Petition to End steemit harassment FAO @dan & @ned
To Sign This Petition:
Either upvote or comment on this post.
I understand that the developers are working on the platform and we are still in beta mode and I can respect that change takes time.
I am unaware of what front end changes may take place on 9/20/2016 with the hardfork that’s due.
I did try to reach the developers by commenting about this at @steemitblog here and responding to comments by @dantheman and @ned but I did not want to harass them. I hope this post does not come across as disrespectful to them, but felt if I wrote it as a simple request or question it would never be noticed.
UPDATE: We have already had a response from @dantheman
Dan really is indeed THE MAN :)
Signing this petition means that you agree that the developers need to make the blocking function a top priority, because the reputation system in place which is used to mute or censor accounts which have a reputation of below zero has made a bigger mess than leaving them uncensored.
I was under the impression that steemit was different from many other social media platforms.
When somebody posts their material on YouTube for example, they set themselves up to become a target of scrutiny. The world of anonymity can put you off putting yourself out there.
But Steemit is different!
Because unlike steemit, most social media platforms that allow a certain level of trolling will make that trolling visible to everyone so that bystanders, onlookers and viewers passing through all have to witness their trolling.
Fortunately on steemit, we can all pretend that people aren’t being harassed and verbally abused because after the abuser reaches a reputation below zero only the receiver of the abusive comments will be subjected to reading them in their reply feed.
The reputation system is a magical feature that can give you the power of invisibility so that you can be as abusive as you like and the whales and dolphins with power won’t even try to stop you.
You also have the upper hand over your victims because they are all alone without any emotional support from their steem-peers and by playing the victim they only hurt themselves because nobody likes a crybaby.
Let’s take a look at the abuse we’ve all been fortunate enough to not have to see.
First up, we all know the wonderful @stellabelle and would hate to think that anybody would be consistently verbally harassing her in an attempt to hurt her.
Luckily you never have to read these hateful comments as they are for her eyes only.
Next up, we have the lovely @lauralemons. It wouldn’t be nice to think somebody would actually express callousness over her personal issues.
Not to worry! Only @lauralemons has to read these comments and we can all go on pretending they aren’t happening.
Let’s have a round of applause for the beautiful and very popular @halo. We love her authenticity and fearlessness to be who she is and we love that she shares that with the steemit community. Unfortunately, not everybody appreciates what she has to offer.
But who cares about those who want to put her down as long as they keep it behind closed doors right?
Another well known community member of ours is @craig-grant. We’re all very fond of his personalised vlogs and talks and teachings. We’d hate to see his positive nature countered by the negativity of a troll.
And why should we see it? He’s a grown man, he can take it. As long as the rest of us don’t have to know.
Here’s a lovely lady @svetlanaart who’s been here not much more than a week. Judging from the thumbs down we can only assume the trolls comments weren’t welcomed.
But what does that matter? If she has engaged with him, perhaps she is just fueling the troll.
And even though she might feel like she is alone as she knows she is the only person who has to read these particular messages, in truth she is not alone at all.
She is joined by @fairytalelife here, @moony there, @camilla anywhere and @florentina everywhere.
.
.
.
Oh and then there’s me of course.
How else would I even know about it?
I’m fortunate to be chosen as just one of many of the “targets” in his little game.
Can’t you just ignore the troll?
Sure thing buddy! A great solution that has been implemented with the MUTE feature that renders your Reply feed useless and makes interacting with the steemit community difficult because your whole Reply feed is filled with greyed out comments from those you would prefer not to interact with.
So, we’re going to lose a few women here and there. We’ll hardly miss @anxietymaven after all the whining see did about being harassed. She should have stuck to her poetry and gardening posts and just not let this get to her.
And she should have known that the whole point of hiding the abuse she was receiving was so that we wouldn’t have to hear about it. She should have never cried for help and lost her reputation to @adm.
She was supposed to handle the emotional abuse all on her own without any witnesses who might comfort her had they seen but instead said ”what’s the big deal if it’s grey?”. It’s clear to the women here that we should all keep quiet about the abuse we receive.
Anxietymaven hasn’t been seen for weeks thankfully and for this reason @earnest (who is also @feminism and @somedude) is an asset to our community as he demolishes the positive nature of anybody who shows an emotional side that makes the poor divil uncomfortable.
I apologize for all the sarcasm... Sometimes I feel it's necessary to get dramatic to really get my feelings across.
So how do we stop him?
As far as I can see the solution is so simple that it's shameful it hasn't been implemented already.
The reputation system already hides comments within the posts. Why, oh why, does it not also hide them from the Reply feed? And the same question can be applied to the MUTE button.
If you have any further ideas on how blocking or muting should work, feel free to express your ideas in the comment thread. I will be commenting how I believe it should work below.
