Ooops! A Cheetah who is a Robot Commented on my Post. What Does this Mean?

I recently saw a couple of posts that were commented and upvoted by the Cheetah, and even though she has never visited me, I thought I would make my self a little bit useful and post some information about it. Seeing the statistics on the Cheetah blog, it is worth to mention that she is commenting at more than 1500 post on a daily basis.

Please note: Most of the information provided here below derives from the official FAQs along with my observations about her activity

Who is Cheetah?

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Cheetah, as per her bio, is a robot that automatically finds similar content with posts in steemit. In the link of the FAQ she clarifies that it is an informative robot that will comment on posts when similar content is found elsewhere.

(quoting from FAQs)

The interpretation of the comment is up to the voter who reads the post: the comment, in general, means that the voter will likely desire an understanding of the source of the content that was posted.

Does the type of content makes a difference?

No, the robot is programmed in a way so that the type of content is not important, only the similarity is important.

Should the user worry when receiving a comment & upvote by Cheetah?

Not necessarily; as per the FAQs, the comment aims to inform the reader that there is another place in the web with the same content (that was there before the user’s post)

However receiving this message is something you should take under consideration and make sure you understand your content. Why did you post it, does it include your own opinion? Have you cited the sources?

Quoting:

In general, on Steemit, original content is more well received compared to reposts. And reposters that attempt to trick the readers into believing they are providing fresh content, can ruin their reputation forever. It's an ambiguous area, where the voter needs to decide. All that the Cheetah comment does is provide information to the voter.

If I receive a cheetah comment, does this mean my post is flagged?

No. Cheetah only comments & upvotes. She does not flag posts.

When is a user flagged?

If a user attempts to steal someones identity or deliberately and continuously tries to spam & plagiarize, he/she will be flagged in the future. This procedure is controlled by @steemcleaners and is not automated.

Who created Cheetah and how can this person be contacted?

The creator of Cheetah is @anyx. His suggestion is to contact the members of Steemcleaners at their chat public channel

How was this name selected? (Credits to the question at @taufar for asking at the comments of the FAQs)

As the creator @anyx replies in the comments section of the FAQs, back in the steemit days animals’ usernames were quite popular! So as he was testing the bot that was originally named cheetah for fun, the community had already started talking about her, so the name remained.
If you ask me I find it a very successful name and certainly better than the 'automoderator' that was the initial plan!

So, what is a flagged post and how do I know if my post is flagged?

A flag actually means a downvote. You can see it by clicking the little arrow next to the number of votes from your post. I have found a very comprehensive post that you can read here by @fingolfin

What type of messages does the Cheetah send?

I have seen two different kind of messages by cheetah the last few weeks, one of them is about content and the other was about potential identity stealing of an account located in the black list.

(Informative message about spotting similar content)

(Informative message about a user who is included in the black list for plagiarism, spamming, or identity stealing)

What do you do when you actually copy paste from your website/blog? Is it allowed?

This is actually a question that I would like a clear response. I have met a new steemit user a while ago, who is posting articles as 'copy paste' from his blog. The Cheetah has already visited him at least 5 times.
My understanding is that this is the same as promotion, so it will probably not be flagged but it cannot be considered as original content. What would be better is if the user added a newer information, perspective or commentary in each of the articles. When someone spends significant time to create a post, believe it or not, it is obvious to the people voting!

An important suggestion would be (as also seen by @arthur.grafo very thoughtful comment) that the bot should mention in the comment that a repeated such action by user might result to their flagging.
I would also suggest to put a link to the FAQs of the cheetah (at least) so that the user should have the opportunity to understand clearly the scope of the content and potential results of his/hers actions.

Comment by @arthur.grafo in the comments of Cheetah - this is left unresponded

I believe that bots like cheetah & steemcleaners are here to help originality and authenticity of content.

So, instead of seeing people attacking such initiatives, we should all do our best into producing the best of our ideas, getting and giving knowledge.

Disclaimer: This post uses mainly information from the FAQs of cheetah. The reason I wanted to write it, is to inform mostly the new users what they need to be attentive to. As steemit makes it impossible to ‘resteem’ or reshare content that is older than 7 days, sometimes it is imperative that information is written again to aim for attention from the new users. Thank you for your understanding and for visiting my blog.

Thank you for visiting and reading my posts,
Katerina

p.s. I plan to write a future post about steemcleaners. If this information would be included in this post, it would become too long. If however, someone wishes to read more, please scroll down for informative links.

Check out the Official FAQs Frequently Asked Questions by the Cheetah

Useful Information on Content Sharing by @cheetah

For more information on content sharing:

• Adding Value to Steemit through Sharing.
  • When is sharing another contributor's content appropriate?
  • Why Cite Sources?
  • Plagiarism Guide.

A very important thing to remember:

Something else to keep in mind is that flagging is not censorship. Your posts will remain immutable forever on the steem blockchain, and anyone can read it and interact with it. Being rewarded, however, is a privilege.