Fighting Spam & Low Quality Content Together. Part 1: What Do You Think Is Spam
I guess we've all noticed: SteemIt is being overwhelmed by posts and comments that are either spam, plagiarism or just plain crap...
I Need Your Help
During the last week, I have been discussing the huge amount of low-quality and/or spam content & comments that are overtaking SteemIt at the moment.
I think I have an idea that might turn this around, or at least reduce it, but I need your help to realize this. Maybe it won't have any effect at all, but then at least we can say that we have tried,
Now, before I can go on working out the idea I have, I need to have a clear idea of what is considered as low-quality or spam content/comments by other people. Of course there is a definition, but I still assume everyone fills it in differently.
My Questions To You
That's why I'd like to hear from you:
1. What you personally consider as spam or low-quality.
2. What you think is plagiarism, and what is not. (For example: opinions are divided whether posting YouTube videos can be considered as (self-)plagiarism or not.
With these questions, I'm targeting the people I've been talking about this earlier this week, like @bullishmoney, @anthonyadavisii, @valth, @sebastianic, @xwarrioryz, @saltaire, @jhonny1, @katharsisdrill.
But I'm targeting YOU TOO!
I think everyone's insights are important.
In order to set up the 'anti-spam' campaign I have been thinking about, I need to be able to define 'spam', 'low-quality content' and '(self-)plagiarism' as complete as I can.
Feel free to resteem this post, or tag fellow Steemians of whom you think they can and want to contribute.
Images Source: Pixabay
@mike314-0005 First of all I would like to thank you for this great step. Hope it will succeed.
I'm here in this community for just five days. I noticed some of the things that are irritating and felt like spam.I'm listing those out.
And there are many more yet to be mentioned.
The thing that's annoying me most is people treating it as money-maker more rather than the community.
Thanks.
Thanks for hour input. The list is long indeed :-(
Yeah.... Hope we will make this community clean from spammers
I think people who are using Steemit as more of a blog (either about traveling, music, etc.) are probably the less spammy ones.
The most spammy ones are the ones that exist purely as re-steemits or those asking for votes.
I agree, but some re-steemit accounts can be good if they are not just resteeming any profitable post. If someone has similar ideas/interests to me I would like them to re-steem the content they like, as there's a good chance I/others may like it. It also helps to expand visibility for new, quality content creators who just need a little help getting noticed.
That's a totally valid point. I suppose it just boils down to intent. Are you sharing/blogging/etc to make money as a priority? If so, and it's blatantly obvious, then your content may be cheapened by that fact. Though knowing this doesn't necessarily add anything toward this article's intention, which is stopping spam. The fact is, you're not going to stop spam. That's not saying you shouldn't try though. If you hate spam/clickbait/etc then simply don't participate in its circlejerk!
That is exactly what I’m trying to accomplish. If you take around, a lot of those spammy/low quality posts get loads of upvotes, giving the creators no Reason to change their ways. If everybody would stop upvoting those posts, spamming wouldn’t be profitable anymore...
I agree. I used some Resteem services to make sure this post would reach as many people as possible
I think the worst spam comments are obviously vote-begging.
Absolutely agree. I don't understand how people are OK with themselves asking for updates/resteems, or offering to trade. This does not propagate good content.
All they need to do is actually engage in conversations and most people will naturally upvote the comments they interact with. The last thing I want to do for someone vote-begging (or offering vote/restreem trading) is give them a vote - more likely I'll just drop a flag and move on.
I agree. Unfortunately there are many of them
U so rite I luv reading wat u right! plz upvote me I follow4follow all
A spam to me is when you post a stuff that don't make sense at all. You would just thought like "ok, is that it?". I hope everyone's goal is to inspire people about their creativity, life lessons, or anything that you can get a good benefit from the post. Not merely through upvoting, but just simply an inspiration of our purpose here on earth. I hope I make sense. Lol. I can't really explain my thoughts very well. But I hope you know what I mean. Haha
I am very new to this community. All I know is I tried to search for art or photography on the search tab and the results were not satisfying. The content should be "real"
What do you mean by ‘real’?
Does the search bring up results that don’t fit the categories?
In my own opinion, anything said by a bot is spam. No matter what it is. Also, comments that have nothing to do with the post are spam. Plagiarism is posting something you did not make without proper credit. if you just post a video you found on YouTube with nothing else, that is plagiarism. People who do this should lose rep due to flagging from people who hunger for quality and original content.
I couldn’t agree more on your statement about plagiarism. A YouTube video can contain very good info. It takes 1 minute to copy and paste, why not spend another 5 minutes writing an intro or an explanation why you choose to post that specific video. That would still take only 6 minutes... My posts never take leds than an hour to write...
Comments that ask for upvotes in a round about way really annoy me. An example would be someone saying “I gave you an upvote, do you hear” or “I gave you some lovin, how about some back” these people are obviously trying to hide their intentions from the Steemit system or from bots that look for people asking for upvotes. These people always worry me as it makes me feel like if I don’t upvote them they may be the type of person that would flag my content out of spite for not giving them an upvote. And if I was to flag them I worry they will attack my content by flagging it all. On the other hand I don’t mind if someone has entered a competition and simply suggests that if someone really enjoys their work then a vote would be much appreciated. I think there’s a big difference between the two. But how to track down the people in the first category with a bot, I’m stumped. It may have to be manually done by reporting them to a specified account so their comment can be checked out by a human. I’ve only been on this platform for less than a week and I’ve had people ask for an upvote in a round about way twice now but they don’t use the word upvote.
