Saturday Steemit Setbacks
I spent the better part of my morning enjoying several black coffees while catching up on Steemit posts and replies.
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But my expectation of a blissful Norman Rockwell moment quickly evaporated as I struggled yet again with the simple processes of up-voting and commenting.
I was vexed!!!!
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Why?
Many of my up-votes were not registering and many of replies were triplicating and disappearing as flashes of error codes popped up from the bottom left of my screen.
It quickly became a less than thrilling experience just trying to post my blog.
The resuIt of this frustrating morning made me realize I was losing the joy of being a Steemit member. Also, I was feeling responsible for not being able to make my replies and felt the need to apologize to everyone for missing their posts when I hadn't missed them at all. I know I'm not the only one this is happening to, and other people are going through this as well.
Some might suggest using busy.org but that isn't a solution for me. I don't like the app very much because of navigation problems. For example, when posting there is no preview pane and every post becomes an adventure seeing as you don't know how it's going to turn out.
I know this isn't an end of the world problem — I understand that, and it's most likely temporary (hope, hope).
My other irritation?
Members who comment via bot. Why would that matter?
Time and again I have seen comments that don't match the content of the post. Sometimes it is inappropriate to the topic.
Example -
A poster wrote about losing their pet and included a few pictures of their beloved animal.
The comment? Beautiful pic!
Nothing about the grief the poster was experiencing . Just, nice pic.
It took a lot of restraint on my part not to reply to that person with a bit of venom.
I've noted how their bots are programmed to speak about a post without reading it. They pick up key words from the title and then add an adjective to the key word and that's their comment.
So if you write autumn in your title, for example, they will say beautiful autumn, nice click. — even if your post is referring to the autumn of your life.
This comment spamming has made me feel a bit of mistrust toward some people on Steemit. I have a need to check their blogs to make sure they're legit and not trying to scam the community.
I am sorry in advance if this is offensive to you — I've seen many people scammed on here and have been deceived a time or two myself.
Unfortunately, I am not a technie so I can't offer solutions to these problems.
I know that @steemcleaners, @cheetah and some witnesses are doing their best with the resources they have available to them but I am wondering if more people could be enlisted. Also, I think Steemit needs more development and I have observed that the user interface is problematic.
My reason for writing this morning is twofold.
To express my annoyance and get support from the community on this subject.
To let people know that I am reading their blog and trying to upvote where I can and comment.
I lost my post the other day - I hit the post button and it just disappeared - all my coding, pic and links gone...
It makes it hard for me to curate or respond. I make very little in curation rewards as it is, and from an economic view it's not worthwhile to spend 5 minutes posting & re-posting just to acknowledge another's response, but I do it because I care... but it vexes me too.
I agree about the U.I. here on steemit.com - Busy.org goes it one better, or one worse, in that it has no navigation pane so I feel I'm blindly posting and none of my familiar Steemit Chat channels are there for promoting what I just posted.
I only use Busy.org in emergencies, but the other day when I used it everything came out double-spaced and screwed up, it took me 20 minutes to put out that fire and at the end I was too exhausted to do much of anything at all.
Since this is a community, they're making it awful hard to communicate and respond - @ats-david is right - the site needs development. So, don't feel bad, other people know very well what you're going through.
As far as I'm concerned, forget about Hardforks and promoting Steemit to celebrities and fix what we have. Let's make it better...than it's ever been before :)
That must have been frustrating. Sounds like many people are facing this on a daily basis. Thanks for sharing.
I feel your pain! I made a post yesterday and it took three attempts before it actually posted!!
Ugh!
The lesson learned was to write my posts offline in my notepad and then upload the whole thing as a finished article/post.
I have started using the Markdown more often for my posts, so that lets me keep the reusable stuff as a template and not have to type all of the repetitive stuff every time.
As far as the platform being down, you can thank the Haters for that with their DDOS Attacks, probably people/bots working for FarseBook!
