Response to : The Rise of Identity Theft on Steemit. Here's my solution to the problem! @anyx @ned @dan
Identity theft a real issue
I knew there was identity thefts on Steemit but I didn't really know how to bring it out like you just did in this article @anyx https://steemit.com/steemit/@anyx/the-rise-of-identity-theft-on-steemit (take the time to read it its a 2 min read and its worth it, might even open your eyes and make you think twice about upvoting anything)
I agree with most of the article but one specific part where you propose a proper verification channel
"We need a proper verification channel, and we need to start being careful. Developers take note, and community take note. This is getting serious."
We do need proper verification ONLY for those who seek to be verified because they have a big fan club. just like you see on facebook or twitter or any big social media out there. A lot of people out there feels like they've been cheated seeing these fake accounts and most of them without any verified photos win 100 times as much as they have been awarded for their own genuine introduction. Just like I did yesterday here
Not really an introduction but I opened my self and it was worth around 4$ , This is not a problem , the problem is that my own genuine content is worth 4$ but someone faking their story could possibly bring them thousands. What If I would decide that It's not worth doing genuine content anymore since it just seems so easy to earn by faking it with new accounts? ( I hope you get my point there)
It barely takes a minute to really notice a fake story from a real, we are giving way too much importance to introductions and the real problem lies there.
Possible solutions ( These are just suggestions)
solution number one
From now on , The first introduction text of any new account made from a certain date cannot earn from upvotes. Basically It can be upvoted and commented on but the user will not see any earnings since its his first post. It would be like a test to an exam you have to pass in order to go forward. I know its not a simple task but maybe there is a way to make an algorithm that could promote this option.
The major problem here is people have valued introductions over real content for example: I have read yesterday the quick introduction of a girl having a blast in vegas showing a verified picture of her ( could really well be another photoshoped steem picture) In this picture she has a crack of boobs out and she ended earning 1500$ so far.
You know when I wrote that I think it's ok that I just made 4$ on my post I completely mean it. I meant it is ok as long as posts like those above me are treated equally. We are seeing a bunch of girls posts lately basically promoting themselves in a sexual way and this seems to become a trend. I don't even care that someone makes 3000$ a post with a poor english but with some valuable content.
Did you learn something?
Did you enjoy yourself?
Was this post entertaining?
Then if the answer is yes go ahead and upvote it. The thing with girls showing half of their boobs with some content is most of the time they will get upvoted ( Yes most of the time) and end up with some money. These girls photos are everywhere on the internet and pretty easy to photoshop.
Solution number two
If this community wish to make it harder on these new fake accounts, let's build a reputation system. Its not an easy task but it could be something like that;
Marco has joined steemit recently and started posting, Marco has no reputation which mean he's earnings are caped.
Marco is now at the reputation level: Newcomer , Marco can earn up to 50$ on every post / and 5$ on comments
(now from here you can split the suggestions on how Marco can go higher in the hierarchy and be able to earn more every post)
-Suggestion of the solution number 2:
Marco Needs to earn at least 50$ to be able to push his max earning per post/ comment to 200$
Once Marco reach 200$ of earnings it is then pushed to 800$ and on and on with a Max level of 5-10. Where the 5-10 th level would equal no restriction on the earnings.
This 2nd solution could easily be bypassed if someone ( a whale) was to make multiple accounts and grow there steempower but I believe it would at least cut off a good portion of those who are trying to scam on a daily basis.
I have a more developed Idea of the solution number two, but I just got back from work since I do night shifts and I will try to find sometime to write it up! I am also working on a steemit related website of product and services made by the steemit community all in one place! Wish me good luck and give me your feedback on this!
See you later people!
I think the easiest solution on the technical side is to add the whitelisting feature of bitshares to steem.
Technically, a whitelist doesn't do anything except express that you know some guy. If I know @cass, I add him to my whitelist, he knows Daniel, so I have a connection to Daniel as well. That way you can build a web of trust similar to what you know from facebook, linkedin etc. Together with the account recovery feature, this allows your steem account to become the safest internet identity you could ever have!
Excellent suggestion! maybe i should gather suggestions of everyone and compress it Into à single blog post to make it easier for the développers to adress!
