How is the Flagging Whale-Votes Experiment Going?

in #steemit7 years ago

It shows what many already knew from the code: that when those with higher SP stop voting then those with lower SP get more reward allocation power. This translates into having your vote give out more $ currency from the reward pool than before.


Source

But this is not a real solution, since whales can't vote without having a countervote flag from one or two whales running the show/experiment: smooth or abit. Whales can't vote, reward and promote the visibility of content they like. Whales have been rendered mute in their voting.

This is not a real solution to the problem of concentration of power. All it does is mask the problem over with a half-measure of a solution, something I recently talked about. This prevents the real solution from being implemented while people think the "solution" is already in place... lol.

The "flag whale-votes" experiment/ruleset only showed that the power to allocate rewards on the platform is based on having the most SP (a serious design flaw and the reason most people left in July). If you have a lot of SP, and you vote everyday, you decide how the majority of rewards get allocated, while most other votes give a few cents. There is still the concentration of power in the system, and this experiment doesn't address abusive flaggers. It's not a real solution to the concentration of power on Steemit.

What happens when a ruleset is introduced, but not followed?

There are whales that still upvote posts they want, regardless of this new rulset, and if enough of them vote, the countervotes from the two other whales doesn't measure up. They are also whales that want to flag posts, not because there is a single whale vote, no, it's because they don't like the post or author and they don't want to see it rewarded, so they flag with all their abusive power to remove rewards when no whale even voted on it.

That's how the no-whale-vote experiment is "working". Not bad at least to show how the system works with SP to allocate rewards. But even when no whales vote, some whales still flag posts because the posts come from authors they don't like.

How does that sound to you?

Does that sound like a community effort to make things right in the community?

Are these the common goals of the community solving problems together?

Do you want flags to remove rewards when no whale vote was applied?

Do you want people who vote to support authors or posts, to have their votes annulled, simply because some power-mad whale decides that post shouldn't be rewarded?

Do you want people who give 'autovotes' to have all their votes annulled so that they can't support the authors they want?

In order to bring awareness of this issue, data or information is required. I'll provide data on this issue for more people to understand what is going on.

In a real community and society like the real world, rules are created (right or wrong), the point is that there are rules and there are ways to create and modify rules, and to deal with rule breakers. Steemit doesn't have this.

In real societies, if someone is being maliciously targeted by another who abuses their authority, some people will tend to care and stand to do something about it. People have jobs to do such things. They have responsibilities to deal with injustice in society because we're not allowed to do it collectively as a community. But not on Steemit. Malicious behavior continues when the abuser has the money and power in the highly flawed Steemit system. Money = authority and power to act anyway you like in Steemit. Steemit will not grow this way.

If it's not obvious to people there is a power differential that is being abused, go look around and gather data on the situation.

Let me help:

berniesanders, a.k.a engagement (what a joke of a name, as he wouldn't know engagement if it hit him on the head as he votes up game-picking no engagement posts), thecyclist, services1/2/3?, nextgencrpyto is a fool who can't think properly. I have exposed his fallacious reasoning and false claims before when he validated flagging just because @dan or @dantheman upvoted my post once in a week while @dan could upvote other people without them getting flags. He also made himself the "view-counter police" and decides who should and shouldn't get rewards based on how many views they have (even though some of my posts have more views than other posts he votes for or doesn't flag yet have higher rewards...).

So that was a month ago. He just invents whatever reason to do whatever he wants.

What about now in the recent weeks?

(Go look at @dantheman's recent post and read some past comments on past posts about how crazed bernie is in hating dan. Dan didn't even vote for himself and whales jumped on to flag him right away to $0! Other "whales" voted after the flagging had started. The founder and inventor of the Steem blockchain wasn't even allowed to get rewarded for his post? Sheesh... so he voted himself to higher rewards than regular users were originally allocating lol.)