I do the offline posting as well, but it's still frustrating to re post something over and over again. I'm having a hard time again this morning just with replies. I haven't even tried to post yet.
Thanks for commenting here, I appreciate your thoughts.
I agree that it's really frustrating, today has been easier than the past few days for me here in UK.
Every now and then I will get a hiccup and have to hit the reply or post buttons again.
I did try using busy.org but it's not exactly the same as Steemit and things get messed up sometimes.
Glad you found my comments valid!
I think many of us share in your frustrations, @countrygirl. I've been struggling to find enough motivation to make time to write lately because of the issues this platform is faced with. I think you summed up many of my frustrations in your post, but I see other odd things about Steemit.
I haven't been here an awful long time, but I have seen so many things that do not make sense to me. I came here seeing 'quality content matters', but see the exact opposite to be true. There's far too much automation on this platform that rewards select users regardless of quality.
I've seen more people make money off of work that wasn;t theirs than the original creator! That's shameful. To creators and artists that is undermining & detracts from our world and the art that we all enjoy. People take visual communication for granted, but even more so on this platform.
I want this platform to be one that I enjoy but that is growing increasingly difficult. I think many of us want this platform to be great but we've got some housecleaning to do 😎
Plagerism drives me bonkers!! As does poor content making big payouts.
I, too, am sort of losing my game on here. I have to pull my socks up so to speak though because just as there are unfair players on here, there are more fair and sociable people.
I don't like the automated comments at all either. It's kind of insulting altho I know it's not personal. It's as annoying as telemarketers phoning from 10 different phone numbers selling the same thing and me telling them to go away....but they keep coming back.
Thank you so much for your thoughtful comments and for having your say.
Likewise, thanks for sharing your thoughts on the setbacks. It is reassuring to see others speaking out to generate a conversation (which quite obviously needs to be had).
Thanks for voicing what many are thinking 🔥🚀
It IS very annoying. However, I dont see what we users can do about the apparent DDOS problems. Our job is to create, read and vote. The usability of the site is totally up to StInc. Im not a techie, but I do know there are services like Cloudflare that can used to stop such problems. I am assuming it is a question of money. It is so frustrating to bring folks over to the platform and then look stupid for the trouble!
"StInc."....had to laugh, I have never seen that before.
I powered down last year just before Christmas for many reasons. Then I thot I'd come back and when I did it was pretty messy, so I can only imagine being a new user - the frustrations are many.
Part of saying the problem out loud helps validate everyone else's frustrations.
I agree and feel we have the right to complain as users but even more so as investors!
DDOS Attacks like this are more than just a group of people who want to confuse or disrupt things for stupid reasons, more like Big Business getting afraid of what is coming!
A lot of us here used to be on Tsū and were sharing our posts on FB, then FB saw what was happening and started blocking our shares!
Luckily, there were enough users on Tsū to complain incessantly to FB that they stopped doing that. So, maybe this is the new way to take a community down or at least make it hard to post.
I know, conspiracy theories, but think about it.
Tsū was basically the same without the Blockchain, they just closed down the site without notice and no real explanation!
Some folks were earning good money too!
Hard to say what happened, but these attacks will probably continue until the platform adds more servers. CloudFlare is good, but is very costly for corporate use.
I guess the best thing is just to try to enjoy the process here with those of like mind and ask for encouragement when you get frustrated or down about it.
The cheaters will always be here just as in real time life. Someone will always be in the shadows trying to make easy cash, not caring about anyone but themselves and trying to get away with things. They are foolish and only fooling themselves.
Maybe it will help if we all call them out when we see plagerism or scamming or trolling or who knows what else.
Agreed! Calling them out is the best way, and adding a shout to steemcleaners or cheetah might get their attention too!
I checked and steemcleaners says to drop the link of the abuse into https://steemit.chat/channel/steemitabuse-appeals to get noticed by them.
There is also a form that you fill out - I have done it before - you'd find the link from steemitabuse in the chat channel as well.
