How to be a Hypocritical Community Builder on Steemit

in #community6 years ago


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Like blockchain, innovation and growth hacking, "Community Building" is like a hype term I feel that had been used too liberally, mostly self-bestowed instead of being given. I’ve been called that too over the years at KICKSTART.MY, FuckupnightsKL, Mindvalley’s Project Renaissance and now Steemit’s very own TeamMalaysia. Frankly, I can’t really pinpoint what a community builder should be doing, because each of us comes with a different set of skills and background, and even different causes we wish to champion.

But I do know how to be a shitty "community builder” though, and sadly, a few of them has made their home on Steemit. Of course, this is just my personal observation, and not hitting on any particular self-proclaimed community builder. But then again, as the local Malaysian saying goes, “those who bite into the chillies will feel the spiciness.”


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Oh, and for easier reference, what’s the inverse of community building? Community Raping? Sure, let’s go with that.



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#1. Talk a Big Talk but Poor/No Results to Show

Somehow some community builder mistaken community building with big talking. Sure, all leaders will have their visions, and verbalising them is one of the way to rally support. What separate great leaders from the crappy ones, though, are the actions that echoes the words. Personally, though my mom was never called a community builder/leader, one thing she taught me had always been “If you need to cry out your achievements, then you haven’t achieve much.” Achievements just sound nicer when it’s acknowledged by the right parties, no?


#2. Words and Actions Just Don’t Match Up

Over the years, I’ve seen so many community rapers trying to appear all "mother teresa" about their charitable drives, somehow thinking by mentioning their support automatically makes them angelic. Well, I can’t fault them for needing to do that because as you know, an empty vessel do needs much filling up. :) Bragging about the causes they support is one thing, though I find their humble bragging over the top and borderline disgusting.

What makes it worst are those who rally support for donations, and NOT give a single cent. Not a single upvote even. They thought that no one will know about their non-contribution because it’s untraceable, but well, that brings us to the next point…


#3. Too Dumb to Realise the Leaving of Digital Footprints (or lack of…)

The beauty of technology, amplified even more by the blockchain, is the transparency of things. With every action and transaction recorded on the Steemit blockchain, or public chat logs for that matter, it is easier to track the actions of these community rapers. Interestingly, for the transparency they advocated about Steemit, they are being bitten in the ass by the same technology. Ironic or idiotic, only time will tell.

For example, with Steemit and her big bag of Steem Tools, we can track:

  • The number of upvotes given and received, so it's always interesting to see "community leaders" who keep their voting power at 100% without supporting any of their community members
  • The percentage of upvotes (not as fun to receive a “charitable” upvote of 0.1%, where the curation reward is practically non-existent)
  • The amount in the wallet (no excuse for saying no money to donate, because the message now can be “oh, you can’t even give a small percentage of your Steem or SBD for the charity you advocate so aggressively?")
  • Bitching about the very same initiatives that had supported them previously (Again, a quick look at Steemd.com can reveal the history of support and upvotes given, conveniently forgotten, of course.)


#4. Me-Me-Me in the Pretence of We-We-We

This is the utterly disgusting one, personally. I’ve seen community rapers charging admin and marketing costs for charity drives they started. Not to mention the lack of transparency on the cost and who got it. A true community leader will find ways to minimise or even zerorise the costs, so the maximum profits can be utilised by the causes, because when it comes to charity, every dollar counts.

Of course, they will try to justify by saying “Oh, I need to cover the cost of my time and effort, right?” Sure, and how true the justifications are can only be evaluated by themselves in the last moments before they call it a day - if they can get a peaceful, well-deserving sleep.

Sidenote: That is not entirely true because I’ve known killers and sinners who get really good night sleep. Denial much?


#5. Bitching about Steemit on Other Platforms

Rather than voicing their discomforts and unhappiness with the people at Steemit and the various communities on the platform, community rapers can be caught (again, thanks to the beauty of digital footprints) bitching about Steemit at other forums and chat groups. For me, it’s just plain unprofessional, ungrateful, much like the wild animals who bit the hand that fed them.

But I guess if the other platforms owners are entertaining such bitching from these community rapers, do ask yourself, “If this person is capable of doing this on others, what’s stopping him or her from doing it to me later?”


#6. Credit Stealing, With Little or No Recognition of Others

Because power and recognition is such a big motivator for the community rapers, they will steal credits for the work of others, and fail to credit others for the work they did. Well, some would agree, again with a vessel that’s empty, much is needed to fill the void.

Honestly, the moment the truth is our, never would be the fall from the "pedestal" much faster, as the followers will see through the phoney they had been calling their leader.


#7. Isolating Own Members from the Rest of the Ecosystem

I am not sure if it’s due to their innate need to control, or to keep their supporters in the dark, these community rapers would prevent their supporters from exposing themselves to other Steemit groups and initiatives. Under the guise of “I’m the leader of the group, so let me go check them out first”, I just feel they sometimes got into their head that they need to make such decisions for their members. Frankly, I would doubt their intelligence and openness to even evaluate opportunities without personal biases and agendas.

Then I realised they often wanted to be the “pioneer” to evaluate the opportunities, is mainly because they want to be the first, keeping their followers a few steps behind. Their level of insecurities is just plain pathetic.


BONUS: Being Blacklist by Businesses for Asking for Free Handouts

Perhaps one of the funniest stories I heard (again, this is all hearsay, which we should all treat it as a story), was when one of these "community builders" went to business operators and asked for free handouts, in the name of "supporting the cause." Well, sad, sad, community builder, please know that at the end of the day, businesses are still need to run a profit, and when you do not have the reputation and results to show, best to just be happy with a collaboration, build the trust, and perhaps approach the topic at a later time.