So I didn't post anything for a week after I first called out the BS flagging going on, then I made a post called Adventures with Linux Distros, which had 132 views, 24 comments, on 247 votes. It had reached something like $50, but that was unacceptable for the whale who targets me for BS reasons:

I post 1 post in a week, and the people who voted on it weren't allowed to reward me what they rewarded me, because a power-mad authoritarian abusive whale is out of control. Apparently the new "flag whale-votes" experiment had started, and I didn't even get voted by a whale, but he didn't care. He just likes being a malicious abuser of his power in this flawed Steemit system.

So I took another week off and waited to do more tests.

What happened when I posted again? You got it! Another flag from the madman on a post that had 176 views, 25 comments, and I guess too many votes (323) for that view and comment ratio for this power player to decide who can get what?

Is $90 for a post in one day too much? WHy is it ok for others to get $90 for one post or two posts per day when I can't for posting once in a day? So I decided to keep testing things out, and I posted one post only again the next day, still flagged even though no whale votes, 104 views, 15 comments, 274 votes:

So this kept going on:

PostsViewsCommentsVotesReward after flag
Adventures with Linux Distros13224247$20
People Still Obey Authority to Harm Others Shows a New Milgram Experiment Study17625323$65
KrNel Witness Update 2017-03-2010415274$45
Change Hardfork 17 to Get Some Things Passed?13824334$35
Common Acceptance of Fairness and Harm Values Drive Intergroup Tolerance476435$40
When Cryptocurrencies Become More Stable Then We Will See More Mainstream Public Adoption20341306$22
Automata - The First Autonomous Machines and Threat of Automation8510255$42
Mind Games with the Stroop Effect5510209$27
What's in a Media Company? Does Online 'Social Media' Get a Pass on Standards Other Media Companies Have?387232$20
Increasing Demand for Online 'Gig Economy' Jobs8416386$30
What's in a Real Community?9552405$32
Growing Heart Tissue on Leaves... What?458227$12
New Microscope Technology to Track Movement!380232$10
Biases in Science5314223$7
The False Appearance of 'Good' Prevents Action to Change for the Better5738208$3

Since I started posting again, I made 22 posts (excluding one with 'Decline Payout'), and 15 of them were flagged by this out of control whale abusing their power in this flawed system. That's 68% of my posts getting flagged. I guess he forgot to flag me for the other ones (or they were already low payout in the $6-$20 range?), maybe he was busy and they slipped by... I don't know. Anyone else see this happening to other posters, by any whale flags? I can't find any other case like this except for @dollarvigilante who seems to have been harassed for a while now.

So over 50 views, or 100-200 views, or 40-50 comments, doesn't matter, it's not about the actual views or comment engagement, it's all about certain authors posting as the real reason to flag and remove rewards. Hate-fueled vendettas are what drive this behavior.

Then I finally had a post with a low enough view count that he could comment his bullshit justification:

It doesn't matter what other people vote to reward when no whales are voting, power-mad authoritarian whales decide how things are to be... The power has them not think clearly, rationally or justly about their actions, i.e. power-mad.

And now it's just that I'm not allowed to take information from other sources, and write my own posts about it, which he moronically used as a justification on a post I completely wrote myself from no external sources... LMAO!

Here was the status of the post before he flagged (33 views, 15 comment, on 142 votes, and again NO WHALE VOTES with $22 reward):

And then after he flagged when I got back from going out today (down to $3, nullifying most of the upvotes I already received, rendering their upvotes non-existent in terms of reward allocation):

Meanwhile, he votes for others who write posts that get info from external sources... yet I'm not allowed to keep the rewards from voters who vote for my content from external sources? What? Somebody likes their power and doesn't like it being taken away, which is why he chose to disregard the "no whale vote" experiment. Also he can vote with two of his accounts, one at 1 million SP, and the other at 500,000 SP, yet only receives a counter-vote flag from the experiment that only annuls part of his sock-puppetry and the post still gets a significant SP reward allocation from his sock-puppet voting.

I will mention some authors who write posts, some get their info from external sources, and get rewarded higher than many of my posts since I got back, yet they never get flagged by this power-mad abusive whale. Why? Because this is all about targeting a few authors on Steemit that he doesn't like.