I usually tell the person that I found there photo or story elsewhere and ask them to explain and suggest they put up their sources first. When they lie and say it's their work I downvote them and tell them I'm reporting them. Always give them a chance, you know?
Nice of you to give them a chance to own their plagerism! I must say, it doesn't show up as much as I expected.
A good community will not tolerate that kind of posting and it should get less as time goes by.
Breaking FarseBook bad habits is not an overnight adventure!
Yep, it's been like arm-wrestling alligators...
Know that at least you're not alone... ;)
😄😇😄
Now that's a scary thought - arm wrestling an alligator....Croikie!! Remember him?
But you're right....putting out the little fires of plagerism or vote beggers or or or....it's not worth the upset or frustration. But I keep thinking it's the little foxes that spoil the vine.
Pull a Samson on those little foxes... tie their tails together, light 'em up, and send them out into the Steemit wheat fields... ;)
Oh, don't tempt me!!! I've just found three plagerizers....and I am wanting to do just that. I don't know how I find them - they just come to me.
What, now you're a plagiary magnet? LOL!
Along with my magic powers, I can accomplish a lot of things. I am such a magnet for too many things, actually. I should write a story about the things that come along my path.
Indeed, write away! (hahahahaha!)
I just looked up the word plagiary - I kind of knew what it was from the context and a probably root word. Here's what I found from the Merriam Webster Dictionary. I found it very interesting......especially the kidnapper word. Thot you'd enjoy it as well.
That is quite interesting... a kidnapper of words! :D
In a way it's good for things to slow down a bit in steemit, as long as it's only temporary. This thing can be addicting as most know. Not bad to take a breather and assess how you want to use your blog.
Being on the computer can be addicting in general. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram etc.....I'm not one of them but I know it can definitely take over.
couple days ago I posted a HDR picture I took in December 2016, I even emphasized "it was taken in December", some random person wrote "it's lovely to see some east coast photography in the fall." People don't even read the content...
It's frustrating, I know. Especially when you've put a lot of time and effort into your post to make it presentable. This has been a problem for ever since Steemit started.
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I had similar problem yesterday so I was trying to upvote and reply/post comments as much as I could, when I felt like I was about to get really annoyed, I did something else until I calm down and then go back. :)
Coffee and music helped me too.
So true....I do the same thing....I walk away for a while -I've had to do that again this morning a few times.
I think Saturday, Sunday and Monday were my most frustrating times.
Granted, I've only been on Steemit for a month or so, but still...lately, it takes forever for a Vote to register, or a Resteem, if it does at all.
Creating a post has been most frustrating. Since I'm relatively new, I am trying, but it still drives me nuts to type it all up, mark it up, add just the right key words, and then, spinning, spinning, spinning... error in bottom left: Network Error: Dismiss!
Ugggh!
I feel your frustration....and I think it's universal :) Sometimes it just helps to say it — which was part of my point. Knowing other people are going through the same frustration kind of helps, kinda, sorta.
I powered down before the new year and was off of Steemit until about a month or so ago and it's different now than it was back then. There is a whole new 'generation' of people who are posting nonsense and believing this is a get rich quick scheme.
There, I'll get off my soapbox now, again .....ugh.
I don't know about "getting rich" but for me, it's a venue for posting my images, and interacting with a few I know from elsewhere. I followed a few photographers from ello over here.
I just read that one big issue plaguing Steemit last couple weeks has been a systemic and sustained DDoS attack by hackers. They're trying, and Steemit seems to be trying to get back online and more robust. We'll see...
I don't believe it's a get rich quick scheme either.
Originally I came on here to learn from other photographers and to blog.
I used to find myself looking at photos all the time, studying them, noticing things and then tried to practice angles and techniques. So my husband, whose on Steemit, told me to get an account and share some of my amateur photos and write - like a photo essay type of thing. And here I am.
I am not familiar with ello. - I looked it up and now I know :)
I was told that the dDoS attack was done and now the problem is with servers. Who knows. Like you said, we'll see.