Great ideas in here and glad to read aout a solution-based conversation about this. Thanks a bunch, namaste :)
Hey Eric are you from Montreal by any chance?your either from France or your a Quebecer! Glad you enjoyed the article
Nice "guess"! I'm originally from Quebec City. Namaste :)
@kuriko It's good but you should read this: https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@minion/important-how-to-save-steemit and add a couple of my solutions to your post by editing your post, because my post didn't go this viral, but your is and you can improve your post using mine!
@minion thank you! I will give it a look and see if I can do that!
I would really like you to put the method I purposed on how to proper introduce yourself. You don't have to mention me, just edit that in your post, the purpose is not in the $ nor the up votes, the purpose is education!
Don't worry if I do I will do it by crediting you but I'm not home right now that's how much of an addict I became to seemit lol
"the problem is that my own genuine content is worth 4$ but someone faking their story could possibly bring them thousands." Well... the problem is how do you know something is genuine? This seems like a pretty big task, and I think some users just dont care, or wont put in the work to find out while there are others who care a great deal. Some posts that are good wont get the upvotes they deserve, while some that are fake or not good will go big just because a whale upvoted them early on and others just follow along for the sp.
You cannot catch them all but you can of course make people understand what kind of content has its place and what not. These half naked girls content definetely encourage scammers to make double/triple accounts and try themselves until one of them succeed! But I am not saying these content should not be allowed, but introducing your self half naked in the #introduceyourself section is a way to seek earnings via seduction and in my opinion that's not an appropriate way of contributing.
I really beg to differ and i think its users and not the platform who ought to make the distinction between good content a crap
Its it fake or real? Unless something like , for example , soliciting funds or asking users to do anything in real life , it doesent matter
It its really not about whether an history is 100% true to the record but how about how compelling and interesting its the content to readers
Even if the post is completely a work of the author imagination they took their time in writing a story and the users liked it
I believe introduction posts and the like are friendly way for new users to get going on the community and start metting people and besides steemit can not really start enforcing content restrictions , the community
If people like crap let them have the crap , its all about the vote of community , but i ensure there is more people that like quality content that people that like crap
Besides you understimate how hard is to tell a intro post apart , a tremendous waste of development effort
And first doesent even have to be intro
Second option is really counter productive , inagine that i made 10$ on a post with quality content, and it got upvoted and shared lot , and i suspect i hit the limit and could earn a lot more , now i have to quickly produce content to raise my limit before that post falls of trending
It will be absolute crap
In the end we should we make effort as a communitu rather that relying on a piece of code to take care of our problems
You are right it comes to community mentality and self moderation, but in my opinion if we could establish a temporary "solution 2" just to send a cold shower on these scammers, I am pretty sure we could see a lot less fake introduceyourself post in the long term. You know just enough to get them discouraged from doing it and actually going back to work on their main account for a while because lately it has been ridiculously hot!
please read my other post. the problem will just fade away. you are not seeing the big picture here because you are frustrated and think its unfair.
i believe in steemit, and i am sure that money talk, bullshit walks applies here.
so the community will soon realized right /wrong and we are not stupid, after the 100s introductory posts, these posts wont get so many votings soon. everything new will generate some buzz, but that will fade away eventually, and in the end quality will be king...
you have a good sense for writing the right posts. this one will earn you another 5k or so. congratulation on that!! keep them coming, and dont worry about you earning not enough because of these spammers.
Interesting, but at this point i think its way too early to start governing the platform. More importantly at this moment, the platform has to scale better, so 100.000+ people can join immediately.
You dont have to put any new systems in place. If there is a celebrity or someone with 100K+ followers, they already have a Facebook account.
So very easy solution, if i signup as LL COOL J, i have to use that official Facebook account, which is very easy to verify. No need for extra verification through Steemit, as Facebook already did that.
Now for KYC/ AML purposes, oneday Steemit will have to implement limits on how much you can send in and out. At the moment you can just circle money around without any limits on Steemit, so that wont last long from market regulator Standpoints (i dont know which platform is white-labelled for the wallets inside, but i am pretty sure, that withdrawals with more than 2500 Euro have to be governed according to the PSD (Payment Service Directive in Europe and the SEC will someday knock on Steemits door)
I totally disagree with your reputation system. My posts which earned 5000$ would only have earned me 50$ in your example
https://steemit.com/steemit/@knozaki2015/steemit-has-insane-numbers-check-this-out
(i would have left the platform already, if that post only got 50 $ instead of 5000%, because i have to earn 50 $ first...)
i think i had only earned 10$ until this point...