Go look at the posts for these users: kingscrown, kevinwong, sauravrungta, and others. They can post, get rewarded highly, sometime less comments or views than some of my posts, yet no flags for "low view count/too many rewards". Funny, eh?

I'll guess just start doing like @contentjunkie and others in their posts, and just copy/paste text and get rewarded whatever people award me with for doing so and get flagged anyways... yippy... fun times. At least I'll get rewarded like others for putting in the same amount of copy/paste work... rather than write my own stuff and get flagged to receive even less rewards than those copy/paste posts lol.

I have called out to whales before, looking for the "good" whales, but there are none to act against bad whale behavior according to the white-paper, at least none that came to stand and speak against the issue of flagging abuse. Some whales even joined in to support the "righteousness" of this inconsistent and hypocritical flagging for rewards as they see fit. When you got the power in this flawed system, I guess you can make up whatever rules you want, not define them to anyone even when asked to do so, and just keep doing whatever the hell you want... yeah... great community that creates...

Is this the community you all want here? Is this how you want a community to operate, and let this type of authoritarian power-mad behavior go unchecked? There is no whale to correct it in this current flawed ill-conceived Steemit system... things need to change for the better!

Would you want to promote a society in real life that operated like this, where people with the most money can do what they want and get away with it, going around abusing the power and authority they were "magically" given with a flawed systemic design?

If this is what the community of Steemit wants to tolerate and allow, then you will reap what you sow: tolerating abusive power-mad power players who act like they can do whatever they want just because they amassed tokens mining and didn't earn their position of authority that they misuse and abuse.

When there are no rules, standards or criteria established for verification of alleged justifications those with power use their power, then you have confusion and chaos of rulers acting how they want without any consequences to their behavior. Anarchy means no rulers, not no rules. All societies have rules. Rulers who have power others don't and abuse it isn't the creation of anarchy, but simply the creation chaos. Rulers need rules to keep them in check. The power players in Steemit don't seem to follow rules and make for bad management.

If you don't care to learn about this issue, then just keep moving along to another post. I won't bother responding to BS comments or from people who respond with "TLDR but blah blah blah" ignorance.


Thank you for your time and attention! I appreciate the knowledge reaching more people. Take care. Peace.


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2017-03-27, 6:02pm

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The sort of harassment flagging I have been witnessing is definitely one of the reason why I didn't spend as much time on Steemit as I used to. This sort of behaviour pushes people away from the platform, not only me... It is sort of like someone who is trying to stop the platform from succeeding!? It is mad in so many ways, unless it is purposefully done to have this effect.

Thanks for sharing your rationale in relation to this madness. It is appreciated and enlightening. May the force stay with you and us all. Namaste :)

It's not "harassment", it's doing exactly what the system was designed to do, distribute rewards as users see fit.

I agree with this to a certain extent, but the problem is they don't actually see what is fit since they are using bots most of the time. If they actually voted up or down using their own view of the subject then I would be cool with it. You are actually engaging with this post so even though I might not agree I would respect a downvote from you more.

Nobody deserves $100+/day re-writing shit and adding a flare of "consciousness" to it, plain and simple. If his ideas were so original they wouldn't all require half a dozen references at the end. The feeling of entitlement is what needs to stop here, not the flagging.

Sure I see things that get over $100 a day that do not deserve it, but that's just my opinion. We have to protect the platform and encourage user participation at the same time. Do you think putting a cap on the max reward would help to distribute rewards more evenly? Maybe $5 max per post or something

I believe there are posts that are deserving of more than that. What I don't believe in is people writing content ONLY for the rewards like we're seeing in this case.

I agree with engagement here. Krnel is here for only one reason, money. If his posts added value this would be ok. But in his current form he is of no benefit t the growth or health of the platform, quite the opposite actually. We could support 20 other users of equal or greater talent with the amount of rewards that Krnel gets. As we can all see now that the rewards are gone so is "4 post per day" Krnel. In addition to that most of his posts are full new age religious lies and circle jerk philosophy.

