RE: 100 DAYS OF STEEM : Day 33 - Tackling Abuse on Steem - Part I - What is Abuse?
Suppose we decide that witnesses should deal with abuse. Recent events have shown that witnesses can easily be drawn to either side and cannot be objective. They have their own agendas and can be swayed.
Suppose steemit.inc or any other high stakeholder decides to become a judge and fight abuse. The amount of research needed for each case in order to justify actions would be overwhelming. It cannot be done automatically, so there must be active human users doing the research. For how long and with what return?
Suppose we finally agree on defining what is abuse and we use downvotes to reduce the rewards of such posts & comments. The abusers also have downvotes and might as well use their own downvotes as retaliation.
Suppose we decide to block users that are considered abusers. For how long? Do they have a chance to make amends? What about their stake? They might have bought it, and it has a financial value anyway, right? Can their stake be frozen? Are there any applicable legal rights? Can they withdraw their stake and sell it? Can they transfer it to other accounts?
Maybe it is time to realize that the so-called "decentralized" chains cannot really work? At lest with the current implementation?
In Copenhagen in 1971 a free hippie city was made on an old military base in the middle of the city. After a short while a part of the population was criminal biker gangs. The place is still there (Christiania) and it has had its ups and downs, but it is a place that has value for the city of Copenhagen. I think what has happened there is what happens everywhere in all society. I have taken part in some of the community driven anti-abuse here on Steemit and I think it works except that it does not have much power. Centralising without true democracy is not my cup of tea. Having stake holders deciding is not really my cup of tea either. I think that communities can work, because they have done so since the Sumerians, but in the end it is about power and how it is distributed. Democracy is still the best thing, even though it is not perfect...
Until of course when reality breaks and the old Gods take charge...
Exactly, it's the distribution of power that matters; and in our case, this power means financial gains too. It's the devil's work, I tell you! Seriously, money & power can corrupt anyone & anything. Hypocricy & double standards are all over the place lately (here & on the other chain, too). I have lost faith in the good will of individuals, I think that anyone that speaks about idealism and integrity will do the exact opposite when it seems that there is an opportunity to gain more power/money.
Yes, it's a mirror of most real societies ... but a virtual society built from scratch, should be able to expell the bad things of reality and build on things that are beneficial to everyone, right? So, what are we building with STEEM or HIVE? Thousands of small minnows going in circles around a bunch of powerful whales, waiting for the left-overs of their party? How is that freedom, liberation, a new opportunity, a chance for greatness, revolutionary, etc,etc? It's just reality with all its problems, copy/pasted.
Yes, no disagreement there. I must admit that I saw corruption here from the very start, but I also saw some rather good (and at the time reasonably wealthy user because they had been here from the start) citizens, especially while I helped out finding plagiarism.
But just seeing how Dan and Ned was treated by many as if they were Marx and Lenin at a Red Square parade showed what money and power does to the majority of people. These guys had their buts licked red and sore.