Happening on SteemIt - Beware!!! The BullyBots are coming!
We all know what a bot is, but what is a BullyBot? Here we will take a look and introduce you to the newest proposals that might affect your experience on SteemIt.
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A BullyBot is just what the words it is formed from say, and something more.
- It is a bot, i.e., a small autonomous script or program which does some function without the need for interaction from its maker.
- It is also a bully. It will force you to behave in a certain way against your will. It will infringe on your right to freedom
- As it is not part of a full consensus, it is usually employed by a minority group for their own aims
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Examples of proposed BullyBots include,
- A bot that will downvote, or “flag”, you if you mention or promote Christianity
- A bot that will downvote you, if you promote Atheism
- A bot that will downvote you, if you post porn
- A bot that will downvote you, if you use profanity
- A bot that will downvote you, if you hurt someone’s feelings
- A bot that will downvote you, if you support Hillary Clinton
- A bot that will downvote you, if you you support Donald Trump
- A BOT THAT WILL DOWNVOTE YOU IF YOU UPVOTE YOURSELF
OK. Let me get this straight - the proposals I mention above, for all but the last example were just made up by me and, as far as I am aware (although perfectly possible) have not been proposed and do not exist.
Proposals for the last one,
“A BOT THAT WILL DOWNVOTE YOU IF YOU UPVOTE YOURSELF”,
however, do exist.
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Yesterday, there was a post by someone who is heavily involved in the proposal. In it, he outlined the problem as he saw it and the reasoning behind having a BullyBot (Note: He doesn’t call it a BullyBot), and there is even some good reasoning as to why upvoting oneself is causing harm, but that is hardly the point I am making.
You can read the post here:
The concerns I have :
People have invested in Steem Power to make money - It’s a very simple idea. One only has to look elsewhere on the Internet for what people are saying about SteemIt and it is all about making money (albeit an incentive to produce quality articles and discourse).
In making this investment, they have taken on risk. The price of Steem can go down or could collapse at any moment. Steem Power also takes a long time to Power Down - you can’t simply just access your money.
Nowhere does it say categorically that you cannot upvote your own post or comments. Indeed, when a post is being submitted, it is the default position on the SteemIt web interface that posts are upvoted.
There is no consensus about upvoting!
If there was, it would take very little effort for the SteemIt team to stop this happening by simply altering the SteemIt web interface. (Note: It wouldn’t stop it completely, of course, as anyone can create their own interface, but that is beside the point).
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So in essence, we have a relatively small group of people who want to impose their will on others WITHOUT NOTICE and WITHOUT CONSENSUS.
“Without Notice”
When they create the bot, will they put up a formal notice (in plain language) on the SteemIt feed explaining what they are doing and when it will happen?
“Dear SteemIt users, As a minority, a group of us has decided to stop you upvoting yourself. There is no consensus on this, but we are doing it anyway as we consider it harmful to the platform. Most of us haven’t bothered investing much in our own Steem Power, but why should we? We are not giving you time to power down your investment in Steem Power as we want to punish you - the BullyBot will start operating immediately. If you upvote yourself, you are liable to be flagged and your rewards will be reduced or nullified. Your reputation will also be affected. N.B., We rule, you don’t!”
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“Without Consensus”
Will they not try to be a little more democratic about this? Why aren’t they first trying to reach out for a consensus from the majority?
How is it that hardcore porn is allowed, but upvoting oneself is not?
(I’m not against hardcore porn. I am talking in terms of the public image SteemIt will have, as a negative public image is one of the arguments I have seen used against upvoting.)
The End. Be Happy!!!
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The Smallprint (I always try to upvote any reasonable comments (i.e. those with more than a few words) with between 5% and 20% of voting power - this presently equates to about 2 cents to 8 cents depending on my voting strength. Please be patient, it can sometimes take several days before I do my upvotes. If there aren’t enough comments, I will simply upvote myself.)
Coming soon - the big one!
The Homeless Wildcamper - as homelessness when I return to the UK is looking more and more inevitable, you may soon be able to see here on SteemIt how I fare. It will be an epic story including video, pictures and commentary of events and my own feelings as things progress.
Join me on:
SteemIt - https://steemit.com/@davidnx
Twitter - (coming soon)
Facebook - (coming soon)
My webpage - (coming soon)
Great post ! thanks for sharing ! will follow :)
I had hoped that I had explained to you successfully that behavour modification and raising awareness as a function of a bot does not equate to bullying. Bullying means you, the person are attacked, not the content you produce, which includes by definition your assignment of votes.
You may have not noticed that I followed you after our debate last night, and I am replying to this post now because I am not finished with attempting to make the connection with you. You have concerns, and you are free to frame my actions in any way you like, but your comparison between flagging antichristian posts by christians, or thte like, and what we are doing, is extremely disingenuous. No, you are not disingenuous, but casting such aspersions, the ACT of doing this, IS disingenuous.
I am going to continue to follow you and when I deem it necessary, weigh in with responses like this one now. I have had so much affirmation from all over the place, the sheer level of engagement I have been involved in here is absolutely making my head spin, but I'm getting a really big kick out of it. Your responses may be negative, but that you are making so much effort to express your feelings towards it, that I know I have hit the hot button.
We will not have peace here over the subject of self voting, or indeed the pressing changes needed post HF19 that are required to prevent either minnows abandoning before they hardly get started, or unsavoury types coming here to make a quick buck abusing a system that according to many people now is in dire need of fixing, until a consensus is reached, and at times that is gonna be messy. Such is life.
Interesting. I wouldn't mind having this type of bot for plagiarized posts though. When it comes to opinions and beliefs, those shouldn't be censored or "bullied."
"When it comes to opinions and beliefs, those shouldn't be censored or "bullied.""
I agree. It was just some exaggerated examples to make the post interesting.
"I wouldn't mind having this type of bot for plagiarized posts"
There is a bot for plagiarism. It's called cheetah or cheetahbot, but all it does is leave a comment.