Open Letter to top Steemit creators & witnesses and any other people with influence on the platform
Dear creators, witnesses, dolphins, Orcas & whales,
You say you care about this platform yet little to nothing is done to protect users from bullies, plagiarisers and spammers. Even those of you like @steemcleaners seem to ignore calls for help with some repeat offenders while selling themselves as protectors of the forum. Something needs to change ! Do you really believe a retention rate of 8% is the best that can be achieved here on the forum ? The best example is this guy who often presents him self as being with steemcleaners and harasses other people obsessively in this imagines capacity. He will take peoples personal pictures to create defamatory memes, he has asked girls for nudes for the end of his harassment and he will repost his often abrasive comments again and again if the public downvotes them. when he is called out for lying about being a steemcleaner he will then say he is an independent cleaner. On top of his pretty repugnant behaviour this guy posts shitpost after shitpost breaking several copyright laws and cashes in. He has been reported multiple times but no one seems to care. here a recent post where he is happily spamming away in the comment section. reposting comments that others flagged down again and again; amongst them personal pictures of a user he has not right in posting.
Something needs to happen to protect people ion their own blogs on this platform as it seems that none of you is interested in protecting the people and platform you profess to serve! yeah you might say you can mute the guy , problem is muting does not ban them from posting their crap all over your blog you just don’t see it- but the rest of the world does. this is not protection it is bloody unacceptable! I would like to know if you are planning to do anything because I am pretty disgusted at this point …not really holding my breath though because I have come to believe that all that counts for you is the money you make from all of us idiots who work hard here. Fact ! You people have the power to create lasting change here we little people rotting in the lower echelons of planktonhood not so much …
I am pretty sure you don’t care about my opinion I am a nobody with little power on this platform. Although I have been curied a few times and do produce quality original posts and unlike many of you refuse to rape the rewards pool by using bidbots and other tricks, which in a perfect world should count for something. The only reason I am still here is that I have found people who are wonderful and a handful of smaller witnesses such as @sircork + @rhondak = @noblewitness, @sapphic @thekitchenfairy @prc and @drakos who actually seem to care (and still believe we might be able to create some really good things on this platform in spite of all the idontgiveafucks) ; but as far as all of you upper management people go I truly believe you just see us as cogs in your money making scheme, it does not reflect well on Steemit itself and more and more content creators with quality content are waking up to this fact and walking . If you do not change your ways, start protecting your people and this platform, you will soon find yourselves with only the shitposting fools( we all get to see in your trending sections) and you will have deserved all the downfall that comes from that…
@ned @dan @gtg @roelandp @timcliff @roelandp @jesta @good-karma @blocktrades @ausbitbank @aggroed @smooth.witness @clayop @curie (who actually has my vote for your otherwise great work on curation), @someguy123 @lukestokes.mhth @followbtcnews @anyx @thecryptodrive @xeldal @pfunk @cervantes @riverhead @utopian-io @bhuz @liondani @furion @pharesim @busy.witness @teamsteem @yabapmatt @netuoso @jerrybanfield (lord of awkward home porn and shitty bidbot kingpin), @abit @themarkymark @reggaemuffin @therealwolf @ihashfury @aizensou @nextgencrypto @wackou @blockbrothers @patrice @klye @arcange (who also has my vote), @asbear @ocd-witness (another one I voted for and still support for their curation work), @rival @jackmiller @steemed @delegate.lafona @joseph @noisy.witness @firepower @ats-witness @liberosist @neoxian @steemgigs @justyy @chitty @steemychicken1 @boatymcboatface @charlieshrem @guiltyparties @complexring @emrebeyler @blockchained @privex @ura-soul @felixxx @mahdiyari and all you others prove me wrong and show me you care AND DO SOMETHING!
(Image credit Dave Renike and a portrait of the fair jubilee made by myself turned into this here universal truth meme) 
Artists & Musicians wanted for the One Project
Image source
art courtesy of @PegasusPhysics
)
this little girl was made for me by @barbara-orenya
I don't really get your point, maybe you can explain it to me a bit more.