Asking for handouts will not only make the community builders themselves look bad, but it will indirectly reflect badly on the followers as well. The most disgusting part of the story? The leaders actually charge entry fees for the followers to attend their events, while they were trying to get the cost zerorised.

All in all, I can say I admire their hustling spirit. Misguided, sure, but hustle nevertheless.


What about you? Have you met any of these hypocritical community leaders on Steemit? Don't have to mention names, nor do I want to get into a bitching session, but would love to hear the stories, so we can be more aware of their intentions.




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Yeah people who sing praises and talk endlessly about their charitable deeds. I may be young but I think a fake leader is very obvious when you see one. Actually its very low when someone use charity for their mileage.

Flip flopping is so obvious when faced with criticism. Together is another follower that tags along. I guess they identify with each other.

Yeah, those that use charity for their own advancements are the worst kind. I heard an expression before - something between a cockroach and that white liquid that accumulate between the lips when one is really thirsty?

If misery finds company, then I guess some of these community builders work in gangs too. It's just whether the right-hand man knows he's being used as a stepping stone.

This hits right at the eye of it. I share the same disdain. The worst people are the people who keep reminding others of their deeds which actually cast doubts on whether their deeds are benevolent or otherwise.

Using charity as a leverage is the lowest of low. I have differences with many people but there is still enough respect to honour their work without sinking into a false pretence of, if i do charity, dont question my integrity. People who bitch on the platform that pays them is like spitting into their own rice bowl and to a certain extent the same rice bowl some of us are actually eating from.

Over the years, you will see "community builders" like this come and go, in various different shapes and colors and agendas. The similarities? They only feed number one - themselves.

And most of the time, they are brilliant opportunists who fail to see the big picture. If they see a small crack on the wall, they will drill, hack and hammer their way through. Little did they know if they just take a few steps back, they would see there's a way to go around the same wall.

But then again, as the local saying goes, bodoh-sombong (translation: dumb and arrogant?)

Thanks for your comment.

I think the key is gratitude and loyalty. We all want a strong a reliable community and I found it in steemit. No point pouring scorn to gain favour. That doesn't sound right to start with.

Well said abang @sireh.
Let gratitude and loyalty be the key.
These are also my guiding posts not just for community building but in life.

Well, to some, the only way they feel better about themselves is by making others feel bad.

Such an interesting post,keep it up.Thanks for sharing.

Wauw, nice written. Normally when i read such long posts, I get bored before I reach the second half of the post. This one kept me going!

Thanks for the kind words!

OMG I think I love you! You won me over with this post, Just sayin!! This was IT. Love it Love it Love it! I couldn't have said it better myself. At all. You nailed it with such great finesse and love the photos too. Great job.

Hey, thanks for the support! Just trying to voice out what I observe. Distasteful, and hopefully more people will be aware.

no worries, anytime! :)
yes it is and many of us feel the same way ... well at least you and i do. some feel its do or die. smh

My first reaction to this post is...okay...point made; but to what end?...

And instantly, I realized that the more the word gets out, that just as in the real, non-virtual world, shady dealers exist, so in the virtual world of social media.

This post may help a new user years from now to do their due diligence. The Steem community, simply cannot say 'do your due diligence' enough.

Taking people (strangers, even if they show their faces) at face value is foolishness.

Again, do your due diligence...research, research, and research some more before 'investing'.

Btw, I'm not familiar with the charity of which you speak; but, the overall warning of potential scams is key.

Peace.

The only way to do is to keep sharing such awareness and especially when friends are on board. I guess there are just too many people only accepting face value these days.
Time to really knock some reality check and learn to discern with wisdom I suppose

Unfortunately, the saying, a fool and his money soon part is a hard lesson learned for many. ✌

We just have to ask the right questions with the right people, and sometimes trusting our gut feeling is a good thing too. If it doesn't feel right, and we know it's to our own personal feelings, then it's probably some signs that we are ignoring.

Yes, building awareness is key, because when new Steemians come on board, due to lack of exposure, they may just believe what these community builders say. By having a little checklist to evaluate the character and intention of the community leader, then at least we can be rest assured that our faith is not misplaced.

Also, doing a post like this is a reminder for myself to never commit those sins.

#5. Bitching about Steemit on Other Platforms

Of all the points mentioned, this one takes the cake! What I find utterly disgusting, is when these Community Rapers starts bitching about the very platform that gave them a good headstart to other communities or chat groups. Instead of choosing to iron things out and deal with it professionally, they prefer to bitch about it and play the sympathy card to fish for support. #lame

So would you support such Community Rapers, much less vote them as leaders?

Two headed snakes?

Your post has said it all mav.
The only sad thing is that there are many good people said nothing, and blind people just kept following without critical thinking.
Time to say, “enough is enough.”
And stay sane away from those sensaional persona who’s real intention is nothing but their own limelight

Good people are afraid to hurt others. Bad people take advantage of the situation. Need more vocal people on the platform, but then again, who's gonna govern the vocal people from being bad? Something to think about.

And that is the good and bad of decentralisation. Each person has to be matured enough to be self accountable; unfortunately most who acted without thinking would probably taste the sting of the block chain or carbon trails later in life.
I can only refer to a quote that I find it hard how to muster it:

be wise as serpents, but be innocent as doves.

That probably could take either a lifetime or a lot more burns from scums who can take a statement and twist against it to master this .

Wow, that's a really good and meaningful quote.

Thanks @maverickfoo. Some really sound points you make. I have run into some of these people who seem to have a disconnect in what they say and what they do.

Not as many on here at Steemit though... at least compared to other places I have been to like FB and Twitter.

Thanks for sharing this !

Well, we have our fair share of a couple of them on Steemit, but they come and go. Wish they go for good though, sometimes.

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