Reducing the profitability of spam on Steemit - some thoughts
The amount of spam on Steem has always been an issue, and there have been several suggestions to make changes to make Steem less ‘spammy’. There are two types of spam - comment spam, and ‘memo spam’ - yes those annoying memos advertising resteem bots. I came across a couple of interesting articles by @drakos recently about whether we can get rid of spam, and also some of the statistics about spam on the Steem blockchain. These highlighted not only the state of spam on Steem, but also the need to make changes, as spam is chewing up ‘bandwidth’, as all transactions are stored on the blockchain. I thought I would share some of my suggestions
Memo Spam
![](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmUJHuwX4DCmJmYAxnLyoChPJbJSMkXaC5EpTVoDTrLcH3/contact-2805253_1280.png)
As @drakos mentioned in their post, having some type of spam folder wouldn't really work - yes it would ‘hide’ the spam, much like a spam folder does in emails, but the spam would still be stored on the blockchain and thus be adding more data and further clogging up the system.
Restricting memos
With this in mind - one idea is to limit the amount of memos users can send per day, based on their reputation level. So for example new Steemians might be only allowed 20 memo posts per day, and as their reputation increases they would be allowed more memos (the idea being that people with higher rep are more trusted Steemians). This would at least stop new people from coming along and just spamming 1000s of memos per day (A Lot of the resteem bots don’t post themselves so their rep can sometimes remain at 25).
![](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmSyuKk2V3YCXJJ1naY1FF6JzoSZeDZ3E6fTn2u6HK5vsE/social-1206610_1280.png)
However, what about the bots that have been around for a long time and have a higher rep? A suggestion would be to have a maximum number of memos allowed for free each day (say 100), and anything more would start to cost the user on a per memo basis - and it would have to be an increasing value, which would make spamming the system to extreme less profitable.
I am always quite forward about letting people know that the majority of resteem bots (the ones that advertise through memos) are not profitable (yes I have tested lots of them out). By educating people about them at least I am doing my bit to discourage Steemians from using these services, and making them a bit less profitable. However, spam works on numbers! This is why they send out 1000s of memos - its cost effective and they only need a small number of people to subscribe to start making a profit. This is why I think limiting the amount of memos, and charging people for mass spamming will help.
There has been talk and suggestion of Steem inc taking a stand against spammers - one suggestion is to undelegate the SP of known spammers (the 15 SP you are delegated when you open an account). My problem with this is that it goes against the decentralised nature of Steem and puts power back in the hands of Steem to decide what is spam.
What do people think about these idea? I always love having peoples thoughts and opinions!
Comment Spam
In my mind comment spam comes in two types:
- Blatant spam - much like the memos - where people are mass commenting and trying to sell their service in the comment section
- ‘Uneducated spam’ - these are the comments such as ‘nice post,’I like your information’ or ‘follow for follow'
The blatant spam has decreased since I have been on Steemit (about 4 months), and seems to now be fairly well managed (flagging spam, and Steemcleaners). After being on here 4 months I have no problem flagging this type of spam and encourage others to do the same. By taking a strict stance on this we are letting the spammers know this type of activity isn't tolerated on Steem.
![](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmNpZmnHRV1PTSFw92PqugRepQndMRkBjPhmS9au1hZqMb/20180618_150734_0001.png)
The uneducated spam is still a major problem on Steem and I think a big part of it comes down to people not understanding how Steem works, and that it is a ‘social network’. The majority of this type of content largely goes ignored these days - it's not exactly ‘spam’ in the traditional sense, but it does clog the comments section without adding any value to the discussion.
I mentioned this in a recent post but I think that through education we can help to reduce these types of posts. Even just replying to these comments can help - some people are receptive to this and grateful, but others take a stand. I have seen more people trying to educate these people, and have seen mixed results.
I would love to hear everyone's thoughts on this as I feel it has been a problem for some time and there needs to be some changes!
I am a Spamkiller!
Get the link to Spamcontent.
I support the idea of limiting the amount of memos by the reputation level. Wouldn't that then restrict the amount of memos with older bots as well as their rep could be low because of people flagging them as spammers? Or are they too big for that?
The idea of memos costing at some point it also great. I have no idea why a regular user, not a spammer, would have a reason to post so many memos in one day anyway.
Good suggestions both, but as always people and spammers do find other ways. For example creating endless amounts of new accounts. Maybe buying existing accounts and turning those in to spam accounts. So the connection between different accounts and what does it say on the memo is also vital information and maybe that could be used to restrict spammers also. And I'm sure something has already been done to that.