For me it looks like this: You are saying that Steemit has a problem. You are telling a story about a user many people here don't like explaining what bad things he had done and complaining then that nobody has done something about it.
So what do you want to achieve ? What do you want to change ? You say Steemit has a problem and there is a user doing bad things. What would be a possible solution for you ?
As I said there needs to be a way to report repeat bad behaviour. There needs to be away to ban people from posting from ones blogs not only mute them. There is a ton more wrong with this platform and I have written about this pretty often - but this would be a start . It can't be that sexual predators and bullies get to constantly harass people here without consequence. It can't be that they are allowed to use personal pictures of people , turn them into defamatory memes and then cash in on them here.
To whom do you want to report bad behavior ? You could make your own project for this but it is probably out of the scope for nearly all other projects.
I would be completely against it. Of course you could block a spammer, but you can also block steemcleaners comment then, maybe trying to inform other users that the post is plagiarized, you can block warning comments underneath posts containing phishing links, and so on.
This function could be used to block criticism and warnings under other posts. Like you couldn't comment anymore that the user in your example is a sexual predator and that users shouldn't vote for him.
It would rather be used to censor others opinions under your blog than just to block spammers.
Steemit is not a right-wing room. Using personal images is against the law so you could sue the user for that. Problem would be that the user is hard to identify and maybe out of some country where you cannot do anything. Still the images are not stored in the blockchain so you could make steemitimages to delete the picture in their database so it won't get shown on Steemit (just works if posted via Steemit, other frontends might use other ways to store the image).
i see your point with the commenting but then there needs to be a way to ban people who are serial plagiarists, copyright thiefs and spammers as well as bullies ect. Maybe a consortium of the top 100 witnesses who get the power to review cases . Something needs to happen as there is a ton of abuse and it is killing the platform.
That seems reasonable but I would maybe use Redeemers ? Users who are infringing the Steemit TOS ?
yeah but nothing is really done ...
I saw cheetah used to ban a very repetitive and obvious plagiarist, but it's just a temporary ban. I think he is back, but he gets flagged to zero all the time. I think what we need is a slightly better system of nuking these types, like you describe in your open letter...
💖🐯
well a bot that can't be down voted would be good ...
Good Start!
Maybe with Perma-ban powers as well, like say a
3-Strikes Rule???
nods
Changing the features of Steemit.com is not part of the role of a witness and ultimately it is something that is entirely (100%) controlled by Steemit inc.
I have put in a long list of suggestions for improvements to Steemit.com, but they rarely generate any response.
The general consensus appears to be that 'the market' will create the best UI that serves the people the best - so if Steemit Inc are not prioritising introducing features that you want, then maybe another group will do - such as busy.org.
In a way, what I am saying here is that the majority of the people in the list you have posted in your post here can be removed, since they actually have no way of implementing changes to Steemit.com.
As far as the philosophical aspect goes, regarding 'control vs freedom' with regards commenting - the site is built upon principles of anarchism and thus there is a tendency to choose an absence of control rather than control. This may well be part of why many people don't stick around - they want people to be controlled.
The issue of how to respond to dysfunctional people in an anarchic setting is one of the main challenges. To do so successfully requires an understanding of psychology and the causes of the particular dysfunctions. Clearly this is an issue that is far beyond what can be achieved through technology and control.
was just going through notifications and very happy to see a reply like this in addition to @sircork 's....
I will now vote several of my recently emptied witness slots, will just give you the vote I took away from some others, sometimes the general consensus of anything is a load of horse shit but anyhow,,,,cheers!
Thanks for your support! Followed!