So let the admins and team figure out whats best for the platform, i know that you meant good, but you are trying to capitalize on this issue and earn some money out of it (because its your second post on this already...)
and you earned a lot money from the first post, so now you are trying to squeeze out even more money.
i still have upvoted you, as this thing you are addressing will have to be dealt with in the near future! (and i rather give you the upvote, than some fake big boob chick =:) my upvote just has net you 35$
https://steemit.com/steemit/@knozaki2015/my-upvote-was-worth-5-06-usd-25300-or-how-to-earn-the-maximum-curation-reward
If you earn 5000 an article then good for you but my solution is referencing to newcomers. Any newcomer would welcome 50$ for introducing himself properly and then grow his rep from there. We early bird and crypto maniacs have shaped seemit in what it is but right now we need to act in a way that it won't be really rewarding to try and cheat the system with new accounts. The whole point of maxing the first post earning for new members at 50$ is because we clearly know the kind of post that does the most on seemit are intro and often these scammers have an official account and all they can do is qui these double triple accounts since they would only lose their time making them. I am writing from my cellphone sorry if I'm hard to understand!
i still disagree, you only see the current system with 25000 users. if we have 100.000 users, the rewards will be 1/4 of now. yes you may have 4x the users, but you will have 4x the introductions. so the rewards will go down. there wont be 3000$ for a introduction post, the average earnings go down to 800-1000 if the usernumbers change.
so you are addressing a solution to a problem which is only in place because there is limited numbers of people here.
the only problem which has to be addressed is, if people use celebrity accounts and get huge amounts of money through these fake accounts.
What you don't seem to factor is the steem price with a user base of 100 000 will skyrocket. The biggest asset of a social network is the user base so yes if we reach 100k the demand for steem power will become bigger and your steem power you hold now will be worth a lot more knowing how hard it will be to earn.
well, i dont think the price will be affected too much if the numbers go to 100.000.
if we reach 1million, yes , but a lot is already factored into the p rice of 3$ atm for steem.
still, content is content, and if the majority decides a intro is worth 5000$ , than be it, that person still made a good intro, even if it was fake.
i still believe it will work out in the future, for example now the liquidity rewards are going away as people gambled the system. i think the steemit team will make the right decisions
Wait, so you actually think that article of yours was worth 5 grand, and you'd walk if you hadn't gotten it? Is that what you're really saying here? Fifty dollars seems way more reasonable for a 200 word article with borrowed assets.
well, i mean i would have walked if i only got 50 $ instead of 5000$, because i didn't earn enough before that and than the platform cuts my earnings by 99%. that would be totally DE-motivating
i see you haven't posted a single post yourself. you dont know how hard i tried, and how happy i was when i hit that successful post.
the cool thing is, that everbody can earn a unlimited number of $ here, and you might think my article was worth only 50$, but the majority of the users did not agree and voted me up, so that post earned 5000$. the result was, that i told everybody about it, and 30 friends already signed up for steemit, and i am trying everyday to write quality content for the steemit platform.
so please bring something to the platform yourself, before you come here and try cap the earnings of people who are really trying to bring value to the platform.
i am sorry but i cant see 0 value you are bringing steemit now, having posted 0 articles yourself .
I curate, which I submit is far more valuable given the amount of referral/affiliate garbage, catfishing, and scams that end up on here. It's a different job, but it's one that is desperately needed. Without curators no one but your 30 friends would have seen your post.
"i am sorry but i cant see 0 value you are bringing steemit now" I can't tell what this sentence means. Work on that.
Also, if everybody earns unlimited money, what worth does money have? None.
This is the dark side of freedom and this is the dark side of creation. Not everyone comes here for the same reasons. Not everyone will do what I would want them to do and create what I would want them to create, when they are free. This is an effect of true freedom. I believe in Steemit, I enjoy that I might make money here. I like when games have rules that even the odds, I also understand that fairness is impossible to manage and simultaneously meet everyone's hopes/expectations. My personal goal is to bring my integrity to the community as best as I can. It will be a little different each time, this is an adventure and the experiment is not guaranted any results.
