Is Stem Assistant a first step in the management of communities and tags?
Some thoughts on this new tool in relation to Bid-bot usage within the #steemstem tag...................
source - pixabay
The other day, I was pointed in the direction of a post by @mobbs, titled 'Introducing: Stem Assistant - No more wasting VP on science content thieves'. The context is the announcement of a Chrome extension to aid the 44 staff at @steemstem, curate across 6 languages and 'keep track of well over 100 blacklisted users at any given time'.
The quotemarks above are taken from the post in question: https://steemit.com/steemit/@mobbs/introducing-stem-assistant-no-more-wasting-vp-on-science-content-thieves
For the purpose the of the discussion, i'm not going to focus on the risks of using browser extensions, or some of the other details of the post linked above, and would like to expand on two points mentioned as part of the reasoning behind their team wanting such an application:
an ever-spawning horde of greedy plagiarists and translators, transcribers, bot abusers and beyond..
Abusing bots: No need for our upvote if you have the money to upvote yourself $50 a day
('oh, not again', I hear some cry) Yep, more Bid-bot talk...
It was on the cards...
Last month, I wrote a post titled 'Who will create the content for the Bid-bots to 'promote' in the future?', and whilst heading doesn't quite fix with today's topic, the opening paragraphs help explain my interest in @steemstem's new application.
The link to the post, and some of the comments of note are next:
Well guys, I think this is the beginning.
Shifting sands
As far as I am aware, this is the first community to set a policy with regards to Bid-bot usage on 'their' key tag. I see one of the goals of this initiative is to attempt to manage what content is presented when users visit #steemstem 'Hot' and 'Trending' posts.
Ideally, the wisdom of the crowd and the community account will have a fair say in organising the feed so that the most interesting articles are at the top.
You mean, how it should be across the platform? I do!
The signs look promising, but as with the current interfaces (and without the forth-coming 'Communities' features), there will be issues to iron out. Obviously, there is nothing to stop anyone using the #steemstem tag, the community isn't 'access only' at present, something which may not be the case when the code allows.
Also, 'stacking' Bid-bots on a post following a @steemstem vote will of course be possible. Although, this may mean the user is blacklisted in future, and the potential removal of the community account vote.
source
Of course, this is a 'waste' a voting power for the community account, and so it would be better to have other means to prevent this action taking place.
It is my hope that the forthcoming 'Communities' development further enhance tools like this to allow the best and most interesting content to reach the top of specific tags.
So what do you think?
Does this look promising, and is it the direction other communities may seek to take in the near future?
Good luck @steemstem!
Asher @abh12345 / Witness @steemcommunity
More posts like this one / #bidbot
Who will create the content for the Bid-bots to 'promote' in the future?
What would Steemit look like if everyone chose to delegate their stake to a bid-bot?
How to make friends and influence people
I don't vote for users who use bidbots. I have had that policy since they first showed up months ago. If I see people have used them, I don't support them anymore, even if I liek their posts. I can't trust that they won't use them after I give a vote... so no vote.
I also don't vote for witnesses who run them or use them. I have lost some Gigavest supporters from doing so. I just dropped 12 spots again recently in the witness list, I think maybe because I spoke out against bitbots in a witness interview post hehe, as that person ran a bitbot service.
Speaking up gets lots of flak, as I've learned after taking on two big whales last year ;) Shutting up can get you ahead more with the power players ;)
Hi @krnel
Yes I read the interview this morning, and as you know our thinking is in line on this.
The difference for our witness is we are just starting out, from the bottom, and so there's really only one way to go.
I admire you for sticking to your guns, even though it has cost you places (and SP) in the rankings. Best to be clear where you stand though and move forward the way that suits your thinking.
Have a good weekend!
I appreciate such an opinion. It's not often to encounter this stance. I will look into supporting your witness. It's not much but every bit in the direction we stand for helps, right?
Yes, every bit counts. It all matters to me at least :) Thanks.
So glad you wrote this post @abh12345 :)
Also, reading your comment feed has helped clarify a few questions I have been asking myself !
Thank you :)
And I'm glad you have taken a look and found the content helpful.
Thanks also for pointing me in the direction of the post discussed, I'm looking forward (as many are it seems) to further developments in this arena.
Enjoy your weekend 😁
Hey Asher :) I too saw @mobbs' post and thought what an awesome idea! I see it as a promising direction for sure; anything that helps reduce plagiarism and the abuse (use?...not touching that one here :) of bidbots is a very healthy direction for this platform! I can only hope that other communities race in a similar direction :)
By the way, I just woke up, poured my first coffee, and you're my first engagement for the day :) I take that as a good sign!
Good morning! :D
I see it as a good sign too! haha
Hopefully, at least when the Communities developments arrive it will be a focus. Science leading the way (as usual?) :)
Yes, as usual!
That is a pretty interesting tool and maybe the way that we as content curators have the ability to make more informed decisions by having filters and tools that will aid us more.
