RE: @SteemCleaners Useful, Fallacy or Wasted effort?
I can certainly see your point. That said, I think that we have to look at the overall good of the community and what destination we have in mind for STEEMIT as a platform. While the concept of a UTOPIAN STEEMIT society wherein we live a state of perfect happiness and fulfillment or maybe anarchist would be better as it advocates self-governed societies seems to be a good idea; it unfortunately has a long established history of not working. I like the communal dream of STEEMIT and the image that we as STEEMIANS we are a combined collective consciousness much like ants all working toward the same goal. That said even Ants need the first ant to make a decision for the rest to follow, and a defined hierarchy in order for the colony to survive; worker Ants, soldier ants, gatherers, those tending to the queen, those tending to the eggs etc.
A platform wherein we are paralyzed by the fear of backlash that morphs into an inability to act is destined for decline. As I stated in my original article above, it is to be expected that there will be backlash, that a few innocent people or those that walk the line be creative and copy will take it hit. That is just the way it is, so long as the larger community thrives then that is the cost of doing business.
In regards to videos specifically, I think the current inability to act upon the issue is a reflection of society. Is Catlyn Jenner a man or a woman? Pretty obvious to me, has a wiener = a dude.. I don't care how he/she/it feels inside, he is biologically a man. He wants to wear dresses and paint his nails, cool.. have at it your a grown up... do what you want to do.. but don't expect me to suddenly redefine my inner understanding of biology to suit you. I can't suddenly identify as a 5 year old and expect you to call me a kid and get a discounted kids meal at restaurant. The same applies here, we are failing to call a spade a spade or simply call something what it is for fear of back lash or that we may hurt someones feelings etc.
If you post 1500+ videos from Youtube that you did not create, that do not contain any content simply for the sake of making a penny here or there you are spamming. You add nothing to the community and in fact hurt it quite severely. There is also the somewhat precarious issue of making a profit from the works of others that will at some point come up when the wrong video is posted here, someone makes a few bucks and someone with horsepower (record label, media mogul) etc get's pissed about it.
STEEMIT to me is a place where one can find unique, new and engaging content; the emphasis being on unique. As without unique content created by its members it's nothing more than a search engine to regurgitate links, videos or stuff I can find elsewhere. Also in order for STEEMIT to survive it needs GOOGLE, as does pretty much ever other platform. It needs to rank highly in the SERPS, it needs its articles to show up when someone searches for a topic. I know I rank first on hundreds of pages for things related to websites I operate. STEEMIT needs organic traffic to keep interest, members, and new money coming through the doors. GOOGLE takes a somewhat dim view on copied content and ranks the pages accordingly.
That aside and just using common sense. If I want to numb my brain watching generic videos, I'm going to Youtube as is the rest of the free world for the most part.
But onto how it hurts the platform. I see it as such. Those 1500 and growing by the hour videos that were posted have done nothing but potentially pushed down or erased 1500 unique new videos created by STEEMIT users in the hopes of building a following. I have to examine my own feelings on the issue. That said, the way it stands now, I would not waste the time to produce a video for STEEMIT, introduction, or otherwise unless I already had a substantial following of 2000 or more. Why would I? Whats the point? It would be a total waste of effort and time as I know that before it could potentially gain any traction, attract users to engage with me etc. It will be gone from visibility within 45 minutes do the the continual abuse of the video tag by accounts such as the one I mentioned above.
Now you as a steemcleaner have to ask yourself, when is a problem a problem? When the actions of one user or a few engaging in a pattern of abuse are negatively influencing the decisions of other potentially more creative users. More creative users that would actually benefit the platform through content creation, higher SERP results, more visitors, more STEEM Dollars for all . Take a second and read through my blog, I can write, I create good, solid, unique content that is only posted here at STEEMIT. Content that will at some point, once indexed catch unique visitors through the SERPS'. Content that generally inclines users to interact with me and I with them. I answer all replies and am for the most part an up and coming STEEMIAN whom puts the overall needs of the platform above my short term goals. I look at the end game. Sure its fun to write articles and make a penance of what I do trading, but as an investor I am currently cautiously bullish on the platform, going a bit more bearish everyday as I learn more about it's lack of leadership and policing to some extent. Looking at the end game, I have a vested interest in the platform becoming a social media hub as that will make what I do (writing and engaging here) profitable as well as entertaining.
In order for that to occur, strict guidelines as to what constitutes solid original STEEMIT benefiting content will need to be established and adhered too. Those that cannot due to nefarious intentions or lack of ability will have to be culled from the ranks. I understand that this is a social media site, I understand that some content is ehhhh.. at best and that is o.k. as long as it is original then I say let it stand. Even if someone cannot write to any appreciable degree and posts pictures with captions of their daily activities; let it stand so long as it is original and adds benefit to the platform. I come across content on STEEMIT all the time that I don't like, or feel is of minimal benefit, but if it is original then even minimal benefit is a benefit; as such it must be allowed to stand.
However when I come across articles that are just stolen videos like the subject above or a conglomeration of news links with nothing else, then that is of no benefit and must be culled from the ranks. My take is that if a user is not capable of creating something original, and debases themselves to simply aggregating links, or stolen videos then we as a STEEMIT community don't need them. As a business you have to screen your customers just as customers have to screen a business. Cut them out, tell them its not you its me.. and set them adrift for the betterment of the long term goal and success of the enterprise.
There is a certain issue that I seem to have with the term culling users. Apart from that, I totally agree with you. Decentralization brings problems and this is one example. Not that I don't want spammers to go away. I do, but many of these spammers are just bots. You also can't stop users that may get culled from creating a new account. I think that a possible solution is some kind of universal blacklist of users to mute but again this would still be monitored or run by users and would probably require yet another bot to help automate some processes. Once your account is on the blacklist, your accounts Steemit career is as good as over. It shouldn't be easy to accidentally end up on this list either. Especially if you make a few mistakes. This is where automation and bots could be an issue. Problem is that legit users would have to come across said list to mute bad apples. This is a difficult problem to solve. I just think that being able to remove users or accounts might also hurt the decentralized aspect. I would be interested in how a strict guideline would be enforced though. This strict guideline should be effortless to follow if you're posting your own thoughts.