Is flagging censorship?
Is flagging censorship? I know that in previous posts I have referred to flagging as censorship, but then I stopped to think about it for a bit.
Censoring is removing or deleting data so that it cannot be seen by others. See Merriam-Webster's definition:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/censoring
What happens when you flag a post? It is the following:
- A little red flag appears on the right hand side.
- The post may become grayed out and images will not be displayed, making the post somewhat less visible.
- If the reputation of the flagger is higher than that of the poster, then the poster will take a hit to reputation proportional to the steem power of the flagger.
- The money that post might make is reduced by an amount depending on the steem power of the flagger.
Let's take a look at each one of these and see if it amounts to censorship.
First, the flag icon, whether it's red or clear with some number in it. This does nothing to censor the post. It doesn't delete the post or any of it's contents, if anything, the flag icon might help the post, giving it an edgy air making the post seem more interesting and enticing the viewer to read it.
For the second point, the graying out of the text and hiding of pictures is purely a function of the interface. Steemit.com is only one interface into the underlying block chain. There are other interfaces now, and more can and will be made later. For example, one could write "Pornit.com" which takes all the "nsfw" posts and makes them very viewable, regardless of whether the post was flagged, or making money, or the poster had a low rep.
If you take a look at steemd.com, you'll see that all comments and posts are equally visible, regardless of their status. Even links to the "hidden" images can be seen, and the images viewed by those who really want to.
On the third item, yes the effect on reputation is very real, and it's a part of the block chain. It is good to have a higher rep and I'd hate to lose it,....but again, what does a low rep do? The posts and comments of a negative rep user become much less visible. Their posts become grayed out by default and their comments are hidden. Like I've said above, this is purely a function of the steemit.com interface. Another interface could be written such that all posts and comments are equally visible, and again, you can see this in steemd.com.
The final point concerns money. Yes, flagging will reduce the money that a post makes, and this is fundamental to the block chain. Using different interfaces doesn't change this, if your post gets flagged, it will be making less or possibly no money at all. While losing money is bad and may deter some posters, is this really the same thing as censorship?
If you think denying money to a post is censorship, then I guess every post made on reddit.com is censored. The reddit system does not award any posts or comments with money, so all the material on reddit must be censored, if one used this logic. Clearly this is a silly path to take, denying funds to a post isn't censorship, and if your only goal was to get the word out, then having your post flagged shouldn't be a deterrent.
Conclusion: flagging isn't censorship.
I'm not saying having your posts and comments flagged is a good thing, and I don't want it to happen to me, but don't call it censorship, just call it..well.. flagging.
Flagging is not censorship. Just people's opinions.
Yes IMO, flagging is censorship. The important question to ask is, is all censorship bad? The answer to that IMO is no, some things should be censored (eg. plagiarism). There is a reason reddit has moderators, and that is because with out them the conversations are filled up with a plethora of filth, that if you are not a mod, you don't often get to see. (I have comment editing in r/science and you might be shocked the kind of stuff people post in there that the mods deal with. Racist, and often times vicious personal attacks against others and authors of discussed papers are common.)
I do agree that flagging can be useful to discourage bad behavior and I'll continue doing a bit of it myself to help out the steemit system.
Everyone should be ready and willing to flag plagiarism at the very least. Allowing plagiarized content to flourish on a website where information is recorded permanently in a blockchain, is just asking for problems for the platform down the road. Those sorts of posts open steemit up to lawsuits.
