Why I am "mercilessly" flagging spam on Steemit (mindless "altruism" won't help anyone)
Some thoughts on flagging spam comments on Steemit.com, and an address of common rebuttals/counterpoints raised in regard to the practice in the name of altruism.
~KafkA
Graham Smith is a Voluntaryist activist, creator, and peaceful parent residing in Niigata City, Japan. Graham runs the "Voluntary Japan" online initiative with a presence here on Steem, as well as Facebook and Twitter. (Hit me up so I can stop talking about myself in the third person!)
Flagging is good
You've got the ability to flag when someone posts plagiarism, so you should use it. I was myself copied by a new user posing to "be original and just not understanding the platform". When I flag posts i tell them why. Flagging makes sure they aren't paid for the copied content.
I flag comments that is just spam, but usually doesn't bother posting why.
Your video doesn't seem to be loading correctly.
Thank you so much! Forgot to link it! Fixed now!
Totally Agree with you!
Seen your video now and I just wanna say that I so agree with you. As you talked most about comments I agree with you there as well. We can't upvote all the tiny "nice post, vote for me!" comments that clearly didn't read anything as you say. Comments are a way of expressing and creating more content related to the post you made.
Totally unrelated and "spammy" comments should be flagged.
I see another steemit post coming on this again :)
Thanks for the video, good content and thoughts as always.
I've been flagging them also. Seems like a real waste of voting power at a time when it's needed in so many growing areas, but we have a responsibility to keep the site form getting strangled by those junk comments.
Perhaps the members from poor, third world countries have no idea what spam is and are only trying to earn a little extra money for basic necessities. I just wrote a blog about the extreme poverty in these countries and how everyone should be thankful for what they have.
Graham I am totally with you, I try not to use it but if they keep spamming you kind of have no choice.
I got this one account that's spamming a lot of my posts with unrelated comments. They made a comment about a photo of me, which wasn't in the post or anywhere on my steemit account. Then on another post, they commented about a photo of a hat... I'm posting a lot of medical cannabis related topics and photos, so the spamist clearly didn't read a thing. I looked at their comments, similar comments, all ending with @steemitnamehere with the name of whoevers steemit they were posting on. Couple posts a minute, clearly on a bot. It's gotta be stopped, and it's unfortunate that steem power has to be wasted flagging this. I think if people are going to run bots, at least make them useful, you can profit off a useful bot.
It really is unfortunate having to waste SP for this stuff.
But, alas, it keeps abusive flagging under control as well.
Agree with you 100% I see in comments that some people are complaining about english as second language, it is my second language and I read or watch content, then leave comment, long or short, doesn't metter but it is my reaction to post. Self promotion, or famous words folllow for follow or I upvoted you please upvote me in return are driving me crazy.
It depends on what do you mean under "SPAM"
If you would start to flag "Thank you" comments it would hurt people who don't know English
other else, I've never seen any spam comment beside to "Follow me, I'll give you 0.001"
How would you recognize if somebody really in needs or just begging you for upvote?
I do not flag "thank you" posts. To me that is not spam. A lot of times the people writing "nice post!" didn't read the post so I ask them "What did you like about it?" There's almost never an answer.
There are a lot of people here on Steemit who don't know English at all. They copy-past their "thank you" and "Nice post", and, honestly speaking, they cannot read texts. So they cannot answer on your "What did you like about?" as well.
we should consider those users. It's not their own fault, but their educational system.
My assumption, we shouldn't punish those users for their countries EDU systems
Yes. Agreed. It is tough to define spam. People can choose to be like a cop here. The better posts will rise. I do not care how people make money. People make money every day through very bad things and ways. We cannot stop people from doing bad things like all of the time. But people who do good will make more money and become more popular over time and in the long-run. People can choose to flag as much as they want. It becomes maybe too subjective when we try to flag maybe too much or too often. It is hard to know where we draw the line between something that is spam or copied or repeated or canned or not genuine or annoying or not specific enough or whatever the case may be. I am not flagging people. I do not have time to flag and flagging will not stop them all. We live in the TV show The Walking Dead.
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Flagging spam is the same as killing walkers in The Walking Dead. During the first few seasons, they were killing the walkers, the zombies, more often or too often but the fear & focus on walkers declined each season of TWD.
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Flagging is like that.
There is an endless sea of walkers or spam people out there. More of them will join Steemit today and more will come tomorrow. They will continue to come. Sometimes, we may want to flag and maybe we should flag them just like Rick sometimes kill walkers. Sometimes, it may be necessary to flag. Maybe, I will choose to flag too. At the moment, I am choosing not to flag. If nobody else was flagging, then I might want to flag more.
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When we flag, we might become Dexter Morgan or Batman or Hannibal and we kind of put the law in our own hands. We might become the state, the government, when we decide who lives and who dies. We are in The Walking Dead and there is spam, there are walkers, but there is also, spoiler alert, Negan too. I am more focused on Negan and less on the walkers, the spam. If there was no Negan, or Soros, or Satan, or Santa, or the NWO, or Rothschild, or Obama, or whatever, then I might be more focused on flagging alleged spam, the walkers, or whatever. Joey Arnold Oatmeal.
Wow dude. I love this kind of clips. I hope your video opened someone eyes. Yes, the flagging is necessary, especially with all the spam these newbies bring. Let's hope it's going to get better :D
This is common sense to me. You don't shit where you eat! Spam is like repeating commercials, nobody wants to see that shit over and over again! Spam is mudding the water. It brings the experience for everyone here down. Spam makes steem less valuable. Less people want to place their money here and less people will use the platfrom. We have to flag spam if we want this platform to survive.
Sic em!
Bork!