✪ Steemit Spammers - Cleanup Report #1 ✪ Thursday, 20th July, 2017
I've noticed that recently we are being flooded by spammers, disguised as regular users creeping our comment sections with useless comments such as "Nice post..." "Good info..." "Thank you..."
This is an issue that needs to be addressed as soon as possible, as it is a negative impact on the community here on Steemit. We have a lot of people working so hard on providing us with quality content, and to keep the platform clean, and it's just frustrating to see all of their hard work go to waste because of some individuals that think they can make an easy buck with absolutely no contribution to the community - it's time to stop them.
I want to start with an example I came across earlier today:
A post that was 4 minutes old at the time, with 3 comments from some God knows what users not even 1 minute after the post was created. This is just plain stupid, frustrating to see, and obnoxious - I mean come on ... expecting to hit the jackpot?
| @thaokhanh | @tranguyen | @wahjeeha12 |
|---|
None of these accounts even upvoted the content. I mean, how low can you sink... is this the community we want to be a part of?
NO - So that's why I decided t o sacrifice my voting power to flag them down - voting power that would have been used to help content creators - sad isn't it?
Now, how can we take this a step further and make sure we get rid of such spammers altogether? Shall we summon the power of @steemcleaners ? Maybe the awesome people behind @steemcleaners will notice these users and apply some punishments for them as well - in the meantime, feel free to jump on the boat and flag them when you see them.
I've also been a victim of such comments, on my own content. I cannot simply turn a blind eye and neither should you!
Starting my own blacklist:
Please let me know if you also came across these individuals, or others just like them so I can add them to my blacklist.
Thank you for keeping the community clean!
Thank you for keeping the community clean!
It has been like this since I can remember. All we can do is flag them into non-existence. I warn multiple times prior to a flag and only have had to flag on my personal post twice.
Awesome .gif btw. And yeah, I don't see any point in warning them. They know what they're doing and they're doing it on purpose.
Well done! We all should do the same
We should definitely increase the awareness until these users are flagged down to the point of being banned.
Followed upvoted and resteemed
Appreciate the support!
I agree that these spammers should be stopped. Probably the best solution is if the programmers define a rule that a reply to a post needs to have a minimum length, and cannot be identical to previous replies from that account, before allocating funds to that post.
Regarding @steemcleaners and other blacklist bots, I seriously feel that these should not be allowed as they are at the moment. Any automated system without control and transparency is a threat to what we're trying to accomplish here.
Another problem is that there are no really defined rules. There is an etiquette guide, which itself states
What I see happening is that downvoting bots and even members do not follow this guide. They have apparently come up with some other reason to downvote a post, but will not explain why a post is downvoted. Usually they say nothing at all, @steemcleaners leaves an automated reply which is completely useless.
And then we have a bot which will downvote and will downvote everything you do after that. They also claim other (automatic) upvotes will be automatically cancelled.
The biggest problem I have with this one is that they expect you to follow their rules for some time (which rules is unclear), and then pay to have your posts reviewed. And than you have to hope the problem is resolved.
To me this is a much greater threat to Steem and Steemit than automated reply bots.
As bad as you think @steemcleaners is, it's doing a good job of keeping your newsfeed clean, and the community clean as well. I'm sorry but I don't agree with you on that. My posts are also flagged by @cheetah almost every day, the daily posts I make, because they're similar in content to the ones before them, but that doesn't mean I have something against @cheetah - it's just a bot, it doesn't know any better - same for @steemvoters bot
I stand corrected. Apparently @steemcleaners is a collaboration of people, not a bot. So they should know better. Besides a bot is programmed by a person, if it does not function correctly, change it. But @cheetah works a bit differently as I just read up on. It does not downvote, only comments.
I have nothing against the effort of @steemcleaners, but I do not feel the newsfeed gets much cleaner by their effort. But then again I don't know what it would look like if they didn't exist.
In the feeds I get overwhelmed anyway, you normally can't see 10% of what's happening.
In my opinion a better solution is to give all members the same amount of downvote power. Make the "mute" button work, if it doesn't yet. And warn a member if they've reached a certain amount of downvotes (total number, not powered) or if they are really abusive. If they continue their behavior, you can make them invisible.
Let's not forget that while most members come via Steemit, and it costs them nothing, there are some that come via another way. They pay to be on the platform, disallowing them access to parts/income or removing them without warning breaks a whole bunch of laws.
Just my 2 cents. It is a shame there is no real place for discussions like this, we're at a point that can make or break Steemit.
Greetz.
I guess I do have to agree with your arguments in this case. I am sure that these issues are discussed by the people keeping the platform up and running, such as the witnesses or the devs, but obviously we minnows will not be able to join those discussions.
For now what we can do is try to clean up whatever we can, however we can, and however we see fit. Either flagging or warning, muting or reporting. Thank you for your feedback and for sharing your point of view - regardless if I agree or not, it is appreciated :)