Dear Whales of Steemit: Please Use Your Influence Responsibly // Flagging Should Never Be Taken Lightly
Dear Whales of Steemit:
I know this might be hard for many of you to fathom, but some of us smaller Steemians actually need what money we can manage to earn on this platform. Not all of us have the ability to invest anything but our time and efforts into this platform. Some of us are actually on the verge of living in the streets.
So when I say that people's livelihoods could be at stake, please do not take that statement lightly.
When you are having problems with another Steemian, do not call for a flagging brigade.
Please, do not let Steemit turn into Reddit. As I have already said but will continue to put emphasis on: People's livelihoods could be at stake.
If you must make a post about a specific user or users, provide your side of the story, go ahead. But don't, I repeat, don't instruct your followers to take action. Don't hint at them that they should perform any act. No wink wink nudge nudge to get them to flag or harass the person or people you're having trouble with.
No matter how upset you may be, or how much you may dislike or even hate the person you have a problem with, flagging isn't the answer.
Flagging is only for actual violators, not to settle a score. If you don't like someone's content, don't upvote it, and move on. (I am referring to original content that may be shit but isn't spamming or plagiarizing. Spam and plagiarism should be flagged.)
If you are a whale, you can pretty easily destroy other Steemians by calling out for your followers to be a flagging brigade. Unfortunately, some of your members will blindly follow. But overall, I think calling for a flagging brigade says a lot more about you as a person than it does the person you're having an issue with.
I will say it again, you could significantly damage someone's livelihood.
With great influence comes great responsibility. If you want to genuinely contribute to Steemit and the Steemit community, and see it grow and be successful, you need to be responsible with your influence.
And if you consider yourself a professional in any sense of the word, calling for a flagging brigade is something you should never do. It's unprofessional.
Today, an extremely popular user with a massive following made a post calling for his followers to flag two users he was having trouble with. He called them trolls, but gave very little actual information about the situation other than "stalkers" and "trolls" and not much else.
Were they trolls? I honestly don't know. But seeing such an influential whale calling for his followers to mob two other users with flags made me feel extremely sick to my stomach. Regardless of whether or not they were trolls, what he did was wrong, irresponsible, and extremely unprofessional.
This is a user that presents a professional image in the financial wing of Steemit. I'm not gonna name him. Odds are you've already seen what happened, or you will soon enough. You probably already know who I'm talking about. There is no reason for me to name names.
How can we trust users that abuse their position of authority and high influence?
I can't trust someone to give me good advice when they behave in such a manner. What if I disagree with his advice in the future and voice it? Will he turn around and label me a troll and call for a flagging brigade to come down upon my head?
I have unfollowed that user. I've lost my respect for him, and I am left with unease and unable to trust them.
I am but one Steemian out of thousands. My unfollowing him won't make a damn bit of difference to him. And that's fine. It makes a difference to me.
Flagging isn't as effective as ignoring. If you flag someone, they can play the victim card and paint you as a bully. Not to mention they can always just start a new account, or multiple accounts and flag you right back.
But a flagging brigade does a lot more damage a lot faster. Which is what this post is about.
For sure. It hurts all involved. It's just bad all around.
I agree completely.
Which is why I felt the need to make this post.
I agree that flagging should be done responsibly, not just by whales, but by everyone in the community.
Although whales do have the biggest influence and impact, if every user is acting responsibly on it, soon enough individuals who call for flagging campaign would lose interest should they be acting alone and not receive support.
It is no different from government or a business taking away from a person his projected wage for the week. IF say this person is a drug dealer or his earnings are acquired illegally, then it is easy to understand the action. Taking away something from an honest worker, who has a challenging personality, is entirely a different story. Would we back up this robbery and take something away from this person too? Most likely, we won't.
It would be interesting to know what are the flagging guidelines each user follows. I for one have flagged just once, when I came about a sexually-suggestive comment on a mother/daughter photo posted by a user I follow. A totally wholesome photo which received a comment 'sexy photo like porn'.
I wonder if steemit can have a flag review or flag appeal. This would only work of course if steemit promotes a rigid set of guidlines on when flagging is acceptable.
A report on most flagged users and users most actively flagging would be helpful too. This will enable the community to have a quick look if the flagged user is deserving (again subjective for now) and will also broadcast those who may be overly exercising their flagging rights, if any.
For now, each of us should start with being conscious of effectively using flag. This little things says a lot about the kind of community steemit is.
You're pretty much saying everything I'm saying.
I agree that everyone should be careful with flagging. However, a smaller user calling for a downvote brigade is very likely to be completely ignored. A whale isn't. Especially because smaller users want the please the whales.
There are ways to appeal. @neoxian @steemcleaners
I don't believe that there should be reports of who gets flagged the most and who does the most flagging.
I do a lot of flagging. But I only flag posts that are violating things, almost entirely plagiarism and spam. I also report those users to @steemcleaners.
@neoxian has pretty good flagging guidelines, and many follow his lead. It's been a while since he posted them up, so I think Steemit needs a reminder.
Cool to know there is one. Will check this out, thanks!
Sure thing.
I've picked up on a lot of rivalries with different users. Some users make someone mad and that turns them into an enemy who flags them in return. I was surprised to see this when I got here but I see abuse of flags all the time for silly reasons. It's a shame.
That's not really what this came across as.
I know what you're talking about, and I have seen it myself, but this was...kinda different.
And it really is a damn shame.