you are not helping the steemint comunity if you are flagging people just becaue you disagree with there post. we need the free market of ideas not some wattered down version of what one person thinks is right or wrong. what you disagree with others might agree with. by flagging them insted of having a contructive conversation does no good for anyone. when someone has been flagged by another basically because the flagger disagrees with the person it doesnot help anyone, not the site, not the community, not the flagger or the flagged. it only adds to the information out online that is growing by the day saying steemit is controled by the snowfakes that flagg you till your a -1 ghosts and no longer can make posts that are visible or upvote stuff if you say something they dont like. i am still waiting for you to remove the flaggs you made on my comment that said "anything over hillary". it is wrong for you and your other friend to go out of your way to flagg people that you disagree with politicaly. does not help the community grow and if anything it is making people leave on the daily that actually contribute more to this comunity then posts about makeup, gender, or any of the other crap this gets crazy upvotes with no value whtsoever to the comunnity or the people on steemit. the only reason people are coming here (myself included) is because this site is advertised as a place where you cant be cencored. this place is more cencored then facebook and twitter combined. i have already had a friend turned into a ghost because someone disagreeded with his opinion and he will prolly never come back to this site. he has been gitting alot of attention online sharring his eperience about steemit. i know more people then i can count on one hand that have told me they will never join because of it and tbh i dont really blame them after finding out about how the community treat people they disagree with. i hope the flagging of opinions that people disagree with stops. it is better to respond with facts on why that person is wrong. without the open exchange of ideas you will turn this into another echo chamber. just my opinion. please unflagg my post that you and your friend flagged yesterday for no reason besides you disagree with me politically. thanx and have a good day.
I don't know what you are talking about. I don't flag posts just because I disagree with them. I also don't remember flagging anything of yours, if you can provide me with a link I can review it.
You can apparently also flag a comment by mistake, harder to do it with a post, but not impossible. Happened to one of my comments earlier today and I was really wondering why did it get a downvote, so I've asked and got a reply that it was a mistake. Good thing that you can retract your vote and fix mistakes like that and that goes not only for downvotes, but for upvotes as well.
I have also received what should be considered a revenge downvote from people that I have accused with a comment for trying to post fake information and pretend they are somebody else here on steemit. This is enough of a confession for me to return the "favor" and flag them back. So no censorship here, just getting rid of the posts and users that have no place on steemit for an adequate reason.
Now, it is also possible that somebody can purchase a lot of Steem, turn it into Steem Power and start abusing his enormous voting power as a tool for revenge against somebody else or against steemit for some reason. That can actually be a real problem...
I guess that some people are concerned, because steemit is being promoted as no censorship social media among other features. That however does not mean that anything should be allowed, SPAM for example has no place or fake people trying to cheat users and run away with some money if they manage to.
If someone purchases a large sum of steempower, this raises the price of steem and helps Steemit, in the short run at least. This person will find themselves heavily invested in Steemit and likely their attitude would change. Is it possible for a stupid millionaire to buy up a lot of Steem just to trash it? I suppose this is possible but it seems unlikely.
Somebody could also spend a lot of money ruining someones life in real life though.. No getting around that.
When you flag someone based on your beliefs or morals in order to make their content less visible you are censoring them. It affects not only the post your are flagging but all other posts if you drop their rep down low enough.
I feel like you didn't read my post.
I read it and strongly disagree with it.
Yes flaggin is censorship and it seems that i got a parade going on. imagine 2-3 whales to monopolise their ideas and flag everyone else.
this is what happened with anarchism in Steemit
https://steemit.com/anarchism/@kyriacos/reclaiming-anarchy-from-bullshiters-a-response-to-the-lies-of-sterlinluxan
For what its worth, I tried to defend your post.
I don't think you can judge whether flagging is or is not censorship unless you actually have experienced it - @neoxian - I have experienced it - twice now - once because a whale liked my post and upvoted it to $300 and then another whale or dophin did not agree and downvoted it to $200 - it was a matter of opinion - why do I - a minnow- have to get tossed about on the open sea by other sea mammals - ? Next I wrote a post yesterday which was downvoted and therefore grayed out in less than 4 hours so it then became UNAVAILABLE to be seen- it did not have an plaigerism in it - it did not attack anyone - it is a sensitive and controversial topic but it had factual evidence to back my claim - so ... someone came along and flagged it and it became unviewable? I was at work and my old phone can't write steemit posts - so - I had to wait 8 hours to figure out what was going on - THAT is censorship - I rewrote the article and added artwork and reposted it - and changed the tags - but still - others and I feel that the flaggers - who, in this case, did not comment on why they flagged - were not penalized in anyway - for flagging ... this is uncool - because if we were face-to-face this would be the same as the wild, wild west in which someone just shot me because they did not like how I look. I thought this place was supposed to be different - an actual anarchy - ? How is my post harming, trespassing, stealing, murdering or raping another?