*distribute rewards as the user with the most SP sees fit.

*users

And, you can always buy more Steem and power up to SP!! (It's a little easier than writing rants)

I found that just mining Ethereum and having it auto convert through blocktrades was really easy as well. Things are tied up with Lbry mining at the moment, but will probably be back to steem once things stabilize here.

I'm not writing rants. Apart from this, but that was a joke 😊

Although it is users, other whales are having their upvotes negated, so somewhatish it is the user with the most SP.
I plan to buy more steem (not to be a whale, but just to invest some), but I'm currently watching the price. I've got a feeling it's going up mid/end April and not coming down again so waiting and watching to get good gains.
And although I believe that the Steem blockchain and steemit platform will be successful I do believe that the concentration and consolidation of power is a serious issue that needs addressed. One of the things that attracts me to cryptocurrency is the code behind it, allowing it to surpass and overcome many failings of fiat currencies. I don't think it is wrong for whales to have so much power, but currently it is weighted too much, or at least appears that way to me.

I agree. People should be free to use their voting power however they wish. Who are we to tell others what to do with their steem power? Value is subjective and we're never all going to agree about what things are worth.

The whales we have now (unless they power down) will always have more say when voting for witnesses, posts, etc. In effect they control the platform and its future, and will continue to do so unless the code is changed, which of course they have strong influence over through their weighted voting.
I don't have a problem with them having so much power, but the problem lies within the code ensuring their power forever, and not preventing abuse of power.

Thanks for providing information and continually posting about this issue. This consolidation and concentration of power is my greatest concern for the current and future prosperity of Steemit.

I have to admit that I like the fact that my votes now come with a few cents. I've been here since June, and in the early days with only a little SP I was giving out several cents, I peaked at 17 cents. But then the decline came, and eventually my votes were worth nothing, inspite having a lot more SP. I am glad that my votes can give a few cents. Plus now I notice that my post aren't dependent on a whale upvoting them. I was on Wang's list since I started, and for a few weeks @ned was upvoting a lot of my stuff, and I was very thankful for that. But now I can get a few bucks without needing a major whale to upvote my posts. I think that's a good thing.

I actually had @Smooth down vote an upvote from @berniesaunders on a post yesterday. I was confused at first, but then I realized the reason for the flag. So I laughed it off, and then I moved on, and wrote another post.

I have stopped posting on Steemit because my two last posts got flagged for the fun of some self-interested people, showing they own this playground and they can do whatever they want.
On Steemit the flag was created to be used in very clear circumstances but it has been used by the Feudal Lords of Steemit that self-authorize them to use as a gun for their personal wars.
The big problem is that most of the people is quiet about their rights, and don't mind being used as guinea pigs for the experiments.
The paternalistic leaders will make them rich is they agree that any experiment can be conducted without the authorized consent of the users.
And the Flag as became and gun for the mighty power to show you what happens when you are not a sheep following the wolves.
Fascism is the use of indiscriminate force or violence to generate fear of retaliation and live in a reign of terror.
If people give up to fight for their rights and if everybody knows what is the purpose of the flag, should denounce the situation and demand justice and equality for all Steemians.
The worst thing on Steemit now is the myth that this flagging is making Steem go up and Steemit is much better, and the Flag system is the solution for the problems of Steemit and it can be used for any ends and not for the ones that it was conceived.
It means that "fake news" can become true on Steemit as in mainstream social media.

The creators screwed up when they thought SP would give incentives to maintain the quality of steemit like employees with stock options. They forgot about the path of least resistance. A whale could F it up for few and still face no consequences. In mining or masternodes, there will be clear short term consequences. On steemit, there is no such thing. It's like USSA. The good parts hold and compensate for the negative actions. A swarm of "good"whales can royally screw select few and steemit would continue fine for the short and mid term. It'll be like a grand oak tree growing hollow inside. People would only realize when the tree falls down. It reminds me of the current state of "The land of the free" very much. I've posted several comments at several places. Please take a look at them too.

