I just spent 30 minutes downvoting 7 posts from a plagiaristic spammer. Please take time to do the same.

This is a ongoing problem, that all of us have a duty to solve and we need your help.

This isn't a problem that is going to go away.  Which means this is a duty of all steem users that never goes away either.

As more and more people join steemit, I'd say 1 out of every 20 thinks they have found a way to cheat the system by reposting content.  Which means that 5% of all new users start out by deliberately copy/pasting pieces of the internet, and reposting it.

5%? That's not much? Just so you know, 5% of 30,000 is 1500 active spam reposters!

I refer to it as "SPAM REPOSTS".

We know what spam is on the internet.  It's basically "junk".

The problem is that the repost often contains good content found elsewhere on the internet.

Reposting existing content in the steem blockchain from the internet has these problems:

1. It clogs the blockchain and attributes to the endless scroll problem I've talked about
   
2. It lowers the value of steemit as a community and a resource whole.
   
3. It helps ruin the vesting steem power capabilities of all of us over time.
   
4. It shows other new users "hey! that person did it! I'm going to do it too!" (We don't want that)
   
5. Not only is it stealing, it is morally wrong.  The reposter knows it, and doesn't care.
   
6. It wastes time by having to scroll over these "spam reposts". I don't want to have to scan through them to find good quality, unique, content to read.  Nor do 30,000 other steemit users.
   

Please don't take the stance, that "someone else" will take the time to downvote spam reposts.  I did it, and I was simply only one downvote, we need more, to really show how wrong it is.

The cheaters think "even if I make a few cents, I'll just repost as much as I can".  It is our job to downvote as many of them as we can too.  This way, they don't make a few cents on their spam.   

Eventually cheaters will learn that it takes more time to do spam reposts than it would if they had just written their own unique article from scratch.  ... BUT! Only if we downvote their spam!

• If we allow spam reposters to flourish, they are going to keep hurting steemit.
  
• Spam reposts hurt YOUR potential to see your steem power worth something if you ever power down your vested balance (typically 2 years).
  
• I get hurt by spam reposters... and so do you.  

Take a few seconds of your day to downvote a few bad reposts.  You are helping yourself when you do that, not just me.

If you've ever earned even $10 off of steemit, the right thing is to pay it forward by volunteering some time to downvoting spam reposts. We all benefit when you do!

If this article has inspired you to downvote, or if you have ever downvoted, please share your comments, so it doesn't sound like I'm the only one concerned about this..  (thank you).

P.S. The concern that "if I downvote someone", they're going to downvote me too.  That happened with my viral post that I earned a lot of money from.  I got one retaliatory downvote from @jacobt, and 450 upvotes, and I made over $1800.   So don't worry about that...  It is an insignificant issue.   Conversely, upvoting what you want other people to see we already know is important.