Yes, general consensus does not have the final word, but it tends to mean that those who want to go against it have to go to extraordinary lengths to do so. I would love to build a new website experience for Steem users that includes so many of the features that are missing and maybe I will do - but currently I lack the resources and help to do that.
hope so, think a lot of people are probably on the same wave length as you
If enough of the larger witnesses band together I am pretty sure the makers will listen . that being said in a true anarchistic setting I can protect myself. Person comes and harasses me on my property I make sure they understand not to come back . You can't do this here which is an issue . Also in a true anarchistic setting everyone has the same voting power and no one is more equal than the other ,,,
There have been examples of suggestions being put forward to Steemit inc., where they openly said that the idea was a great and needed one - and yet nearly a year later there has been no action towards making the change a reality. It appears that Steemit inc. is not purely being driven by simple business logic in an unhindered way.. It may be the case that they are having to put so much work in to improving Steem behind the scenes (optimisation / reliability etc. - plus SMTs), that they have prioritised away from most other substantial changes. You are probably right that if the top witnesses all speak coherently that changes might be accelerated, but it is not something that is easy to predict from the outside. If you read the white paper, it specifically states that the main threat to Steem with regards user frustration, is measured by whether or not the bulk of users leave and the system fails completely as a result. If that became a tangible reality then changes would likely be expedited. I sense that currently the realisation is that Steem cannot sustain a dramatically larger userbase until certain upgrades are in place - so they have focused on those, rather than focusing on retention. Those upgrades are actually now (as of a few days ago) largely live and available - so it is possible things will change in the coming months regarding all of the other issues too. Hard fork 20 is intended to make signups easier and I think this has been held back until the backend technology is upgraded in efficiency to support more concurrent users.
With regards defending yourself, Steem is in some senses quite an accurate mirror of our physical reality in that just as there is a money powered 'arms race' with weapons in conflicts, here there is a Steem Power arms race when it comes to downvoting. So just as your harassing visitor might arm themselves with heavy weapons and armour to outgun you - so too might someone here just get more Steem Power to overpower the other. Neither of these approaches reflect the needed balance - however, I appreciate that the way to real balance is not always clear in every situation.
again, extremely well stated....if what, 8% is the retention rate?.....then why is keeping us O.G.'s around and those trying to at least not be smashed to pieces a goal? This is a rather good and scary mirror of physical reality and those who are tyrannical will be standing around staring at each other with daggers behind their backs because everyone got sick of their b.s. and left.
hope to see your witness number rise, the fact you are taking the time to care as are a few others tends to speak more volumes then a few blowhards who are so out of touch with what the average user experiences that it's a disconnect akin to the big bad fiat system or gov. that supposedly this is to be better than, imho
I think the goal is partially to retain steem power in the system - to increase the value of Steem - which then makes the entire system more attractive to users in general.
Thanks for your support - I have lived a life where I have seen and been among life at the 'very bottom' and also to some extent the 'very top'. I recognise the dysfunction at both ends and so I choose to take the best from both and meet in the middle - so to speak. For years I lived with literally zero money, choosing instead to research, heal, balance and evolve. Living creatively, in such ways, is a powerful way to remain connected to all people - without allowing fictional money to create an imaginary boundary!
I'm glad I fell on the "good" side of this one :D
Go get em, Tyger
:)
OK, you got a Last Minute Re-Steem, I just saw this and it's too late to vote it up... But I do like the open letter format and agree in principle with all of your points. I am still a relatively small Dolphin but I am doing what I can for the platform and the community. I do however think we need to keep this "anarchy culture" thriving, but we need a much better "community response" and maybe better self-policing efforts. Perhaps I should have said "Anarcho-Capitalist Culture" above ;)
:)
MarkyMark is working on someone claiming to be part of Steemcleaners....not sure it's the same guy you are talking about but here's a article related to it, you can report the person to him.
https://steemit.com/utopian-io/@themarkymark/steemit-defense-league-delegation-removal-2
no the sexual deviant is someone else I just don't want to mention his name because he is also an attention whore :P and tends to spam my feed ... I wil look into the article thank you :)