What Would be the Purpose of THIS?
Monday morning quick question for speculation and discussion (because I am easily distracted by "shiny objects"):
What would be the point of creating a new Steemit account that goes around and automatically (but seemingly arbitrarily) flags three posts for each user it encounters?
And does so thousands of times, even though its voting power sits around 8%, and at 15SP, the votes are basically "dust."
Quite often, the posts are months or even years old. Which makes even less sense.
Does this strike you as an "odd"voting pattern? And always in groups of 3.
Is this just someone with "too much time on their hands?"
Is it a precursor to one of those "nuisance bots" we had, back in the earlier days?
Is it a ploy by some "evil overlord" who's eliminating competitors because they part of something (a contest, a game) where anyone who has three or more flags is automatically prevented from participating... and thus would not become competition?
Is it a hijacked account?
THAT many flags/downvotes, in a day?
The full visual graphic can best be seen by looking at the subject page on SteemWorld.
There's no law against such action, of course... it just seems "odd," and hence noteworthy.
As I said, I am easily distracted by "shiny objects" so this is just idle chatter, really. But I'd be curious to see what one of our analysts like @paulag, or even @patrice who chases potential trouble "hot spots" might make of this.
You know, because "blockchain transparency," and all that rot!
We now return to our regularly scheduled programming...
What do YOU think is at work here? Leave a comment-- share your feedback-- be part of the conversation!
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I've just started receiving down-votes in groups of 3.
Did you upvote bernies meme competition post today? That's all I can think of as to why at present.
perhaps it is a marker for a bot?
I wish it were nothing like that, but I have my suspicions it may be something a LOT like that. I guess all anyone can do is be alert and aware that there's "a rustling in the leaves."
if it is someone competent, they will check it manually before letting it loose but, who knows.
😞
possible isn't it?
Yes it is. Hmm
I have been getting down voted by trolls for about 2 weeks now, every time I post, here come the trolls, they even get some of my comments, and I did nothing to them.
I hope their voting power isn't enough to do any real damage to your account. When I get time I will research into this.
Their SP is too weak. but I did get down voted by bernie and lost the money I earned on said post
I have been nowhere near any of Bernie's stuff in quite a while...
There's just something about this that smells a bit odd. Memories of Noganoo from "way-back-when." Has the flavor of being a marker for a future nuisance bot for someone who has a grudge. Or not. I prefer a little proactivity on stuff like this...
It's the first indication the blockchain is developing consciousness. The singularity will soon be upon us.
Is that when there is just one bot that has claim over the entire pool?
Well, there may still be competing bots, but no more need for humans whatsoever.
Humans are a tired old species and it seems they are out of new ideas anyway.
Meh... everything seems to be a recycled idea. Add a little polish, add a little fresh paint... and suddenly it's "new and improved." And MARKETABLE!
Ah yes... blockchain AI. I hadn't considered that possibility! I guess I must be getting too old for this. Or obsolete... I guess it's inevitable that we'll all be replaced by bots.
No idea. But I'd be really interested to hear what those who know about such things come up with @denmarkguy! 😊
Me too! We'll see who checks in here... Asher knows Paula, and Paula is really good at this kind of stuff. But like all of us... not exactly swimming around in copious amounts of spare time!
Yes. Maybe they should spend this time educating themselves on how Steem works. Maybe they think there flags actually mean something?
It this point, I have zero idea... but it seemed "odd" enough that I wanted to just bring it into the light. A lot of this stuff sneaks around in the shadows until it suddenly becomes a major nuisance.
It would be interesting to know what's going on, there are people who want to damage the reputation or maybe don't know what they're doing.
Humans seem to be a destructive species. At the very least, they have a way of causing a ruckus if something isn't turning out the way they wanted, or thought it "should." Seems this person started out pretty "normally" and then suddenly went haywire with the downvotes.
a hacker wanna be learning how to code.
they grow up so fast....
Hope that's only it...
Isn't that the truth. Undoubtedly, there will be shenanigans, somewhere down the road.
Not a clue, but I hope somebody can figure it out. Great research. 🐓🐓
Thanks! We'll see what — if anything — is uncovered. Probably nothing; I don't have a large enough following to put it in front of the world.
I do not like the low rating
Thank you for the great information and explanation
HI!
its great effort
Yeah, that's the "Steemit Defence League", claiming to flag everybody who directly or indirectly supports berniesanders
https://justpaste.it/1jpbl
the original "introduction post" was deleted in the meantime: https://steemblockexplorer.com/tx/208b69cd3c67af2fa3ebd15b017a141929cf52d1
I also had the pleasure to be on their blacklist from day one, getting flags on posts that payed out long ago...
Around 80 flagging accounts are known so far and new accounts are joining...
I don't even interact with that Bernie and I am getting all this hate.
you're not getting hate, you're just a random target like everyone else. Don't worry about them. The flags from these accounts are so weak, they neither affect your payout nor your reputation...
yeah I realize that, but a HUMAN had to of created all this down vote bots.