Censorship...or Custom?

Steemit is new. I’m sure you’ve all heard that it’s still in Beta. That means it’s still ’shaking itself out’.. it’s still trying it’s wings...it’s still deciding what it want’s to be.

Fundamentally it’s a blogging platform on a blockchain. Without getting too technical a blockchain is a distributed ledger. That means that it is running on multiple servers, simultaneously, world wide. To change anything on it means that it must be changed on everyone of those servers at the same time, in sych. Crypto techie stuff applies.

The founders set it up to be uncensored and uncensorable. What you say is what you get. After the concrete dries...so to speak...that is after the final payout period it can’t be changed. Until the concrete DOES set YOU can edit your post, but no one else can.( crypto techie stuff ) after that...it’s set in stone...forever. It can’t be changed.

Like I said. No censorship.

HOWEVER. Your right to speak does not presuppose that other people want to hear what you have to say. Thus we have flags. Flagging doesn’t stop you from speaking it just greys out the post. That means someone took exception to your post.

And thus we come to Customs. Like I said...Steemit is still deciding what it wants to be but one of the things it seems that it does NOT want to be is a Pirate Site. NO PLAGIARISM... no cheat keys to games...none of that. (we have bots that check..don’t even try.). That’s a no no. No quicker way to get flagged. You post that crap here and you get flagged to oblivion.

Post it somewhere else.

Other things are still being decided. To porn or not to porn? That is the question. As we get more and better tools (tag filters?) then some things the majority doesn’t want to see can hide in their own little den of inequity and wank off to their hearts content...but until then the custom is to NOT to allow it.

Custom We are (not so) slowly developing customs. Violate those customs at your peril. Pay attention. The customs are still being hammered out...they change.

One of the current customs is not to lie about the contents of your post by deceitfully tagging it. If it’s news..then tag it news. If it’s political..then tag it political...if it’s religion do NOT tag it something other than religion...tag it what it is. Bait and switch is frowned upon. You risk being flagged.

I rarely flag, if ever. My current custom however, is that I mute anyone who flags me. If I get flagged that means I hurt someones widdle feelings...SO...I don’t want to risk doing that again SO I mute the person who did it. Seems fair. If I can’t see what He/she says...I can’t hurt their feelze by making a sarcastic...or WORSE...truthful factual statement.

As time goes on, like I said, we’ll get more and better tools. I suspect that sub-cultures (sub reddits?) will develop within the overall block chain. The religious can do their thing, the anarchists can do theirs, the silly-science people can do theirs and no one will bother the conspiracy folks...as long as they are upfront and honest with their tags.

In fact...I have an idea. How about a flag/tag. Instead of just a general flag others in the community can tag-it according to what they think it really is, and the post goes into that pigeonhole.

You want to post about poly-ticks (mutliple blood sucking parasites) and don’t tag it as such? Fine...someone will do it for you. It will then be greyed out anywhere BUT in that particular pigeon hole.

Same with porn, advertising, and other things which need not be discussed in polite company.

My two cents..