Remember if you really want to support this petition you could also donate $teem Dollars to Promote it.
They should be hidden in there too. I will have the team get that done asap.
Thank you , I appreciate you taking this action, and taking action so quickly.
💋 @halo 💋😇
So first you get followers by showing your tits then you complain cause they want to see your tits but get pictures of flowers.... Wow....
Frist off I have never shown my tits, they have always been covered. And im not complaning about him wanting to see more of me in those type photos and im going to be posting more of them I did not flag him or mute him, but he did not have to be like he was, he could have simply asked for more photos of me. That being said by looking at some of his other comments he really needs to be nicer to people and you to. Normally I would not even respond to you or people that make rude comments I just mute those type people and you are one of them. I made an exception here because of the subject of this post.
I will give my last reaction as you are all trying to get down my reputation, I am smarter then you idiots. Try get me to 0 without posting and only flagging you both. You were taking pictures showing your meat, that is asking for people to ask for me, sex sells, as it always does. You were trying to get subscribers by showing some of your goodies, same as a prostitute, selling your body to make money. Something you feminists are good in...
STEEMIT GIRL HALO ♡ Happy Go Topless Day
Go fuck yourself stupid whore.
Thank you @dantheman :)
I really appreciate you taking a look at this. So many users will have a much more pleasant experience.
perfect
Any ideas on blocking this? http://screencast.com/t/bPDNcVAu
A simple "View Memo" button might suffice.
Thanks this has happened to me as well. It's been a bit and I only attracted one such person and it was not the person they showed here. Yet they have been silent for awhile. Not being able to ignore their replies was a pain. So thank you for fixing that.
This entire post is trolling by showing all those comments, as they are hidden from 99% of users by the flag function. Earnest is a natural part of any social structure, just like the toilet in every house, if you take down earnest then another earnest will rise up even worse than before, the best path to take is to accept it and move on. By me typing this comment you are drinking my blood :)
Most social structures have a way to avoid people like him...
it happens on youtube every week, and I simply hide that users comments from my channel, just like when I flush a toilet
Right, but that option doesn't exist here yet. It's what OP is asking for... :)
YouTube allows you to switch off your comment section. Every social media network deals with this in some way or another. The least constructive thing to do is to do nothing and pretend the problem doesn't exist.
I did a post a while back about people like this.
https://steemit.com/halo/@halo/steemit-girl-halo-we-need-a-block-button
I still think we need a block button , the mute button does not do enough , I want to be able to block these type people from even viewing my stuff and block them from making comments. He is not the only person doing these things.
💋 @halo 💋😇
I understand where you are coming from but you can't possibly prevent them from viewing your stuff, as it is on a public blockchain. Even if the site doesn't show it, they can view your stuff if they really want to using other methods.
Steemit will never be for everything. It has to be for those things you are comfortable putting out in public for EVERYONE to see them, including bad people. For some people there may be little or nothing they want to expose to the world in that manner, and that's okay.
The idea of limiting access to being able to comment is a little more complicated but also not something that is particularly well-suited to a blockchain. Again, this platform is for public interaction. That's not for everyone at all times. Use it for what it is good for, and only that.
Initially, the quickest solution is to just add the reply feed to the places where comments from minus reputation accounts and people you choose to MUTE are hidden. This alone will make it so much easier to ignore trolls. And it's not a great leap from the system we already have. When steemit leaves beta mode I would particularly like if there were 2 methods for disconnecting ourselves from other accounts.
This would ideally block them from seeing anything you post and you will also be blocked from seeing their posts. Through the blockchain users can still see these posts, but if entering through steemd, they will be blocked or at least unable to comment.
Some people prefer not to block others who have opposing ideologies to their own. Some people prefer to live in the real world, not just a safe space where no ideas contradict their own. Personally I would prefer to be able to remember users who I have been in a conflict with before and have a way to remind myself not to walk into another debate with them. The MUTE button should simply grey out the comments and posts without hiding them, so that I can choose not to interact with people I have been in a conflict with before, but I don’t have to block them completely.
Hey beanz,
At the moment the blockchain is open and transparent (part of it's appeal). There is no simple way of stopping someone from viewing your posts.
I've had this conversation before, regarding 'groups' or whitelists where you could use encryption to allow only certain accounts to unlock the content (which is possible). But this has MANY downsides, such as; no new users would be able to see your content, it wouldn't be indexed on search engines, it adds more complexity for the user, and there's nothing stopping one user from simply 'leaking' any content you have encrypted to the normal web (If you have enough followers, you're not going to know who did it.)
