Hi to all Steemians out there! My name is Tom and this is my third article about the ever growing downvote bot @camillesteemer. If you like, you can read the first 2 articles (links at the bottom of this one). I really underestimated this whole thing as I wrote my first article and this is really sucking my energy and time, but I will push on now. I feel, I have to do this! I have edited my titles with numbers. I think this is going to be a longer run. :/
In my first article I made a list of all bot accounts downvoting me. The list has almost 100 accounts and growing /(I am editing it, as new downvotes drop in). The downvotes are increasing as I mark new accounts in the article. Maybe someone has a proposal on how to get these accounts somewhere, where they can be administered by everybody??? There has been a tremendous feedback and I can see other Steemians are also taking this problem seriously.
In my second article I wanted to show some behaviour patterns of the botnet with screenshots.
Last but not least I want to disclose the probably most important comment in all of my articles written by @drutter. He explains in a very understandable and figurative way how this botnet is working and how dangerous they can become. A big thank you goes out to him! Now his comment:
"Thanks for this post.
I agree with you that these downvote armies are a problem, and that they could become a HUGE problem.
"The accounts don't have any SteemPower at the moment, but just imagine they start upvoting each other and start using that against defenseless Steemit members!"
I don't think they can upvote each other, because part of their strategy is to not make any posts or comments. This keeps them partly anonymous, and prevents their targets from being able to retaliate or communicate.
I think they're all owned by one person, or small group project. The ones I'm talking about all have about 25 rep (new accounts with no interactions), silly nonsensical names with 5-7 characters, 0 STEEM, and 15 SP delegated from Steemit. That means these are free accounts that Steemit manually accepted onto the blockchain through their account creation process.
Even though these bots can't upvote each other or themselves, they'll still grow, via curation. They can upvote other people's posts/comments (perhaps the posts/comments of their owners). They will also get a trickle of interest, memo dust, and so on. It will be slow, but it puts a clock (timeline) on the blockchain. At some point, this army will prevail, unless something happens to stop it.
Their goal appears to build a completely free, and always-growing, massive downvote tool that has thousands of working parts, can survive rule changes or community blowbacks, and can be divided up as needed to pick off multiple targets every day.
@hyjuki and @criblo are the 2 bots currently downvoting my posts. And there's nothing that can be done about them except try to ignore them.
I notice that several of these bots, when they joined Steemit, immediately used their witness vote to cast a vote for @Curator. Curator is a new bidbot, part of the #NewSteem cult, a downvote-for-hire project funded by all the NewSteem whales and dolphins. It's creepy that whoever runs this downvote army seems to fully support Curator, for some reason. By the way, I am on the record for having criticized Curator's strategy/motivations, and wouldn't be shocked if they considered me an enemy, just sayin.
I feel somebody or somebodies is/are using HF21's rule changes (ie: free downvotes) to rig the system and take down parts or all of the blockchain. I can see where it's headed if something doesn't change. You're right to sound the alarm on this as it has the potential to bring everything down, even faster than other existing threats to the community/chain."
My article #1: https://steemit.com/steemit/@networkallstar/downvote-bot-army-rioting-on-steemit-downvote-bot-armee-wuetet-auf-steemit-eng-ger
My article #2: https://steemit.com/steem/@networkallstar/downvote-bot-army-rioting-on-steemit-part-ii
Downvoted for intellectual dishonesty and/or imbecility.
"Intellectual dishonesty is the advocacy of a position known to be false. An argument which is misused to advance an agenda or to reinforce one's deeply held beliefs in the face of overwhelming evidence contrary."
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Intellectual%20dishonesty
Yes, I earn all my money with downvote rewards, didnt you know?
and yes unit102 is an exchanger here in Argentina.
LMAO
There are no downvote rewards, imbecile.
Dear @networkallstar you were very comprehensively answered about the camillesteemer network by @themarkymark two posts ago but you seem to be in high gear with your drama production. Of I owned any drama tokens, I'd be sure to send you some to soothe your butthurt
They exist as a response from abusers who get downvoted by antiabuse orgs, as a futile attempt to make it look like all downvotes are unjustified, this comes from way before the HF21, the SDL botnet existed from a long time ago, its run by Noganoo if you need to know.
Congratulations @networkallstar! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
You can view your badges on your Steem Board and compare to others on the Steem Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPTo support your work, I also upvoted your post!
Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!
I must agree with you that at one point I overlooked this but it is getting more serious with each passing day. The number of downvotes keep increasing. Something needs to be done and fast.
Like @networkallstar says, it won't just disappear! Unless the person responsible has a change of heart, but in that case, somebody else will eventually take up the same tactics. In my opinion, there is a flaw in the rule changes of HF21. This should have been anticipated, but was not. The free downvotes, combined with other rules and setting changes, has allowed this. In a way, you could say that it had to happen. Sure, the person(s) responsible in this case is a loser/arsehole/scumbag/etc, but they're more a symptom of the problem, than a problem themselves. This was caused by the rule changes at HF21. Why those rule changes were done the way they were, and without sufficient testing, I'll leave for another time to ponder :)
Wrong image for that quote.
Something like this: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjThcbY5b_lAhUFx1kKHeZ8AuUQjRx6BAgBEAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DSwMUY5ro5Xo&psig=AOvVaw23cngaeRFhIHha-rMqW05h&ust=1572380963519912
Any image of Aragorn when he is on his horse in front of the Black Gates of Mordor.