The blatant comment spam may also have decreased because steem value has decreased. Even spammers have to spam harder in order to get their days profit. :D
The uneducated spam could be those who have heard and understood that one needs to comment in order to get noticed here. But the fact that one has to find original things to say seems to be too hard for them. And sometimes for me too. It's hard to comment something original in English as it isn't my native language. But as everything, it does get easier when I just do it more. Practice makes better. So I tend to go easy on those who have upvoted my post and commented something not so original if I know that English is not their first language. If they have not upvoted me, only commented something like nice post, I do nothing. Usually don't even bother to visit their profile.
P.S.
I liked your post, I would give you my upvote if I wasn't in recovery phase with my voting power. It seems that I've been upvoting little too much lately. I take it as a good thing because now I have to comment instead of upvoting (normally I'm too lazy or I don't have the time to comment) and that forces me to be social. :) I'll upvote you next time.
Sorry for the late reply - holidays! (better late reply than never though :P)
As far as I can see there is no real reason to send so many memos apart from spam - and this is clogging up the blockchain so mayswell make them pay for that priveledge. Unfortunlatly because there is money to be made spammers often find a way around the rules.
Yeah true - I can see and tell the people that dont speak english and are actually trying and those that are just saying nice post on 100s of posts in the hope of a few upvotes.
No problems we have all had the problem of low voting power from time to time!
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Really helpful........ Thanks for sharing the info
I like the idea about having more screen time the higher your rep is, so far that suggestion has made the most sense to me as its addressing congestion. Do you think it may make it harder for the mid range rep accounts to get traction and gain some momentum? Perhaps this is where places like Steem chat could be utilised better.
Thanks for the re[ply @stuffing - my problem is I dont have any coding knowledge to push my ideas along abit further.
I think that there is loads of help out there for people if they are willing to look for it!
I hope through sharing, your ideas will be heard and picked up by someone who can do something about it :)
Thanks - yeah I find writing ideas and getting them out there is a good idea - you never know who is watching and reading
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Steemit is a hard place to get noticed. Even more so if you didn't invest any money. So what ends up happening is people leave the site or find another way to succeed.
Allot that stay gravitate to buying upvotes doing what some would consider spam comments / content. This isn't going to change unless the Steemit as a community changes. There simply isn't enough upvotes going around from those who have the majority of the Steem Power.
Its also good to keep in mind what one considers spam / low content someone else may not.
Yeah thats true @rentmoney - I have been here 4 months and only just starting to make progress - thats a long time, but hey I have the time!
I sometimes feel like being 'ethical' here is hard work and wonder if it is worth it - for every one person that think like this it seems there are 10 who are all out for profit and there own selfish goals.
Yes what is considered spam can be subjective!
There is a big problem with spam accounts in general. They make up around 75% of my followers, and I have talked to others with the same issue. Theses spam accounts all generally have a rep of 25, only post videos, and do not leave comments. I honestly don't know how to deal with this type of account other than give people the option to actually block accounts from following rather than just muting them.
Yeah I am the same! I have GINAbot tell me when I get new followers and it seems the majority are 25 rep accounts - and it had got worse now when I post I get like 5 new 'followers'
All it does is inflate the numbers on here - I nearly have 1000 followers on here which I should be amazed with but the reality is that the majority of them are bots, or have long left Steemit
The same thing was happening to me when I posted for a while, but not so much at the moment though. The most I got after a post was around 30 of them following me within a few minutes when it was happening a lot.. it was really annoying. There are also around 10 accounts that will upvote some of my posts.
LOl yeah its a bit strange eh @paradigm42
Yeah funny how it all slows to a crawl when the price is down lol.
Yeah I just keep doing what im doing - lets hope there is a rebound sometime soon - but then people will be moaning about how hard it is to earn even one STEEM
I'm actually looking to invest in steem but need to find a good exchange that will let me deposit US dollars to start..
I'm getting more and more memo spam the more active that I am. I do dislike it. Since the memo is part of how STEEM wallet functions I am unsure how it could be restricted from a tech perspective. As for comment spam I do not get much of that yet but when I do they already have such low rep it's hidden. I think like you say that has improved.
They usually come straight after you have sent money to a resteem bot or upvote service - so I am getting less because I use these less frequently lately
I noticed that too. It's been a while since I've used an upvote service actually. The sbi vote is really nice to have and seems to have at least psychologically remedied that need to have a vote lol Plus I didn't realize this but some contests and curators will not curate you if you have upvote service bots (sbi and minnowsupport and community bots are excluded though I think).
Yeah I use bots less and less - just figure I will get what I get lol. SBI is great! I think I am up to about 20 shares its nice to know youll atleast get some payout.
Yeah most curators look for 'undervalued' content and thats in terms of payout - so if they see a big payout then they wont curate your content
Saludos @conradt