My Spaminator Blacklist

Here is a link to a follow-up post with suggestions on how to improve Steem based on my experience here:
https://steemit.com/steem/@akiroq/suggestions-on-how-we-can-improve-steem

This timeline is reversed. Newest posts are at the top, oldest at the bottom.

Last update:
I just received a new response:

Older Update:
Another response from Steemcleaners, and another response by me. With this response, I feel like I am once again being branded as being at fault for their arbitrary blacklisting of me. Which, by the way, I received with no warning, or notice. Not to mention that it happened after not having posted for more than 2 months!

Here is the latest response I have received.

Here is my response:
Except in my case you did in fact, add me to the mackbot/Spaminator Blacklist for voting/curating an abuser by accident. This is exactly what happened.

No, I did not give my keys to anyone.

I haven't seen evidence that my account has been compromised. Have you? Is there something you are not telling me?

I was not and am not in intentional cooperation with an abuser/scammer. What?!

To date you have still not told me: Who these accounts are that I am accused of voting for 2 or more months ago, for which I was very recently blacklisted. Who are they?! Please.

I'd really like to know so that I know to avoid/mute those accounts! I think that this is fair of me to ask, considering I was painted a criminal for voting for these accounts by being arbitrarily blacklisted in my absence.

Why was my account suddenly flagged and blacklisted in the first place? Who is responsible for this? Who did this? Did you do this to me? I hadn't even posted anything in over 2 months.

I received no warning before I was blacklisted. I received no explanation when I was blacklisted.

I had to find out from another person!

Is this some sort of personal vendetta against me? I mean, I have to ask because it makes no sense!

Also, it would be beneficial to know what services are legitimate. Is there a list somewhere I can look at?

For example:
Is SteemPeak OK?
Is Esteem OK?
Is SteemAuto OK?
Is Splinterlands OK?
Is Steemworld OK?
Is Busy OK?
Is Partiko OK?
Is Actifit OK?
Is Dustsweeper OK?
Is Steem Basic Income OK?

I have used/use these apps and a few more just like this.

There should be a list available to every new user of the safe apps and services. Seriously.

Also, to date, I have not received an apology. I truly believe I deserve one. I believe I deserve at least that much.

Older Update:

A new response to my aforementioned concerns, followed by my response.
Please note that to date I have not received an apology. I believe I am owed one for being banned without warning or notice.
I also have not received an adequate explanation as to why someone chose to ban my account even though I had not posted in over 2 months. Why was I targeted? Who targeted me?
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Their response:
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My response:
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Here this is what I am left with:

1)If a member has a number beside their name, I am not allowed to support any of their comments or posts for fear that I will be reprimanded.

2)If I don't adequately research someone who does not have a number beside their name and they end up being banned at a later date, I am also at risk of being reprimanded.

I am saying this because this is exactly what has happened. I was unaware that whoever it was the I voted for was a scammer because they did not have a number beside their name when I voted for them.

In fact, I was recently banned for voting on posts or comments more than 2 months ago.

Realistically, I, nor many other users do not have the time to research each and every post to check who that poster is voting for, to check who is voting for them, to check their content for plagiarism, and more.

Imagine how time-consuming this would be if every member had to do this for every post or comment they voted for. And, if members are interested in any curation rewards and want to vote within the optimal time-frame this would be virtually impossible.

This solution does not promote voting for new users/new content. It promotes voting only the people who have been around a long time, who have what seem like reliable reputations.

This is something that new users are already struggling against. Many old users vote only for select other old users and ignore the new(auto-voting and circle j***ing).

If virtually no one votes for many of the new users, they will have greatly reduced visibility, and also struggle to find new followers.

Do we want Steem to grow? Do we want to promote people, or quality content?

What can we do to improve things?

I hope you will take into consideration what I have said here.
Thank you.

Older Update:

Here is a copy of the response I left in regards to the reason I was given this morning. I wasn't able to screenshot it because it was too long.

I am going to share it here because we can all look at this together, I may not have the right solutions, but perhaps someone else has something constructive to contribute.

I am confident there is a better solution to this problem.

I am sympathetic to the time and effort it takes to keep this place safe, and the limitation of manpower.
Perhaps something can be automated?

Here is my response:

Thank you for letting me know what the issue was.

However, this is not an adequate explanation.

How will I know in the future who I can vote for and who I can't? Is there a list I can cross-reference every time I vote for a post or comment on my blog?

How can people protect themselves from this happening to them?

There has to be a better way to handle this sort of thing than blacklisting people without warning.

Would it be possible to post a list of known scammers? Perhaps a bot could be set up to leave a comment with the link to that post and list on the person's blog?
This would allow people the opportunity to take action themselves.
Can a bot be programmed to keep track if the problem persists, to then take action?
I'm all about keeping the community safe and protecting this space. I'm sympathetic to the plight.

I just think there is a better way this could have been handled.

Also, you should know that people do not automatically know that mack-bot is associated with the Spaminator Blacklist. I did not. I had no idea.

It would be very helpful to first bring people into a Waiting Room/Informational section with instructions of what the next steps are according to what the issue is.
For example, in my case.
If you have been Blacklisted by Spaminator, click here. This then linking to an explanation of what it means to be Blacklisted by Spaminator, the possible reasons for the blacklisting, and what the next steps are.