So putting encryption and invite only style platforms aside - Even if you stopped a user (blocked) just through steemit.com there are myriad other ways they can access the Steem blockchain data and see your post if it's not encrypted, as per above. One of which is just to open the posts without signing in (or in an incognito window) or through the CLI.
The point of my rant here is that you can't have an open/public forum AND successfully block access to certain individuals in an effective way. Your best hope is to put the power in the users hands to mute anyone whose activity/posts/comments etc they don't wish to see.
I think the rep system has helped. But i'm also glad Dan is looking into the issue of comments not being hidden in the replies section.
Hope this helps.
Thanks Schro. This was included in my comment.
I know what you mean though there is no way of completely blocking users and I think that's fair, but I think if it worked only on the front end it would at least discourage a certain amount of trolling.
Users could still go into steemd and see the post, but I think it would be good if they could only comment on the thread by replying to other commenters who haven't blocked them. I'm not under the illusion that we'll ever completely block users as they can always make new accounts, but it just makes it that little more awkward for them which discourages the behaviour.
Thanks I'm very hopeful and confident in dans response :)
The issue is that the built in comment system is only one way to comment about something. If that is blocked then people will want to circumvent the blocks, and often for good reasons (for example, to circumvent an "evil corporation" who wants to use the system for promotion and still impede legitimate criticism). Once such a system for circumventing poster blocks becomes popular, as it very likely could, trolls and stalkers could also use it to harass.
Overall, hiding/muting under the control of the user who does not want to see the content is the approach that makes more sense on a blockchain.
I'm glad to see Dan's reply indicating this will be fixed ASAP.
I suspect nearly all users will never access the blockchain directly. As long as they are protected on the front end, then it should be fine.
Wow. I thought that @earnest was just an argumentative guy. I never realised he was that sick. What a complete and utter loser. Also what a complete and utter idiot too. All his abuse is recorded on the blockchain and some of the things he said could potentially be considered actionable by law enforcement. I sincerely hope karma catches up with him.
I'm sure it already has. He must be a miserable little man.
@beanz I actually went on steemit's and steems github posting an issue that the block function was needed about a day or so after I mentioned it to you in that other post, =D
https://github.com/steemit/steemit.com/issues/239
No response on that one yet.
https://github.com/steemit/steem/issues/382
![](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/http://i.imgur.com/pLz91sG.png)
This response killed our hopes and dreams..
That looks a bit small, open the image in a new tab, click the link, or read the quote below. I don't have my hopes up but I signed the petition, cause I really want this done.
I see a lot of Downvoting in here, those that get it , don't comes running my end. You guys haven't learnt.
This Downvoting is vibrating at my end, in fact the whole of Steemit. I am puzzle.
Was this directed at me?
@beanz , No.
I telling them to stay out.
OK thanks. I literally feel like I can't comment in my own thread now without somebody responding with further slander. I've spoken to a few people on steemit.chat who've thanked me for this post because they didn't want to post anything with these people harassing them when they do. Finally we can just mute them and ignore them.
stop with the lies, you and your brother are mass flagging people.
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Thank you for all that you do @beanz. The user in question also "welcomed" me to Steemit and it was quite unpleasant. I appreciate your leadership in resolving this issue. J.
That's no coincidence, he targets feminism and anything that looks like it, in other words strong women. He has 3 accounts that I know of but claims to have more so he will probably pop by to say hello once in a while. I'll be keeping an eye out so if you are ever on steemit.chat tag me @beanz.
Oh wow. I was reading through the harassment posts and feel like I'm the verge of tears. I don't understand why people have to be so cruel to another person. Imagine if a newbie, not just to Steemit, but blogging in general, was being harassed like that? It would leave a bad taste in their mouth and may turn them off from expressing themselves and sharing their art.
@dantheman, I'm so glad to see that you've responded. I know this is a great site. And while I don't condone censorship, attacks like these cannot be tolerated. What's the solution?
I've commented a few times about having paid moderators as the first line of defense against abusive trolls. And even with the ability to block comments like that on our feeds, it's still on the blockchain record isn't it? Well, one fire at a time, I suppose. Thank you for being diligent about keeping our community as safe as possible.
Thank you so much for this initiative. We need measures against these creeps.
Maybe trolling could be penalised economically as well in some way?
I suggest that you contact some people to help promote this post,some whales or dolphins with many followers, because this topic is crucial for the future of the platform. If people can not be safe here, they will leave,and others,myself included, might leave in protest.
I think the loss of ability to gain rewards from posts is an economic penalty. Thanks for signing I have posted it in steemit.chat and also contacted all those that I can see being harassed by the troll.
The only reason I have been putting myself out on this platform is because I thought this space was nicer than YouTube. This will definitely turn people off using it.
Also,I would like to add that reposting is acceptable and good for a post like this. Or do an update in some days.