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Disclaimer: By no way is this post reflecting a "side" that I am choosing and the intent is to create community discussion to a possible solution to some issues we currently face on Steemit.com

I was in the Steemit Community Discussions today hosted by @krnel and @sirlunchthehost(Head over to https://steemit.com/steemitcommunity/@krnel/steemit-community-discussions-podcast-002 to listen to the discussion.) and there was a conversation that was brought up about the downvoting attacks on a particular post. That made me think of suggestion a possible change to the "Flag" function on the platform. As a start to this topic, I thought suggesting that flagging should have a threshold of say 100 flags. Reaching the flag threshold does not do anything to a post. It will alert the community and witnesses that post requires attention. Only witnesses's flag can affect the post,reward, and the account's reputation.

Since anyone can run as a witness. It is up to the community of who they support in this manner.

Example:

Image was edited to depict changes to flagging system

Reaching the 100 Flags will call to witnesses to the post to decided these flags should hold sound, then the reputation and rewards for the post would be affected.

Building Structure

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I had a conversation with @krnel after the podcast about possibly making changes to the flagging system and he brought up something @dantheman mentioned before about a "committee" separate from witnesses, to review flagged posts and content. This would help set standards and structure for Steemit . Think of it like a consumer items, there is a structure for the FDA(Food and Drug Administration) to set standards to safeguard the masses. There were issues that rose as did the population, along with the economy and evolution of technology and social behavior before such a thing was established.

To protect ourselves from abuse of the system that includes voting automation, guilds, misleading and deceptive content, a "committee" type establishment could be a way to do it. It would be similar to what I was proposing with the witnesses being "the committee" but having a separate group to facilitate this area would be better. If a post were to get downvoted because of an abusive act, the "committee" would review it and negate the flags and the effects to reputation and rewards.

Most of us have good intentions and want to see the platform succeed. We understand that there is a need for quality content for others to value on Steemit. This is why we are seeing the issue with automated voting because how many people are actually voting on what they read? Many are just letting the automated voting earn curation rewards for themselves. Users are aware of this and more and more are not creating the VALUABLE content that they should because they feel the quality doesn't matter as long as there is a relevant post.

The Problems Of Monetary Value

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I think a lot of us forget the dynamics of this platform involves monetization of content to the user's and not from the user's like all the other platforms out there. The issue we have with creating something of value is that we as human beings sometimes value things too much and in harmful, self-destructive way.

We hear so many stories of people getting blackmailed, extorted, or robbed for their values. Money is usually the value most drive towards. With account value transparent to see, this can open a can of worms if others know your account value. Imagine everyone knew the exact amount you have in your bank account, wallet, or in your "safe" hiding place. When I say everyone, I mean even criminals, charity seekers, etc.

This brought me back to a TV show I saw before called "The Internet Ruined My Life" and I personally know people that have had similar situations happen to them.

Edit: apparently some users my experience some censorship trying to view the youtube video so here is another link to the same video. http://www.syfy.com/theinternetruinedmylife/videos/quotables
If neither work, you can read the articles from doing a search or take a look at these http://www.contactmusic.com/stephen-colbert/news/stephen-colbert
https://www.wired.com/2016/02/cancelcolbert-what-happened/

Now with the evolution of the internet, there is the growing problem of Identify theft and the risk of getting "doxed." If you aren't familiar with that term, it is when someone publishes private or identifying information about (a particular individual) on the Internet, typically with malicious intent. It can be helpful way to help the community gain information but it does more harm than good for our economic and social structures. It is a tough battle to fight censorship and I see retaliation can be a a way to censor a person. We should not let fear of retaliation prevent us from our right to truth and information.

One more suggestion I thought I might add was to remove the display of the dollar reward value from posts and have it displayed somewhere else like the wallet or on a separate site like steemd.com or busy.org that is for viewing the dollar value.
This is a tricky issue because this is what attracted us from one social media site to this one and the fact that money is involved has an overwhelming effect on social and individual human behavior.

Any feedback is welcome.

Thank You,
@bitcoinparadise

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