Of the accounts created on Steemit in 2016, ~11% remain active. This is an awful retention rate, and Stinc repeatedly ignores this and claims ~400k accounts, because that's how many were ever created.

Steemit is hollow. And current flagging, which I have practically begged to be inflicted on me in the last day or so (probably foolishly), is being prosecuted right now that is demonstrably and obviously curtailing content creation on Steemit, and accelerating the process of hollowing out the bold corpse.

Truly, it is very much like the land of the fee, and the home of the knave.

Thanks!

I'd actually like to see more complex stats like posts per user, revenue per user, posting frequency, median/average account value etc. But it doesn't seem like it'll happen.

Have you checked https://alismedia.jp/? I joined the https://tronlab.com/ ICO on Binance just to see the Chinese ban + refund. That was my first ICO attempt.

I actually spend as little time investing, and on personal finance, as possible, as I have shit to do, and those distract me.

For stats, check out @paulag, and #bisteemit. Also, @arcange, @dbdecoy, and others, who stand and deliver much such.

Fascism? Force? Violence? Fear? Reign of Terror?
Jesus Christ, dude. It's just votes and words that express opinions on a website. There's no violence here and nobody is in any danger. The hyperbole and sense of entitlement here is astonishing.

"It's just votes and words" you said.
It's just guns and butter, I say.

What is it that rounds up armies to genocide their neighbors? That siphons off the wealth of the world in corrupt backroom deals exchanging the sovereignty of citizens for cash for representatives? What is it that created the panoptic surveillance state, authorized the Executive of the USG to seize, imprison indefinitely, slander, torture, and murder without due process, without even a charge, in secret, at will?

Just words and votes.

Golden words my friends. I don't remember when I started following you. But now I stand proud because I did follow you at some point. The rule of steemit is the rule of SP. Basically it's just might is right. I didn't understand Ayn Rand's hostility towards libertarians. But now thanks to these events I'm beginning to understand why. Flagging due to disagreements is like jailing the homeless and physically deformed because they are eyesore. If you don't like something, don't vote or else you'd create drama and negative feedback. If spammers and plagiarists get negative feedback, it helps the platform. But if a productive person gets negative feedback he/she's going to produce less. I've previously stated that pretty much all the flaws of steemit comes from lack of vision and constitution which Dash DAO understand. First you define the rules and let the community opt in. Dash wants to be digital cash and whatever they do is aimed at that. Dash agreed to go for 400MB blocks and beyond in a matter of hours because they want to drive VISA out of business. Steemit should be a community run Times magazine with social media capabilities. The purpose of flags should merely be to drive out what's hurting steemit. Debating about anything that doesn't serve that bottom line is a waste. Value is subjective. One should not argue how much something is worth. Disagreement on rewards is the equivalent of price controls.

I am pretty impressed you found this post and comment. Not many dig into the back catalog.

You clearly are well worthy of following, as your appetite for information is likely to exceed even mine!

Thanks!

Well I used to read scraps of paper lying around and read Journey to the Center of Earth while in second grade. Finished Space Odyssey series by Arthur C Clark while in middle school and read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Brief_History_of_Time at 9th Grade. So I am bit of an information addict.

Thanks for the follow :-)

Followed you some time ago, after you schooled me on some topic or other =p

No, it was not just words and votes that did all those things you listed. It was people with weapons threatening violence against others. Nobody on steemit has any military power to threaten others with. Our votes and words here are not backed by threats of assault like those of governments are.

No. Just because you say it doesn't make it so. When Gerinkh Yagoda joined like-minded war criminals, no one held a gun to his head. All they used were words.

Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve System into law, and the sole means of getting him to do that were words and votes. Nobody held a gun to his head.

My point is exactly that military power is unnecessary to create oppression. Our words and votes here are backed with threats of financial assault. Just ask @krnel.

