Does @pfunk get to abuse his power?
Yesterday’s Steemit Ramble dealt largely with the subject of plagiarism. I’m not much impressed with plagiarism when it’s proven and I felt it was an important subject to cover.
The Plagiarism Links
I provided links to the posts that I had seen take place on the matter including those by @klye and @pfunk as well as the perpetrator’s post of apology. I later found a post he did showing that he had reached out to the artist he had wronged and another post showing the artist’s response.
I’ll include links to both posts in todays Steemit Ramble.
An Important Lesson Learned
Overall, I think a young man learned a very important lesson. It does appear, the community is willing to forgive him. They may not forget for a while, and he may come under closer scrutiny but life on Steemit will move on for him.
Then I Moved On
When I moved away from the plagiarism the next post I shared was one written by @tanata, it was about Steemit and upbeat. I took a second look at the graphics and saw they were likely done by her so I went ahead and shared the link and my comments.
I finished the rest of my ramble and posted it yesterday afternoon. Later on I received a comment from @pfunk:
His initial comment concerned me, I do my best to avoid suspicious posts when sharing links to favourite reads on the ramble. So I asked if there was a problem with her post. As you can see, by @pfunk’s own admission, no, the post was not plagiarize nor had she done any on that account.
@pfunk Was Out of Line
The more I thought about it, the more I was rather displeased with @pfunk’s comments.
I don’t know a whole lot about him. On this platform, we really don’t know much about anyone if they don’t choose to share. I have observed him and others in the #steemitabuse-classic channel on Steem Chat. I’ve notice he has a tendency to be a bullheaded dog with a bone, so his behaviour shouldn’t have surprised me. That doesn’t make it right or appropriate.
Who is to say this high reputation member of the community couldn’t just choose to show up on any post and make comment claiming a link between a perfectly legitimate poster and other alleged plagiarists? There is nothing to stop him really.
The person he makes his allegations about is placed in the position of needing to defend him/herself or take the chance that others in the community will believe the high reputation person and trying to impose consequences. Then what does the person do? It's called bullying in my book.
Insulting Behaviour
His uncalled for comment was rather akin to walking into my home and insulting a guest who was doing nothing wrong. He was out of line and from his responses to me, he considered himself entitled to spew his crap.
With power, comes responsibility. His comments were irresponsible and insulting. They were an abuse of power.
Trotting Out the Flag
Oh, he rather magnanimously told me if I didn’t like his comment I could flag it. He promised he’d not revenge flag or be upset. With that, he went from insulting to arrogant. He knows full well with my reputation level that me flagging him is the equivalent to a flea biting an elephant.
High Reputation Holder’s Behaviour
One of the questions raised over @jpiper’s conduct was when a person with high reputation does wrong how can the community express and impose their displeasure?
Appears to me, this question is legitimate and should be applied to several scenarios. Management aka @ned and @dantheman needs to give some serious thought about how to have a failsafe in place for situations where the community needs to deal with high reputation misbehaviour.
Your thoughts readers?
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If there are suspicious things the high rep people who are invested in Steemit point it out. I appreciate that is all I can say.
I don't think he was being insulting or accusatory. He just said what he saw and thought. So if you're concerned that his influence could damn your friend tanata I don't think anything there will until more proven (if anything is up with those accounts I mean: edit)
She's not actually my friend.. I don't know her from Adam. It's more that since the post in question was not plagiarized and he chose to bring in insinuation of plagiarism through guilt by association it sets a tone that is concerning. An attitude of 'I'll just toss out whatever accusation I feel like even if it doesn't apply.'
It might be good to take a step back and consider whether you are overreacting a little. In your post, you said
But your comment was actually:
Perhaps what you think you said is not what you actually said. You seemed to go rather quickly to name calling and accusations. What if you had responded simply by asking for more information? I am trying to say this in a kind way, and at the risk of creating further drama, which is not my purpose. I'm thinking about this post by sykochica that urges us to take drama and disagreements out of posts and over to chat and to have a mediation process on the platform.
What if you had simply observed that @pfunk was providing you with information you might want to pursue without jumping to the conclusion that he was out of line?
I already have stepped back and looked it over repeatedly. That is why it is a day later before doing this post. I stand by my initial query... He knew right up front that I didn't agree with his comment UNLESS she had already done something wrong with the post I had shared. If she had done wrong, she would have been immediately edited out of the post and I would have posted a comment to that effect on her post. He would have gotten thanked for his information. By his own admission she hadn't done anything wrong not only with that post, but on that account. So he wasn't providing me with anything but accusations and an expectation that I should take his accusation at face value... Thus my question... just because he has a high reputation.. does he get the right to make accusations like he did?