Possible solution to injustice and self-voting: "flag power"
You probably see a lot of content that you want to flag, but you don't want to waste your scarce voting power on a flag. This problem needs to be resolved. Below is a possible solution.
Implementation
Flag power would be a second variable next to voting power. Flag power would work exactly like voting power, except that you won't be able to upvote with it (and voting power won't be able to flag anymore). You would get a certain amount of flags on top of your upvotes you can do each day. Flagging won't interfere anymore with the ability to distribute the reward pool to content creators. This way curators will have no psychological barrier around flagging anymore.
If flagging power is separated from voting power, you can set the regeneration rate & max weight variables separately as well. If at some point it becomes apparent that the regeneration rate of flag power should be changed from 20% per day to 2% per day for example, that can be done extremely easily.
Conclusion
With flag power separate, the flag system will actually be used and content will be curated way better than it currently is! It would also solve the self-voting problem! Even when people make multiple accounts and/or botnets, people will catch on sooner or later.
[EDIT]:
Thanks to some great feedback in the comments i started to realize there's a greater requirement for a feature, regardless if flag power should be split from voting power or not.
That new feature should allow everyone to flag users. This is needed because if a user keeps abusing his power and never publishes any content, there's nothing we can do about it. That needs to be resolved.
Feedback wanted
Let me know what you think. Am i missing something?
(i'm missing a lot of sleep lately, that's for sure haha, so if there is a huge mistake in this article, so be it).
Don't forget to follow, resteem and browse my channel for more information!
I think perhaps you're not seeing the bigger picture...and I will concede that I'm new here and it may be I who is blind to the true reality here. I'd just like to share my observations.
I just saw what could be a called a threat...contemplated on another post in
my feed. I'll say here what I said there...not verbatim...although I could go cut and paste it here...but it's pretty simple stuff really.
This is disconcerting on so many levels...if this "flag wars" becomes "a thing" things will devolve here at Steemit quicker than it took to reach this level of exposure. No one wants to come into a war zone! Imagine this got to a level of the kind of non comments that litter this space already. Upvote me and I'll upvote you...follow me and I'll follow you...resteem mine and I'll resteem yours.
Can you see the escalation that can ensue when heartless hacks start flagging for the sake of flagging because they didn't get what they wanted? Next escalation is taking flags and demanding ransom...and people hearing how someone's making a killing off of this "terrorist marketing". No one wants this...I can't see anyone who is serious about their content wanting to work in such an environment.
I know I just came here from my feed and likely no one in this post knows...or cares to know who I am. I'm nobody...and nobody always started it...and it's always nobody's fault. I don't name drop and rarely post links in comments...but I'm going to in this case because it's a very good point as to what it is that this platform is about...well ideally anyway.
Please forgive me if you think I'm being a buttinsky here...that is not my intent...simply my right to voice my opinion...and that is all I'm going to do. Here is the link...read it if you wish...but remember what you came here for..to show people the best that you have to offer...because where you came from...well it just wasn't working for you.
This isn't the post I mentioned in the beginning of this comment...it's a different one from someone who has been here from the start..his/her/fitb insights and the comments withing the page are worth the read...it's a statement from many who know why they came here and what they hope to expect from Steemit as it continues forward. https://steemit.com/rant/@liberosist/why-i-won-t-vote-for-you-if-you-offer-me-something-in-return
Thank you to those who agree that I am merely expressing my right to call it as I see it..no one has to agree with me...and I'm not asking anything from any...other than to ask themselves...how should Steemit evolve out of beta.
~may all hatred cease...let there be peace~
Wow huge comment. No problem posting a link dude. As long as it's relevant content.
I will read it now...
@cryptologyx That post is about all the things i hate on this platform: follow for follow, vote sharing groups, paying for whale votes, flag wars and so on.
If i understand it correctly we're on the same page. Is that correct?
yes...as much as I dislike the word hate...over used and diluted imo
reading the comments you'll get a feel for what is/was invisioned
and of course you'll see some begging...some in jest I believe...the rest with the same tired earnestness.
Thank you for taking the time @calamus056 ...I do appreciate what you're saying in your post...just...slippery slopes are just that...they have a beginning...and usually a disastrous ending.
I'm just thinking about solutions to make it a self-regulating system. Right now it isn't and all these exploitable initiatives like randowhale and whaleshares keep popping up on top of the problems we already discussed. It's so far from optimal and yet everyone is euphoric about SteemIt. I'm only euphoric about it's potential. not about the current implementation of the blockchain protocol.
Understood @calumus056
I think there's many here serious about looking for solutions. Problem is...one person's solution is another's new problem...imo.
I should also disclose that although I don't engage in the tit-for-tat stuff...well we all do to some degree as common courtesy...I have joined a group that shares voting power...just the one but I've yet to use it for my own posts. Not mentioning who they are but they do have a very helpful mission for "minnows" such as myself...could be the hook...or the lipstick...but I'd like to think I could smell a pig from afar...lures are an entirely different thing and I'll continue to study it from within for the time being.