I also think that new people to the platform who have been here for under a week or two may either need to be cut a bit of slack for not knowing all the rules yet so maybe a warning system would be better as that would educate them on the dos and donts. Perhaps a bot could be created where people report others who are trying to get around the system by asking for upvotes without mentioning the words upvote or vote. Then the bot could send them a warning and action is only taken if people continue to be reported to the bot for continuing to flout the rules. I have no knowledge of how bots work so don’t know if it’s possible but maybe someone more knowledgeable than me could work a reporting system out. I’d have a couple of people to report straight away. As I mentioned I’m too scared to flag them as their passive aggressive comments make me feel I’ll be attacked if I do. Thanks for your post and efforts to uphold community standards
I’m not around long enough to know if using a bot would be possible. Those comments are always different, so I don’t think it’s possible to detect them.
I don’t flag either. Mainly because I don’t know if I should or shouldn’t (must look that up). The chance that the commenter would take this personal and starts a flagging war does exist.
Plus, if I had to flag every post that is spam, plagiarism and every comment that has nothing to do with the topic of the post or is just a beg for an upvote, I’d probably be flagging all day long, spending all my precious voting power.
I’ve read a couple of articles and it is still not entirely clear to me when to use a flag and when not to use a flag
( @domcrypto : I’ve read your article about SteemIt an flagging, may I ask if you could give us a clear view in what to flag or not)
My main idea is to raise awareness about simply not upvoting those kinds of posts or comments - when people notice they’re not earning a single cent that way, they will either burn up their account or have to change their ways and start using tactics that do work, like not spamming and posting valuable upvotes. At least, that’s what I hope...
About newbies and rookie mistakes:
In my opinion, SteemIt lacks a good initiation for newbies. There’s a lot of info around, but you have to go look for it yourself. People should be educated about what to do or not to do, before they can get loose on SteemIt (like some ‘training classes’ or something... )I don’t know... There should be an easy to find, straightforward and to the point ‘how to’ guide provided by SteemIt itself. I think users should be taught how to use the platform properly before they can get started. If nothing changes and the number of users keeps growing as fast or even faster than it is at this very moment, I’m afraid SteemIt won’t survive
I agree, in my short time on Steemit it has become quite obvious that a lot of people have got the wrong idea about Steemit and how to make it work for them. For example, I have been followed by a couple of people who have a lot of followers and are following a lot of people but they have posted no content and have made no comments on other people’s posts. It looks like they think just having lots of followers will benefit them without having to post quality content or any content or comments for that matter. The FAQ is a very good guide but doesn’t go far enough in some areas. I do think however that some people don’t read it. A bit like how a lot of people don’t read the instructions when they buy a new gadget
True, unfortunately
I agree with @slacktmusic. Facebook-like posts are not spam. In fact it can contribute to the success of steemit due to the popularity and the accessibility for a greater public. It would be nice if the social part could be more separated from the quality content. The only thing I worry about is that it won't be easy to separate both things because sometimes interpretation is the only thing that separates them both. And some authors of quality content won't think it's fair to give the Facebook-like authors the same rewards. Before you know, an endless debate about this can come with possible consequences for the platforms reputation. I think it is up to the platform developers and administrators to make some decisions about what should be allowed or not.
Completely agreed. Some clear, to the point guidelines of what can be tolerated and what can not be tolerated should be provided by the platform owners.
The fact that I need to ask the question what other people consider to be spam is a good illustration to that.
If it would be stated clearly, there would be no need for such questions
I'm fairly new to steemit and used to be a high school English teacher . Now, I'm no expert, but to me plagiarism is anything that is not your own words, or if you don't give credit to the source of your "words". Technically, posting a YouTube video isn't necessarily plagiarism if you quoted the source; but is it quality content? Possibly. Possibly not. That's where it gets pretty subjective...to me a post may scream quality, to others maybe not. I'm a firm believer in getting rid of those begging for upvotes..that one is pretty clear to me. I have dabbled in the 'upvoting bots' simply to see what they do. But I must admit, it felt kind of 'icky' :), but let's face it, there are people here whose sole interest is making money. Who's to say if that is wrong or not as long as they are posting quality, informative work? I love the idea of resteeming good posts or contests etc that you want to spread around. That's kind of the whole purpose here isn't it? to share with our community? After re-reading my comment here, and others, it seems like the only clear irritant is ridding steemit of the 'upvote beggars' :) Cheers!
I agree when you say that the idea of what is ’quality content’ is different for everybody.
YouTube videos can contain loads of quality information, but I’m against copy/pasting videos without bothering to give credit to the creator and at least spend a couple of minutes personalizing the post with a short intro, or a review or something like that.
It’s obvious the ‘beggers’ are the ones that irritate people the most. Those posts are spam without any doubt, whatever your definition of spam is. Actually that was not really the answer I was looking for, since it’s so obvious :-)
Those people will also not be affectief by spreading the message not to upvote spam, Since they don’t get any upvotes anyway
Nice idea
it's actually the truth,most works are not original