"I think it only makes sense to seek out and identify structures of authority, hierarchy, and domination in every aspect of life, and to challenge them; unless a justification for them can be given, they are illegitimate and should be dismantled, to increase the scope of human freedom." - Noam Chomsky

"Let the people be armed." - Thomas Jefferson

On steemit that's called SP combined with talent, dedication and facts. Those are our weapons.

With this flagging experiment going on I'm wondering how I can attract more people, when I have to explain to them that Steemit is a place where the community decide how much your posts will earn, and when you have a good post you will definitely get flagged just because some one is playing the police.
The majority of whales who stopped upvoting was enough to even out the rewards, flagging is just sh#t.

Agreed. Flagging is an act of negative feedback. It's only productive against objectively wrong/bad content. Namely spamming, plagiarizing, Pure hate/trolling (but not hostile comments), copyrighted material, privacy, gaming the system without producing value and scams. Those who doesn't like the rewards should pick the 3rd option:Ignoring. Any positive feedback on any productive content helps the platform on the long run. I've seen 200-300 word posts get ~$30 and my posts with 2 or 3 times more content + extra videos have gone with just few cents. I'm ok with that. A lesser creator with more rewards is better than no creators at all. Rewards on steemit aren't fair and I gain far less than what I deserve IMHO. But if that's a reason for me to flag, them I'm just a jealous commie or a self entitled prick. I want to earn more and I god damn deserve more(IMHO). But I don't want anything at the expense of the other guy and I don't want another content creator to feel loss and negativity as long as they are not actively diminishing the worth of the platform. Disagreement on rewards is just disagreement on other guy's wealth. If they are not aggressing with their wealth, you are not entitled to control it.

I still think the whale flagging thing was a vendetta with Dan, did you not see how the price of Steem rose as soon as Dan posted he was leaving? Probably people with money were just waiting for that to pour some money into Steem. And then did you see how he was flagged when he posted a couple of days ago? If this is so, frankly I don't care that's their problem, but I don't like flagging I think it's stupid and childish especially if you haven't even read the article, which with so many flags by the same people has to be the case.

Well, the system isn't solid yet.

One thing for sure is since the experiment we have a clear majority of happy users all making a little rather than a majority of bitter users watching the same folks making huge rewards while nearly everyone else, that didn't quit because of which is an even bigger number, felt frustrated and unhappy.

Steemit for the first time in its life is rewarding content because people like it and not because of politics and guilds leading the way of bots voting. People are actually happy here now.

What ever comes next I hope it makes the majority happy and not just a select few.

And yes my posts are getting flagged by smooth on the reg now. Not the end of the world.

I was making $20-$75 up until Christmas, then i pissed off the whales and guild leaders, about 70 people out of thousands and my rewards dropped to less than a dollar up til the experiment. Now am making $5-$15 which is AWESOME.

Some said I was crazy and stupid and wrong. One guy wished I would quit and die because i called them out.

Steemit can be a great place. If it reverts back the value will crash.

Amen, @solarguy! I am in the same boat as you bro. Pissed off 5 people and my posts dropped to as low as 30 cents even though I've been successful here since July 2016 lol. Now I'm receiving fair rewards for the first time in months. Thanks to @ats-david, @smooth, @abit, @berniesanders and the rest of those who spoke up and took action against greed and corruption. Goodbye, @donkeypong, @the-alien, @gavvet, @hanshotfirst. :) Hope you enjoy all of your loot that you stole from the rest of us.

I note the crash ongoing presently, and give credit to where credit is due. You called it.

I think this experiment is flawed because it takes the human element out of the equation. Many whales vote because they have a stake in the platform and actually look at content they think can help it. @smooth and @abit just use bots most of the time to enforce their will. I think taking the human element out of the platform is a grievous mistake. Whales that still want to reward content creators they like can do it, but they have to do it in ways that don't upset the bully's. I know many people are afraid to say anything against this because they depend on the platform and do not want to receive any kind of retribution.

If you "depend on the platform", you've got some real issues (ex. @krnel). This isn't a fucking job, it's a social site.

I agree, its not wise to depend on this platform

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