It all adds up in the end and took very little effort to achieve.

Are you new? How hard do you work on your posts? Some of you put everything you have into each and every offering. You want to succeed.

The reward pool is limited, we share it. There's only so much to go around. That $2 earned by a spammer can't go to you or your hard work. A flag or two takes the money away from the spammer and returns it to the reward pool, for you, or me, or any other legitimate, hard working blogger.

In the end, my flagging efforts were actually paying you, as well as me.

"But That's Censorship! What About Freedom of Speech!"

^{...says the whiner who does not grasp the concept of freedom of speech.}
Do robots talk? Am I obligated, as a human, to remain passive and respect a robot's freedoms and emotions?

Think about that. The people who fear robots taking over the world are the same ones who will sit on their hands and let it happen. Or maybe they just read too much science fiction. Either way, acting on something before it gets out of hand does far more than sitting around arguing about nonsense.

I refuse to let the robots take over. I don't even want to use one for voting. I don't care if it gives you an advantage in the curation reward department. While you're busy elsewhere, allowing a bot to work for you, there are hundreds of people here, myself included, struggling to get actual eyes on their work.

People quit, because nobody is around to look. What happens to our investment when everyone quits and people stop coming to the site? What will you do with rewards that hold no value? If you're using a bot to vote, look at the entire picture, look at the future, use it wisely and responsibly.

Follow for Follow

^{The worst case scenario.}
It seems innocent enough on the surface, correct? You're new, a large following is precisely what you need. Maybe having a large number of followers makes you feel important. Do you have that many eyes coming to your blog every post? Does 200 followers mean 200 votes?

It doesn't even work that way for me. I've been here nine months, my reputation level puts me in the top 90(ranked 85th) of all of Steemit. I'm struggling to get eyes on my work. There's a difference between a follower as a statistic and a true fan of your work. Friends and fans, very important. Followers is just another f-word.

As my following gets larger, my views have either remained the same or have actually gone down in some cases. It's devastating. Not only for me, but for everyone else who's having the same experience. Robotic votes play a role in this as well.

So Who Might Actually Benefit?

Those who are here, busy, day in and day out, farming for followers. When they sell those accounts to advertisers and spammers, and your feed becomes full of junk, then you'll realize what a few of these folks are actually up to. Some people defend it because they don't see the dark side.

Paranoid? No. I treat my blog like a business. In business, if you turn a blind eye to any potential worst case scenario, you will go under faster than you can say, "Fuck my life."

I prefer to stay on guard, protect my investment, and run a tight ship.

With my own eyes, I recently came across a new account created this month. Over 2500 followers. Nearly every comment they leave is, "Followed." That's it. One simple word spammed countless times. They write up a few blog posts, see one or two views, a small handful of votes, and see pennies on their work. Clearly, that member is not here to find success as a blogger, because they are not trying, they have nothing of value to offer. 2500 followers, going nowhere. If you're on that list, you may get sold someday.

The spammer who I flagged had a following of 14 people, yet the spammer could have earned well over $30 had I not stepped in. Do the math. Imagine how much a spammer could rob from us with a massive following. It would take a lot of voting power and many people working together to be able to flag it all down and return that money to the reward pool.

Tread Carefully

Protect your investment, use your flags to combat spam, ignore those who simply want you to follow them, especially now that you hopefully realize where this is all going.

If this is a social network, anti-social behavior is unacceptable. You're not a piece of meat. You're not a statistic. Respect yourself and your blog. Aim to produce quality content and only reward those doing the same. This place isn't about participation awards. There are no free rides. Make people earn your follow. These ones who don't try, they don't care about you. That should go both ways.

Have a nice day.

Credits: _{All images seen here were produced digitally, by me. "...It's too bad spammers and bots can't read." [email protected]}

© 2017 Two Insanity Productions. All rights reserved.Follow @NoNamesLeftToUse^{(Click the link for previous posts!)}