I am falling in love with this site and like anything it is flawed. I get frustrated at the $5000 boob post, but also get stoked at the $20,000 slack fix post. This drama is fun.
To Steem or not to Steem? Why not, is the only answer.
totally agree.
we should not start censoring posts here, as the platform is young, unique and will adjust itself.
the more users, the more people getting rewards. the daily rewards are not going up, its always cupped at 170.000$ i think. so it will be even harder to get high rewards in the future.
Best comment
Thank you!
Nicely written! But do you think implanting solution number two would go against the freedom of steemians? It is not intended to be forever. But having a community so small that we can hardly spot real or fakes among all the possible people in the world that doesn't use the platform is troublesome right now. We can make some temporary implantation of a system that would not go against the freedom of use but rather go and discourage fake accounts. What do you think?
i still think it doesn't matter, everyday 1000 new people are coming into steem. so in 30 days, that problem will be non-existent, as the reward for each post will be split through 60.000 people. than everypost will earn 50% of the amount it would earn today...
If we want to stop the titsNtravel we need a feminazi SJW bot in here or to switch our demographics to people who don't like that sort of content.
We're mostly men. We're upvoting these things cuz our inner 16 year old is like this...
My favorite part about all this is how when some bimbo's boobs are fully verified, then that's cool with everyone, she can have the few thousand.
She really deserves it, look at those boobs.
But when it's an impostor, and most likely some lowest caste male who dwells in his mom's garage, all of a sudden it's a horrible injustice, how dare he post pics that are not even him and gather the sperm whale cash???
Our community's got a few things to learn from 4chan...
Remember that the pics & articles that get posted in both cases are identical, and it's not like there's a great shortage of bimbo selfies on the Internet right now. So what fuckin' difference does it make if she's verified boobs or unverified boobs? You're still vulnerable to the exploit, and still refuse to acknowledge what it truly is.
I am sure your not referring to my text since I do not encourage upvoting of verified bimbo's and I wouldn't go as far as that qualify the link i related to in the article. I don't mind if there is a proper section for this kind of pictures in a presentation where any kind of nudity from moderate to extravagance can be classified. If there is a community out there that enjoy these kind of post then let's not allow these kind of post to be shown in a popular thread like introduceyourself where its mainly intended to introduce and not seduce in order to earn.
It was meant in general, don't sweat it bud. Good analysis, I'm especially charmed by the idea of bimbos graded and tagged neatly, in various states of undress.
I've been thinking about exactly this and I think it's because Steemit values honesty, which is heart-melting to this idealist. A lovely young woman, especially when she's not totally boobs-out, but just happy and healthy, is a delight without trying--as so many people are. But someone who thinks we'll upvote tits is sneering at us. Even if they're right, what they're doing isn't participating. Unless, and this is where it does get fuzzy, as you say, they're hers and she's just like that. It's honesty or immaturity at worst in one case, something utterly foul in the other.
BTW, I checked out and upvoted the article you linked. I love it! You're so right that the phenomenon is sad. So sad!
I think numbers of posts must be limited to 5 or 6 per day, that way spammers can't spam any more also steemit must have more advertising and must be shared by members, that way people will come to steemit some of them will invest money and don't loose time in posting , so we will have more whales.
That's been done. As of the update a couple days ago, you're soft-limited to 4 posts per day.
You can't limit the number of post but after a big intro usually a scammer doesnt have much to add. He cant be doing 2 intro that would look just too suspicious.
you're right, I saw a girl introduce her self 5 time with the same article , copied content must be deleted or down-voted 10 or 15 times immediately too
I might be making big accusation but I believe ridiculous looking post that get ridiculously high reward are double triple account from whales who wish to spread the steem power within their small circle in order to avoid giving power to other people in the community. I have seen so many good writers being ignored and the main problem here is, it only takes 1 upvote to give exposure to a shitty or scaming article above any other articles.
Yeah true, congratulation first for the success of this post, it worth more, about spammers I think they will not stay long time , they will get nothing because most of members know them and no body is gonna vote for them