In my case, I wanted to take action as soon as possible. I went to the appeals section because it was my intention to appeal the blacklisting. Then I followed the pinned instructions there.

People can't be faulted for trying to do what they thought they were supposed to when the instructions aren't clear or incorrect.

Staff may have done this a million times, but the people coming in have not. Things may not seem as clear to them as they may seem to you.

I hope this helps.

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Here is the explanation I received as to why I was blacklisted:
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(Yes, it further upset me)
So, let me understand this correctly. I was blacklisted because I voted for someone? Or for some people?
No warning. Just boom, blacklisted.
And, even with this explanation, I have no idea who I voted for that I am not supposed to.
Do I have to worry every time I vote now that I might be voting for a scammer and be blacklisted?
How will I know?
How is this fair?!
This seems crazy to me!

And I want to really highlight that I received no apology.

I believe I deserve one.

This is unacceptable. Pure and simple. I deserve better than this.

If I was voting for someone who was a scammer, shouldn't someone have just let me know?
Wouldn't that have been far far more appropriate?
And, again, I still don't know who I voted for that I wasn't supposed to.
I still haven't had anyone let me know!

I have some regular posters on auto-vote, especially while I am away. I assume those are "OK", but really now I can't be 100% sure anymore, so I will need to dedicate time to go through every single one again to make sure none of their accounts haven't suddenly been blacklisted.

The only other thing I can think of is that I upvoted people who commented on my blog as a thank you for their support.
Maybe some of those people were scammers?

Gosh, how does any of this even help me?

Like seriously guys!
Think about this!

There has to be a better way. There just has to be.

This is not the right way to handle this.
This is not a respectful way to treat another person.
I'm not a child. I'm not in kindergarten.
I'm an adult.
I deserved and deserve better than this.

And, in the end it still doesn't solve whatever problem SteemCleaners had.
No one knows who the offenders are. No one knows who not to vote for.

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** Older Update:**
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Thank you for removing me from the Blacklist.

I would like to know why this happened.

In regards to my apology, I posted an apology because I was following the "Appealing the Blacklist" Guidelines pinned by Patrice in the #appeals thread in SteemCleaners. (https://steemit.com/steemcleaners/@steemcleaners/appealing-the-blacklist). If this is not the correct procedure please consider amending, posting, and pinning the correct procedure of how to appeal the Blacklist. That would be very helpful to anyone who encounters this experience in the future.

I'm not going to delete or edit the rest of my post because enough people saw my blacklisting to warrant an explanation.

I have the right to stand up for myself and to defend my character and reputation.

I would also like to share my takeaways from this experience:

A warning would seem suitable and would allow someone to correct their behavior.

That is of course unless it is a major infraction. In which case the guilty party would know what they've done.

Not knowing why this happened has been an awful experience. I wanted to take corrective action, but I did not know what I should be doing. It left me powerless to do anything beyond apologizing for being me.

It is imperative that people know why they are blacklisted.

At the end of the day, it's important to remember that we are all human beings behind these screens.

As I mentioned in my post, these past months I have been going through a difficult period in my life. This really felt like I was being kicked while I was down.

This is not meant as a "woah is me" post, it's meant to be reflective.

The things we do impact other people.

How can we do things better?

I'd also like to thank @mack-bot for downvoting this post.

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Original Post:
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I'm writing this post to apologize for my behavior.

Unfortunately, I am not sure what I am apologizing for.
Having said that, I am the type of person who'd be happy to apologize for anything I may have done wrong. I just need to know what I am apologizing for.

Here are the facts:

1)I have never spammed anyone.

2)This is my only active account. Yes, I did have another shared account with another member. That account is in good standing and has been dormant for over 6 months. I also gave control of that account over to the other member(who is also in good standing).

3)I have not used this account for over 2 months, as I was dealing with some deeply personal and difficult issues in my life. I did not feel comfortable sharing those issues on my blog. In that time, I didn't post nor comment on anything.

4)In case there is any confusion, my daughter does have an account as well, but it is her account, not mine. Her blog contains her content, and not mine.

5)All the content on my blog is mine. Anything I have quoted in my writings or any images I have used which were not mine have always been credited to the original source.

6)I believe I have made a conscious and recognizable effort to provide valuable and interesting content on my blog.

I feel deeply ashamed to have people visit my blog and see that I have been blacklisted. I feel humiliated. I would appreciate knowing why this has happened. It's a smear to my reputation and degrades the effort I have made to provide valuable, and interesting content.

As part of the apology requirement, I am supposed to include links to the offensive posts I have made. I am unable to do that, as I don't know what the issue is.
So, I will just link my entire blog: https://steemit.com/@akiroq
Maybe, it's just me. Maybe, I come across as an offensive person. I don't know.

So, I can only say that I am sorry that I have offended someone in the community to the point where I had to be blacklisted abruptly like this, without notice, without being told why.

I am sorry for my ignorance in not understanding what I have done wrong.

I'd like to change my behavior but I need to know what I have done wrong. Self-improvement is important in my life. I make an active effort each day to try and be a better person than I was yesterday. I have no problems apologizing and owning my behavior.

Sincerely,
Akiroq
@Steemcleaners-Helper

Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

Thanks for the downvote:

Source: Ginabot