I was for the longest time thinking of the steemplus and this steem assistant working in conjuncture in setting if someone is a bad actor, bad steemian
The idea of blacklisting spammers and plagiarist is good indication that as a community we are not just waiting for Steemit Inc to save us but working to fix it ourselves.
I know a lot of people are saying about chrome extensions though and the earnings steemplus takes as part of its development fund that stops most people from using it. Security is one of the biggest risks that the developers needs to mitigate for people to really start using these.
Yes very true. We need to work on this solutions, and they need to proved secure.
I think both can be done, and am hopeful things will progress from here.
Every action to get more honest listing of trending topics will have my support!
But I do think that maybe bot boostered posts will be replaced by whale boostered posts.
We would just see what the wales are upvoting!
My 2 cents
As long as they are curating again I'd be happy with that! :D
That indeed would be an improvement!
It makes life easy for the team of curators. A little awesome tool.
Ty for pointing in our direction. We run a no-vote-buying policy for several weeks now, and I think it turns out well.
Although of course for steemstem-authors, bid bots were never really essential, as the curators team will have a look at every single post in our tags anyway, and then, quality - and not early visibility - decides the fate of their articles. I think for other communities, that don't run a big community account with curie backing, it is difficult. Probably still worth it, but difficult.
No worries.
I'm glad to hear that quality over early visibility and curation rewards are what's seen as important to you.
Assuming it costs break-even to promote a post, I think it's something they would still go for if they could establish a community account with decent VP. Fair points though.
Cheers.
I love that idea. I’m in a very small community and somewhat newer community and one of the things that was going be looked into is “do we want a black list.” 100% yes I want a blacklist so I’m not wasting my time anymore finding amazing gaming content and then finding out it was by a known plagiarists or sock puppet account.
The interesting thing about bidbots is they often push you over the threshold for different community’s to want upvote you themselves. Case in point last week I found this amazing piece of gaming content was going share it with the community I’m in. First I looked into their wallet and what did I see? SBD being sent to bidbots. I was somewhat steaming over this as it’s been a while since I found something of high quality to share that was original and yet they did that to it. So, I moved on and that was that.
Yep. And I think this is the growing frustration among communities with specific tags. Forget general Trending for now, but it would be nice for smaller communities to have some say in what is presented on 'their' feed.
Nice check on the wallet, you resisted some nice curation rewards there it seems? :)
I did but I don't care much for curation rewards at least for now. Post was at like 10 cents and they sent 10 SBD to bidbot and it was just not voted on yet. It seemed like they might have spent more when other posts paid out. They seem to focus on putting a lot of effort into one post a week and bidbot that and not the other stuff. So they look undervalued at a quick glance. As all their posts where making next to nothing expect one a week.
It definitely looks promising @abh12345.
I like how tag "owners" are trying to protect them. I think the travelfeed tag has a bot that makes sure the posts are long enough, according to their tag usage criteria, before going forward to the curators.
This is all good news as far as I'm concerned.
If only we had a way to stop the spam accounts that follow us. They are easy to pick out by their statistics so, just out of curiosity, if I was a programmer could I write a script that could block such accounts from following me or is that something that only Steem inc could do?
Hi Gill
Yes I think it's good new too - can you tell? :)
Post length is a tricky one, but could be good for #travelfeed - not so good for 'art', that's why we need more tools to help.
I don't think you can stop someone following you, but you can put them on the ignore list?
Yeah I occasionally mute them @abh12345 but most of the time it's simply not worth the effort. There are so many of them. There was a string of 12 this morning that were immediately following some people's posts. I got off lightly with mine and only had the two.
I was thinking more that if they got caught in some sort of statistical filter, by enough people they would, eventually not be able to operate. I have no idea what they are doing. Well that's not true, two things come to mind.
One is to hope that people less aware follow them back and them they can use their big follower numbers to sell resteems.
The other is something about making money off very small votes. I read an article a month or so back about how it was done but didn't really understand it. But invovled having a lot a accounts making very small votes.
Sounds like a real pain, I seem to get only a few these days. Maybe i'm just not using the right tags :D
Ignore or downvote the obvious spam, and try not to let it get to you too much is all I can say really.
Is the sun out there? I'm about to go out and have a look :)
Yep. The sun is out.
Yesterday we had some wet stuff fall from the sky. Can't remember what you call it it's been so long.
I had to google how to open my umbrella! 😂
😂 here is a picture of the finished product in case you have forgotten ☂️
Yeah. Thanks @abh12345. I worked it out in the end. And just as well as it was quite a downpour.
Glorious sun again today though. 😁
Hi Asher. I don't write on topics pertinent to steemstem, but do understand why they would have to take these measures with subject matters related to science. Very easy to plagiarize and difficult to discern originality. Interesting to see how the new browser extension pans out. I'm still hesitant to use an addon, but that's just me.
Another community not supporting bidbot usage on posts is @comedyopenmic. Not even minnowsupport support! I find it commendable that communities choose to support good behavior. I'm mindful of the tags I do use as my show of respect. :)
Yes it will be interesting to see how it goes.
I'm glad to hear COM following suit, good for them, and thanks for the info 😊