As to upvoting my own posts...well yes I did that a lot the first few days...I did for all that I thought worthy of one. I understand now that one must opt out of the auto upvote before each post. This gives me concern as well...I can't see this being for our benefit if it's so quasi locked in like that.
Again...only a week here and never having been part of the blogging sphere before...I have much to learn before I even begin to address my own content sharing...this is why I spend much time supporting those who I find interest in...and helping where I can. It's the best way I know how to learn.
Oh wow you're only here for a week? I didn't even realize that :)
~smiles~
Yeah, I "followed" you early on...probably the second day. I hope this disclosure doesn't change the "weight" of what I'm trying to say...I'm just do'n my due D's...you know?
Well, nice to meet you :)
same sentiment...thanks for sharing your time
peace out...in
that would be stupid, big Whales could just flag all your posts without any punishment, if it doesnt cost you to flag someone then I can flag you at no cost. It must be a punishment for both to flag.
They can do that already :)
It always costs power though. The article very clearly says you can flag as much as you can upvote, both 11 per day at 100% weight.
I think you misunderstood the buttons role.
For this reason was a lot of sense to have same available energy to do (upvote/downvote(flag))
Make sense?
Of course i understand the concept. My proposal splits them into 2 with the same available energy.
The main idea is to make it feel like they're not sacrificing voting power (AKA profit potential) for it. It's a psychological blockade that currently exists.
Make sense?
the way it is now is better if you flag someone your voting power gets reduced, if I flag someone I loose power to upvote someone one, which is more fair, most time you dont even downvote someone.
if you would have flagging power, then I would just flag someone and not loose anything and I can flag you daily at no cost it doesnt make sense to me, or I still dont see where you see the advantage. It's an advantage for being a whale, which prevents new people to join steemit.
Don't know if it's more fair or not, the problem is that almost nobody is flagging content even though they would really want to.
You keep saying you don't lose anything, but you would only have limited flagging power. The variables can be set to anything we want. For example to 2% max weight for upvotes and 0.2% max weight for flags or any other ratio that works.
Flagging needs to hurt, its like you shoot someone, then you go to jail and the other person is dead, if you would now make that I can flag with 20% of my steempower, then I could just kill people daily without punishment.
It does hurt, you get the same X power every day. It's just split into 2 pools to overcome the psychological barrier people have right now. Plus there's the additional benefit to set the variables separately to be able to change the vote-to-flag ratio for our daily available energy.
lets say I got double the steempower of you, and I flag all of your post down. I dont make any losses but you dont make any money. I still make money without problem. So every new person that joins I can just piss them off the plattform. The way it is now, if I flag your post I loose 50% of my rewards, while you get nothing I only get half. But other users on steemit get still the same reward. Flagging is "teaching" someone a lesson. Until he learns, and it should be only used for plagiarism, there were whale war on steemit before if you dont mess with them you dont suffer. If I would have now Flagpower I just just get free punishment power so I can punish you without cost forever. Your "psychological barrier" is something good you only flag someone if you think its really worth to loose rewards.
It's not free flag power, it's limited. Again, it can be set to any ratio that the devs think is appropriate. For example everyone gets 9 full powered upvotes and 1 full powered flag every day.
you just explained it yourself. Flagging cost you make money backwards that is the main reasons why not many flag. You can flag my post if you want but you loose too.
For Whales flagging affects them less, because they got a lot of steempower.
If you would now make flagging power, I can flag can use 20% flagging for free daily, if I flag, 10% of my voting power I cant use 20% for voting.
I also understand your point of view but doesn't make sense. You had 20% of energy to like or not other posts. Till now I made myself understod?
If I will have other energy bar with Flags when I'll see it that bar at 100% that will 'force' me to use it, and I don't think this is the Steemit purpose. Steemit purpose is to have good and valuable articles.
And why I do say when I see flag bar to 100% it will 'force' me to flag other posts? I don't know if you observe, but Steemit has a lot of game mechanics in it and in games like Diablo for example when you have you stamina bar full you are tempted to go easily in the middle of battle, when you have energy bar full you're tempted to do many spells ( good spells for myself and my team and destructive spells to the enemies form the same energy bar) , etc
I hope you got the comparison.
For this reason I think a new flag bar will encourage users to hunt 'article good to flag'.
Interesting, hadn't thought of that. That might indeed cause some people to flag too much.
But i'm starting to think it's not that important to split up the pools anyway. It looks like the problem is with a curator integrity variable that is missing.
Why cant the existing slider just be extended to those with lower SP? ie instead of a 500 (ish) SP requirement, reduce this to 50 (or whatever lower value is applicable). Then people can just use the slider to indicate how much of their voting power they want to use on a particular post!
It's being changed to 125 SP soon, but that's a different problem.
I wasn't aware of that. Thanks